Boise State Retracts Move to Big East, Will Stay in Mountain West

Boise State has officially announced it will not move to the Big East, but rather stay in the Mountain West Conference. The possibility of this scenario was suggested in my previous posting. As also discussed in the previous posting, San Diego State will likewise consider retracting its shift to the Big East. (The cheering you hear is from those of us who believe geographic labels should mean something.)

According to the above-linked article:

Besides the possibility of losing San Diego State, sources told ESPN that Houston and SMU, scheduled to join the Big East next season, are among four possible teams the Mountain West may target along with Tulsa and UTEP.

UPDATE 1/16/2013: San Diego State will indeed remain in the Mountain West. 

"Catholic 7" Hoops Schools Breaking off from Big East

The Big East conference's exercise in transforming itself from a superb basketball conference into a mediocre football circuit is nearly complete. The league originated in 1979 with seven schools -- Boston College, University of Connecticut, Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Syracuse -- and then added Villanova and Pittsburgh within a few years. These institutions shared several core features:

• Location in the northeastern United States.
• Religious affiliations (most of the schools).
• An absence of football programs in the highest tier of the sport (again, for the most part).
• Excellent men's basketball programs, as evidence by UConn, Georgetown, Syracuse, and Villanova winning NCAA titles, and Providence, St. John's, and Seton Hall making it to the Final Four.

The Big East began to grow further, however, with an eye toward building and strengthening its football profile. Major expansions ensued in 1991 and 2005 (see Membership Timeline on the Big East Wikipedia page). Even before the national realignment frenzy got going a couple of years ago, the Big East started losing some teams (e.g., BC and Miami to the ACC), but also pushing west to add teams (e.g., DePaul in Chicago, Marquette in Milwaukee). Once big-time realignment hit, the Big East's revolving door picked up steam, leaving a monstrosity of a conference (because of how fluid things are, any Big East map must be viewed as a temporary snapshot).

With the Big East's current and future membership encompassing such geographically distant institutions as Cincinnati, Southern Methodist (Dallas), Houston, San Diego State, and Boise State (seemingly an effort by the Big East to latch onto the latter's recent football glory), some of the old guard are going back to their roots.

Original (or near-original) Big East members Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova, and newer members DePaul and Marquette -- which some have dubbed the "Catholic 7" -- have announced they are leaving to form their own basketball-focused league. It is still unresolved whether the departing or remaining schools will get to use the name "Big East." Other religiously affiliated basketball-oriented schools such as Xavier (Ohio) may be sought for the new grouping.

Nate Silver, the political and sports statistician, contends that:

A conference composed of these seven teams, along with select others that do not sponsor Division I football programs, could offer a men’s basketball league that was roughly as competitive as that of major conferences like the Pacific-12 and the Southeastern Conference.

With Connecticut the only original Big East school not to have left (as of this writing), Husky women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has expressed frustration with the departure of his longtime rivals. He has accused these schools, in essence, of milking the league of all the football revenue they could over the last several years, but then absconding as soon as the pigskin money evaporated.

The future of the Big East, sans the Catholic 7, remains more in doubt than ever. Boise State apparently is considering retracting its plan to join the Big East, in favor of staying in the more geographically compatible Mountain West. If Boise State cancelled on the Big East, San Diego State would almost certainly do likewise, I would think. And these wouldn't be the first Big East no-shows. Texas Christian University, which at one point was scheduled to join the Big East, left before ever playing a game in it, going directly from the Mountain West to its current home in the Big 12.

There is historical precedent for large and widely scattered leagues being untenable and dissolving into smaller subgroups. The Big East now seems to be following suit.

Louisville Joins ACC

The University of Louisville will be joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, possibly in 2014. As seen in the map below, there has been a mass exodus of teams from the Big East to the ACC, in a recent wave (red dots) and an older one (purple dots).

As this ESPN.com article notes, Louisville will add to what is already an extremely strong basketball conference:

The Cardinals' basketball program can also match up with elite programs in the ACC. Since the 2004-05 school year, Louisville has reached two Final Fours and two Elite Eights.

Louisville is among four current and future ACC schools that have won 20 or more games in each of the past 10 seasons. Only nine schools in Division I have accomplished that, including Duke, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

Big 10 Adds Maryland and Rutgers

The conference-realignment engine has revved up again, with Maryland (from the Atlantic Coast Conference) and Rutgers (from the Big East) joining the Big 10 for the 2014-15 academic year. 

Though outside the Big 10's geographic core of the Midwest, Maryland and Rutgers have commonalities with the conference on non-geographic dimensions. The Big 10 consists predominantly of large, flagship public universities (all except the private Northwestern), and Maryland and Rutgers fit the bill (the latter's full name is "Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey"). Maryland and Rutgers are both members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an elite group of academically prestigious institutions. All of the existing Big 10 schools are AAU members except Nebraska, which formerly was in the AAU.

I have depicted the new geographic layout of the Big 10 (barring further expansion). Various commentators have noted two things about the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. First, these schools give the Big 10 a presence in the metro New York City (Rutgers) and Washington, DC (Maryland) media markets. Rutgers and Maryland don't necessarily have a strong presence in New York and DC, respectively, compared to these cities' professional sports franchises, but the schools give the Big 10 some inroads. Second, Penn State will now have some close travel destinations within the conference. 

Many observers seem to feel that the impact of the Maryland/Rutgers moves will not be limited to the Big 10, as other conferences seek to boost their athletic prestige and viability by adding attractive football schools. I could see the Big East and ACC reverting to being basketball-oriented conferences, as their more football-oriented schools (e.g., the ACC's Florida State) possibly move elsewhere. ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach has a detailed overview of what the Maryland/Rutgers moves may mean for other conferences, particularly the ACC.

Notre Dame Moves to ACC, Except in Football

Notre Dame will shift all of its non-football sports from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, while remaining independent with the pigskin. However, the Fighting Irish will play five football games a year against ACC schools.

Geography would have suggested Notre Dame join the Big Ten. Plus, the Irish has long played several football games a year against Big Ten schools, such as Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Northwestern. In this new era of conference realignment, however, geographic compactness has gone out the window.

Florida State Memo on Possible Conference Shifting

Here's the memo by Florida State University president Eric Barron on his view of the pros and cons of the Seminoles leaving the ACC for the Big 12. The main FSU grievances with the ACC, as Barron perceives them, revolve around the ACC being too basketball/North Carolina focused, whereas FSU's football emphasis matches that of the Big 12. The major arguments against FSU leaving the ACC have to do with any increased revenues from joining the Big 12 likely being negated by the ACC exit fee, increased travel expenses, and the expectation that some Big 12 schools would not be big attendance draws in Tallahassee.

Conference USA Expansion

Conference USA has just announced the addition of five new member schools (news release). As shown in the screen-capture below, the new members are: UNC Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, and Texas-San Antonio (I have added circles around these schools). With slight exception, "Each new member will join the league in all sports for 2013."

The home to a dozen schools this past season, C-USA first lost Houston, SMU, and Central Florida, and later Memphis, all to the Big East. Conference USA thus has 13 members at the moment, eight holdovers and the five newcomers. I've always been a fan of geographic compactness, which C-USA's new addition of the five schools clearly promotes

As we previously noted here, Conference USA had agreed to merge with the Mountain West Conference. According to today's C-USA news release:

Conference USA and the Mountain West will continue to discuss a future affiliation that could begin as early as 2013. Both Conferences agreed that adding membership at this time was important and have carefully coordinated new membership plans. Additional expansion remains a possibility. 

Temple to Big East

Temple University will join the Big East in all sports, immediately for football and for the 2013-14 season in all other sports. With Memphis also joining the Big East (in all sports, in 2013-14), the conference will regain some strength in men's basketball, after its loss of Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC and West Virginia to the Big 12.

Conference USA, Mountain West to Merge

The progression to mega-conferences continues, with Conference USA and the Mountain West announcing they will merge and perhaps bring in additional schools. According to this article, "The newly named league would have a membership in 2013-14 that includes at minumum UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, Hawaii (in football only), Southern Miss, Tulsa, Marshall, Rice, UTEP, UAB, Tulane, East Carolina, Nevada and Fresno State."

Memphis to Big East

Memphis will be joining the Big East in all sports for the 2013-14 academic year. I created a geographic map in a previous posting, to illustrate the member schools (current and future) as of December 8, 2011. Two weeks ago (January 24, 2012), it was announced that Navy would join the Big East for football starting in 2015.