Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa better in Big East

      
          The Big East to most college sports lovers is not seen as a great conference. Most believe that it is dead or probably should have been disbanded. Especially after the losses of SDSU, Boise State, and the Catholic 7. Yet the conference is not in as poor shape as persons would have you believe. Looking into the business of conference realignment the conference still maintains a competitive edge over their four conference rivals (Sun Belt, MAC, MWC, Conference USA), and I am definitely leaving the WAC out of the conversation.

          Some have said that the Big East did not get better because it just engulfed six conference USA teams, which in theory should make the conference worse. If the big East was better than C USA and it admits a lot of those teams were than the conference should get worse. This assumption is incorrect because to the Big East's credit the schools they added from conference USA are all very special building blocks to building a well rounded athletic conference.

         The C USA schools that have left for the big East are ECU, Memphis, SMU, Houston, Tulane, and UCF. These schools all bring something that would be valuable to any conference. 1st  ECU has been a consistent winner in football, and never fails to not only qualify for bowl games, but win them. They also have over 50,000 people in attendance at their games each week, which means they have supportive fans. They are also believed to join for all sports because of the loss of the Catholic 7.

      The 2nd school Memphis has not been a consistent winner on the football field. With a new conference they may be able to change their fortune. Yet they do have a consistent winner in basketball, and a large media viewership for its region. The 3rd school SMU under June Jones has started making and winning bowl games consistently over the last few seasons. They are in a large media market in Dallas Texas, and are recruiting outstanding talent. Also the basketball team is projected to get better over the years with Coach Larry Brown attracting great talent.

      Houston the fourth school is the second largest media market in Texas, and one of the biggest in the USA. It has not been a consistent winner since losing their star QB in 2011, but still has the potential to grow. Their new conference will be a seller to recruits, and have the potential to challenge any school in the Big East. The 5th school Tulane University has not been a major powerhouse in any sport for many years. They have not won a bowl game in years, and their basketball program is underdeveloped. Yet their major selling point is their potential for growth. They seem committed to winning again, and are close to building a new football stadium to attract recruits. Also it helps that they are a major research University that is in one of the biggest media markets in America in New Orleans.

       The last addition of UCF is maybe one of the biggest because they have the full package. They serve a major media market, have great academic programs for both bachelors and masters degrees. UCF has been a consistent winner when it comes to conference championships, and bowl game appearances. There have even been articles stating that in the playoffs there where six players currently in the NFL playoffs contributing to their teams. Which means they are recruiting talent that is desirable for the pros.

        When looking at the schools of the Big East in 2015 such as  UCF, USF, Houston, ECU, Tulane, Memphis, CinCy, UConn, Navy, Temple, and SMU the future product is very promising. Schools like Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa have been wanting to leave Conference USA because of the current brand they have now. The six schools that left C USA all had desirable qualities creating a competitive conference both in athletics and academically.

        A conference is only as good as the competitive nature of the schools that occupy it. Meaning if schools are competing against each other in athletics, academics, admissions, and other areas it is great all of the institutions. Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa have all lost a lot of their rival schools in all of those areas covered. In return they are receiving schools that are not well known, are not natural rivals, and are academically less competitive as they are.

        Yet more importantly they have a hard sell to future recruits because of the types of institutions they will be facing who have a lack of name recognition, lower academic standards, and television markets affect recruiting talent. These are issues that Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa all see as problems for them in the future. Which is why at least two of them will be admitted to the Big East in the near future.

          The three schools know something that others have forgotten in college sports. When it comes to competition you are only as good as your best rivals. If your best rivals in college football are Middle Tennessee University and FAU it might to time to leave for greener pastures.
       

   Thanks for Reading
    Jonny Jones