ACR Contributing Writer Heidi Swanson

Photo from cdn.bleacherreport.net

The Big East conference should stop trying to be a big time football conference and let their remaining football universities become independent and disband their football operations as a conference.  Yes, this may seem like a drastic move, but it may be the best move for a conference that is falling out of favor with the powers that be, the fans and amongst its past and current members.  The problem that the Big East is facing in football is that they are becoming and probably already are a second-tier conference with the loss of an automatic bid to one of the college football season ending Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games, seemingly an inevitable step.

The teams that make the BCS games are determined in two ways, by automatic bid or at large bids determined by the rankings.  The conferences that are guaranteed automatic bids are the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC 12 and SEC, and the teams that fill the other slots for the games are fair game for any conferences or independent teams. 

The most recent BCS standings have one Big East team and that was West Virginia at number 25, who incidentally was blown out (49-23) by Syracuse in their last game.  Within those same rankings, the SEC has three teams in the top 10, the Big 12 has three teams in the top 10, the ACC has one team, the PAC 12 has two teams and rounding out the top team is a Mountain West team who the Big East is trying to recruit into their conference (Boise State).

Since it was announced in September that the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University were leaving the Big East for the ACC, the conference university hierarchy (within the Big East) have had innumerable meetings trying to determine a course of action that may help solidify their football standing in the BCS realm.  They are currently actively recruiting several universities to join them including not only Boise State but also Air Force, Central Florida, Houston, Southern Methodist and Navy.  This is a move seemingly out of desperation trying to let the BCS powers that be know that the universities are still interested in being a part of the Big East conference.

Currently the Big East has universities that do not have football teams but are members in their collegiate sports as well as having Notre Dame a member in all sports but football (where they are independent).  Perhaps instead of inviting more universities to be football affiliated, the Big East should use the Notre Dame model of membership instead.  The football members of the Big East are (excluding Pitt and Syracuse): Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia.

Even when Pitt and Syracuse exit the conference, the Big East will still be a basketball powerhouse, so why not embrace a change and realize the conference’s true identity, is not as a second tier football league but as a first class basketball conference?

Another option for the teams is also to join another conference, which as of October 25, West Virginia seems to be heading for with the announcement that the university is going to become a member of the Big 12.  This move by West Virginia solidifies my point even more about the conference, because football is being pushed aside.