The Big East has gone through a lot of transformations over the years
losing a lot of teams. The experiment of having Boise and San Diego
join the Conference was a great idea, but it failed before they played
any football. I will not say that it was doomed to fail because it could
have worked, but planning for the long term did not occur. In order for
the Big East to make a western division they should have added more
western schools immediately to make it geographically more feasible.
They did not do that so there were questions that kept causing problems.
Yet I do not see the loss of Boise as a bad thing because in all
honesty they wanted to much from the conference. If the Big East
accepted the deal they would have said that all of the other schools are
not worth as much. It is never a good idea to put all of your eggs in
one basket. Especially for a program that would leave the Big East or
MWC if the PAC12 ever wanted to become the PAC16. Boise is a great
program that should be ranked higher than it is football wise. When it
comes down to it they did what they felt was necessary, and who can
blame them for that.
Also looking at it the
conference was having a hard time expanding westward. Most fans could
see that trying to obtain schools like BYU, Air Force, UNLV, and others
did not seem possible. There was definitely interest, yet not enough to
get them to sign on the dotted line. As a fan having those schools would
have been great, but I know it boils down to who you can work with.
Most of the western school the Big East Targeted did not seem like
supportive business partners. In the chaos of conference re-alignment
supportive programs are a tough commodity to come by, but if you have it
than do what ever you can to keep it.
Focusing on the positive for some reason the Big East may find it hard
to gain membership in the west, however they have found success in the
East coast, the south, and even Texas. With this knowledge they can
concentrate on obtaining and developing programs that are geographically
more stable for traveling. While also creating rivalries between
academic institutions because of their locations. Fans will be able to
travel more to games against rival schools. As much as I love Boise I do
not love it enough to see a Uconn vs Boise football game in Idaho.
Losing the Catholic 7 was a big blow for the Big East
Conference. Especially since historically it was made to give the
basketball schools a chance to be recognized nationally. It was very
successful for years, and made basketball powerhouses. However,
basketball was also destructive for the conference in the long run. With
a basketball oriented conference football was only able to grow, but so
much. Anyone who knows college sports is aware that football is the
biggest money maker, and can give a school national recognition by
having a winning season or even appearing in a bowl game.
Losing the Catholic 7 may be a good thing for the conference in
the long run. Now it can focus on developing the programs that have
committed to being in the conference for all sports. As well as the
schools that are left are great building blocks for the future. UCF,
USF, Houston, ECU, Tulane, Memphis, CinCy, UConn, Navy, Temple, and SMU
are great institutions academically and for athletics. Just with these
schools they are still in better shape than C USA, the Sun Belt, Mac,
and can without a doubt compete with the MWC.
The Big East may not be the SEC or ACC, however with the 11 building
blocks they have with more to be added in the future the conference has a
possibility to become competitive. In football they have schools that
are on the rise, basketball schools that are still competitive, and
academically more desirable than most of the schools in other
conferences. The Conference is not dying it is just going through
evolution. Yet most writers will not say that because they get more
viewership trashing than helping others to understand.
Thank You
Jonny Jones
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