There’s been an idea floated around on the message boards and on the ESPN blogs about a Big East/Mountain West hybrid conference. The idea seems like a real stretch at first glance. You’d have 7-8 schools in the northeast and 7-8 schools in the west. Travel would seem like a mess. But the more you look at it, the more it seems like something that could work.

If the Big Ten and Pac-10 expand to 12, it’s likely that them, along with other 12 team BCS conferences Big 12, SEC and ACC, might put pressure on all BCS conferences to be at 12 teams. With the Pac-10 and Big Ten under 12, it hasn’t been an issue. But that could change. And the Big East going to 12 isn’t a pretty scenario when you look at the candidates.

The Big East and Mountain West are also the (2) conferences that people seem to think both deserve a BCS bid…yet there is only 1 available.

The hypothetical scenario I’ve heard people talking about would be a marriage by convenience between the Big East and MWC.

East: Uconn, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF
West: San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado St., BYU, Air Force, Wyoming, TCU

You’d have an East and a West division. Division members would all play each other in football, and a set number of cross-division games would be scheduled for each team. So if you’re Syracuse, you’d play your 7 division members each year, and 2-3 teams from the West division.

At the end of the regular season, the top teams in the East and West would play in a championship game with plenty of available locations such as New York, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, and Dallas.

On the basketball side, things would work the same.

You’d have your (8) members in the east playing home-and-home games for a total of 14 games. The other conference games would be rotated against teams from the other division.

A basketball championship tournament could even exist in (2) locations with the West schools playing in Las Vegas and the East schools at MSG with the semifinals and Finals in New York at MSG. I’m sure that plenty of easterners would rather head out to Vegas every year rather than having to stay in the cold back east at home playing blackjack online and other casino games online.

PROS:
* MWC members would have BCS access
* All members would have certain football opponents to schedule.
* Both conferences protect themselves from lost members to other conferences and assure they remain about 7 members (membership number would officially be 16)
* Joint TV network potentially that would cover both east and west markets
* Rivalries retained with focus on divisional play

CONS:
* Big East would be willingly adding 8 more schools to the BCS pool
* Very large membership numbers = less revenue per school, tougher to manage all members
* End long-time partnership with Big East non-football schools via a split.

The biggest problem I see if in membership. You’ll see I omitted Utah under the assumption they would join the Pac-10 at some point. Perhaps they don’t and it’s 17 members.

But what happens if other schools leave?

Say BYU and TCU left for the Big 12 and Utah to the Pac-10?
Now you’d have only 6 members in the west: San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming.

Say Rutgers, Syracuse or Pitt goes to the Big Ten? Or the remaining schools and Uconn leave for the ACC?
There is a good chance that if that the Big Ten went to 14 and ACC to 14, that the Big East schools left would be: WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF

All of a sudden, it’s not a pretty picture. You’ve have a 10 team league with:
East: WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF
West: San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming

So what to do? Does this hybrid East add Memphis, ECU, Temple and  UCF, and the West add Boise St. and Houston?

Perhaps.

But then we’re back to where we started.

The Big East football schools could split now and could just as easily expand to 12 now with Memphis, ECU, UCF and Houston and be at 12 members. Then, if they were to lose those 4 schools in Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt and UConn, they would still be at 8 members. They could just as easily then add Temple and other CUSA or Sunbelt schools to get to 12.

Big East football:
Temple, WVU, ECU, USF, UCF, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston

So here are your options:
1) Big East/MWC Hybrid with only Utah leaving:
East: Uconn, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF
West: San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado St., BYU, Air Force, Wyoming, TCU

2) Hybrid with 4 Big East members leaving for the Big Ten & ACC, and 3 MWC members leaving for the Pac-10 & B12:
East: Temple, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF, Memphis, ECU, UCF
West: San Diego St., UNLV, New Mexico, Boise St., Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming, Houston

3) Big East football schools split and expand to 12 to protect themselves from potential departures of Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt and UConn:
New Big East 12: Uconn, Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, USF, *ECU, *Memphis, *UCF, *Houston (next 4 candidates could include Temple, UAB, USM, Buffalo, FIU, FAU, Charlotte, Georgia St, UTSA, Texas St, etc)

4) Remain the same at 8 football schools, 8 basketball and hope for the best. Could mean adding replacement all-sports schools if one leaves, adding football-only members as replacements, or dropping sponsorship of football if membership drop too low.

If those are your 4 scenarios, which makes the most sense to you? Have any other ideas the Big East football members could explore? Feel free to share in the comments below.