From Big East to B20 Conference

         The Big East Conference recently has been mentioned a lot about its future expansion. After losing Boise and SDSU in a little less than a month persons are wondering who should they get to replace the schools. Currently the conference is expected to have an odd number of schools at 11 in year 2015. The List is USF, UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU, UConn, Cincy, Temple, Navy, Tulane, and ECU. They cannot have a stable conference with that meany teams so expansion is a necessity. Especially with with the always present rumors of Uconn and Cincy wanting to leave for  Greener pastures.

           With the current list of schools it may not show it, however the conference is steadily getting better having more schools than ever before. Yet in the previous article written by me it is clear that the schools they added were very smart, and amazing building blocks for a very competitive conference in the future. Each school has something that will help push the conference to the next level in athletics and in academics.

            Yet they should continue to add on teams to maintain stability within the conference. Currently the conference has been contacting four schools such as Umass, Rice, Southern Miss, and Tulsa. Thus far it looks like Southern Miss and Tulsa are the current front runners to receive and accept the invitation within the month of Jan 2013. This would be good moves for the conference and the schools. It would give stability for the league making 12 teams in total for 2014 . Which would give the league more time to ad another team for Navy in order to balance out the conference for 2015.

            However, I suggest that the league continue to add teams in order to give it stability over the years, and a way to develop the brand. Let us imagine that Southern miss and Tulsa do accept the invitation. That would make 13 teams by the year 2015. My suggestion is that the Big East add seven more schools to give it stability.

           The schools that I suggest are  Rice, Marshall, Arkansas State, NIU, Western Michigan, Umass,  UTEP,  and  University of Ohio. All of these school have something to offer the Big East Conference. With twenty teams they could rename the conference the B20 conference. This would help the growth and recognition of the conference. As well as give stability to University presidents about conference realignment having extra schools.

            Also all of the seven schools mentioned above are not bad at all. Most of them were invited to bowl games last year. They are all located in relatively good markets except for Rice and NIU which are located in top tier USA television markets. Most of the Universities are good academic institutions They bring stability, and excitement for  the conference. It also gives the Big east markets in the North East, Mid West, the South East, and Texas schools being the most western.

            It  would not cause a lot of problems because of the two Divisions in the Conference. The Western Division would consist of UTEP, Rice, Arkansas State, Houston, SMU, USF, UCF, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Tulsa.While the Eastern Division would be Uconn, Navy, ECU, Temple, Cincy, NIU, Ohio, Western Michigan, Umass, and Memphis.

              That list of schools and the divisions are very impressive for all sports and could be a premiere conference in the United States. It will not be the SEC, however given the right amount of time the competition created by the Conference could at least rival the ACC.

             I know that this is just a suggestion, and that there is no way this will happen. Yet I feel like because of the crazy realignment there may be a chance for a B20 conference given the right geographical structure. The Big East at least should go up to eighteen teams in order to compensate for the possible future losses of Uconn and Cincy. In conclusion the Big East Conference may not be the B20 Conference as I have laid out, however I do strongly believe it has the potential to become the B16 conference in the next two to three years.


Thanks for Reading
Jonny Jones