Correct Westwolf, it is a realignment board and that is what is going to be talked about.
Let the Big East be (no pun intended) if those are the wishes of the collective member institutions. They can maintain what exists well beyond 2007 if it is their desire, and Notre Dame can never join a conference in football. But, what is facilitating all this speculation and argument? The BCS. And what is behind this supposedly? Finding a system of determine a national champion with out a playoff, and securing lucrative bowl deals for the "elite" schools and their conferences.
I am not comfortable with these word battles such as should the MWC replace the Big East in having an automatic BCS representative? OK, say hypothetically, the MWC does replace the Big East. Does a school such as West Virginia University who has sustained competitiveness, though no top ten regular, deserve to be cast with a group of also-rans? If the MWC never gets access via conference, do respectable Utah and BYU programs need to be permanently shut out via conference?
Conference sizes don't even project fairness in terms of the BCS. The SEC, Big 12, and now the ACC, are at twelve each and need to undertake a championship game. Of course they desire this and that's why they are twelve. Yet, on the other end, Big East members are only playing seven in-conference opponents. These are conference choices, but to say the avenues and levels of competition are designed to be consistent among the six BCS conferences is a farce.
If the Big East is happy the way it is, and does not want to add in football or make any further modifications, and the BCS criteria stays as is; then if another conference currently outside the current BCS group makes a deserving case, then the reaction need not be anger and denial.

Unfortunately, it is the nature of conferences to be dog eat dog until you make it to a 'power conference'. There was some good tradition in the former SWC schools before they broke up and went to the Big8 - while not fair to them - UT and UTA&M saw the writing and wanted out.

Unfortunately for SU, Pitt, and WVu - the BE is all they have left and they have to try to built the BE into the best conference possible and to be in the best position IF any future conference realignments happen.

Even when the BE had Miami,ND was part of the bowl alliance in the BE.Even a BE with Miami needed ND to help with bowls.The reason for the bowl difference was the traveling level of BE not the level of its teams.As compared with the MWC and cusa the traveling levels of the MWC to the Liberty bowls was one of the reasons that the Liberty bowl opted the mwc champ out to take the 8th team from the SEC.The BE changed four teams out Temple,Votech,bc and Miami out.the movement of Temple out is certainly an improvement.This year the performance of votech and bc are better than average,but in many years the performance of Louisville and Uconn should be close to that of bc and votech.

Westwolf, please get your figure off the panic mode button as everything is OK for the BE until 2007. The season is not over yet. Both WVU and Louisville have chance to play in both the BCS (projected Sugar) and the Gator Bowl. Win either of those bowl games and a Big East team will be ranked in the top 15. Going with Louisville ranking last year the Big East will be in good shape for review time in 2007.

Everyone please stop listening to unbiased writers who don't have a clue on the BCS. Comparing the new Big East to the MWC is ridiculous. First of all TCU is the only hope this year to the MWC to achieve any respectable ranking and playing a mid tier Pac 10 team in the Vegas bowl is not going to gain much attention.

If WVU wins the BE and takes zillions of fans to Georgia for the Sugar Bowl, maybe the Peach bowl will think about future BE bowl deals.

BCS is all about TV rankings and fans in the stands. Either Louisville or WVU will produce results in both categories by BCS bowl time.

The only ones panicking right now is the East Carolina type fans of the world who don't have a chance of getting BCS recognition.

Now back to the objective of this thread.

I have name picked out for the Big East football school if the decide to split from the basketball schools.

I think they will remain with 8. If there are no legal issues, why not reuse the old Big 8 name that became the Big 12.

Big East for basketball schools

Big 8 for BCS football schools and all sports

Big east split 12 teams (8 BE football schools ,ND,Villanova ,Georgetown,St.Johns)


NE /Midwest bb league
Providence,Seton Hall,St Joes,Richmond
,Boston Univ,George Washinton

Dayton,Xavier,StLouis,Charlotte,DePaul,Marquette

As events are unfolding, a fan of the ACC and MWC has little reason to "panic", Lash. Do I sense some BE tightness?

I seriously doubt that Lash. As you say below, "The BCS is all about TV ratings and fans in the stands." That has been the Big East's biggest problems football-wise. In the Old Big East only Virginia Tech and West Virginia traveled. Now it is West Virginia and we will assume Louisville. That is a push in terms of numbers. I can't see the Peach Bowl clamoring for Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, or Cincinnati. One cannot assume that West Virginia and Louisville will be one and two every year.

As for television ratings, I do not know. Can anyone share some numbers? I have been watching some games just because of history, but my gut tells me that it has not been spectacular.

The BE fans find the idiots from mwc/cusa very funny.

I agree BC hokie. The BE won't be able to take away the Peach from the SEC/ACC matchup because both schools are located right there.

Its the same argument you hear every now and then that the BE will take away the Outback Bowl in Tampa because USF is located there and I believe the bowl director (or influential people on the committee) are USF grads. No way does teh bE take away a SEC/Big10 matchup.

I wish the BE would have gotten another bowl like the Liberty or Champs. I really think they need at least 5 becaue of the ND tie in. Every year ND might take a bowl away from the BE. This will be more of a problem with the 12 game schedule as the NCAA will probably allow teams that are 6-6 to go bowling. That probably means a team only has to go 3-5 in conference - as long as they go 3-1 OOC to go bowling.

As to your other point.... I think UConn traveled very well to the Motor City bowl last year. I don't think UConn will make it to a bowl this year (too many injuries) but we'll see how they travel in the future.

Looking at the Conference, PantherSC97, the BE has a lot of balance. It is as if one were to take the middle eight from any of the bigger conferences. There is no really terrible team now that Temple is gone and Rutgers is improving. However, there is no dominant power that gets the Nation talking about a potential National Title contender. That is not to say the league can't develop a contender from within. Unfortunately, the Big East will be fighting a perception problem for years to come.

Lets hope that Connecticut becomes a good traveling school for bowls. I am also interested to see how Rutgers fans respond if they make a bowl this year.

Westwolf, tightness? I am enjoy this Big East season much better than last year with BC poised to take the title to the ACC. Syracuse took care of that in the end leaving BC once again without an outright title in its history. Justice was so served on that day.

BCHokie/PatherSC97, I am disappointed you both did not pick up and comment on my Big 8 name for the break away conference. If no legal issues exist on using this name, it would be great for the Big East football schools to use. Big 8 would not be to offensive or over stated and yet show strength and desire to build a remain a top notch conference.

Since we are talking about a break away, my point on Peach Bowl was referring to a replacement in the event the Gator Bowl wants an SEC/ACC match up. Thinking before making the connection that Notre Dame would not be in the bowl mix.

The Peach getting second place BE team would not be a bad deal for Atlanta and would not have the Peach competing for exposure if Gator went with SEC/ACC match up. This of course is in the break away scenario that would not include Notre Dame in bowl deals.

I really like the idea of 'Big 8' for the football schools. The could ask for dips on 'Big 9' if someday another school was wanted or Notre Dame came along as well.

If Big 8 is legally not possible then use Big Eight.

Lash, I like it. Big 8 or Big Eight does lock the Conference into the number nomenclature, though. Big 9 is the only room for growth given the name. I always liked East Cost Conference which has been discussed on this board in the past.

Atlanta is full of alumni from ACC and SEC schools. I just cannot see them making a switch regardless of what the Gator Bowl does. Even with Notre Dame in the mix, which you did not advocate, it is a hard sell.

Big 8, please. Living in Big 12 and former Big 8 country having the Big 8 on that rag team league would be a slap in the face of a conference that was one of the best in history.

SportsKC, thats certainly one way to look at things and then again maybe the Big East football schools do not want to be refereed to as the Big 8. If look at academics without Texas included the Big 8 really was very bad compared to the Big East. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

Guess its East Coast Conference to avoid any academic comparisons.

You guys are always to quick to put the emphases totally on football for what makes a conference a great one.

The old Big 8 would have not come close in basketball to what the new Big East football schools have accomplished.

So unless your totally grading a conference on football alone, I think you make a very poor judgment of character SportsKC. I can agree that new Big East will take some time to reach the old Big 8 level if you combine both the north and the south divisions of the Big 12.

I would be embarrassed to be part of the Big 12 North and call my self a BCS football division.

Just cant wait for that Texas Colorado rematch championship game.

Actually the Big 8 was a better academic conference than what people gave it credit. It had 5 AAU schools in it. How many is in the Big East? 3.

Big 8 had 2 of the 5 all-time programs in fb. Heck even in bb, the great almighty BE doesn't even have a team that is considered to be a top 5 all time program. KU has that in hoops.

Wrestling - Big 8 dominated in. Baseball, the best of the non Sun Belt region conferences.

This year and last, yes I am embarrassed to be part of the Big 12 North. But MU and CU could still do well. It wasn't that along ago that the South was the whipping boy for the North schools. NU beat BE suppose to be power Pitt. It was ugly but still it was win.

You say my character judgement is poor, how come Big East people mainly use basketball and market size as what they judge by?