Expanding the Big 12 Back to 12 Teams? The Topic That Never Dies

Sports Illustrated/Campus Rush presents a thorough overview article on the topic of Big 12 expansion and the related issue of a conference title game for football (link). I don't know that there's much new in the article, but there are some tidbits such as the implications of the leadership turmoil at the University of Texas and the possibilities for a full-time Big 12 television network. As far as possible schools to add to the current 10, the article focuses on Cincinnati (to combat West Virginia's geographical isolation) and BYU, consistent with conventional wisdom.

Useful College Football Maps

SB Nation/Vox's "25 Maps That Explain College Football" include a few maps (15, 16, and 17) that delve into realignment issues. Map 15 is particular useful, in my view, showing in color-coded fashion the conference memberships of all FBS (formerly Division I-A) schools.

Useful Information on College Basketball Conferences Under Realignment

ESPN.com recently has published some useful resources concerning the new configuration of college basketball conferences. These include a list of changes to conference lineups, a summary of winners and losers from those changes (in the eyes of writer Jason King), and an Andy Katz piece on how realignment has allowed many conferences to arrive at 10 basketball schools, a comfortable number.

Resolution of Big East Break-Up into "New" Big East and American Athletic Conference

I'm a little behind on this one. But after months of unfolding developments, the break-up of what has been known for nearly 35 years as the Big East Conference has been worked out. For starters, it should be noted that some of the top Big East basketball schools, including this year's men's national champion Louisiville, and Syracuse and Pitt, are in the process of moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Also, Rutgers is going to the Big 10.

As shown in the following diagram, the remaining Big East schools (and some set to join) will be splitting into two conferences. Shown in blue are what had been widely referred to as the "Catholic 7" (some of the Big East's longest-term members, whose athletic programs are focused on basketball), plus like-minded schools Creighton, Xavier, and Butler, who will be coming on board (Butler is private, like the other schools, but not Catholic-affiliated). This group will retain the name Big East.

The other schools, shown in red, consist of "leftover" schools from the current Big East, plus newly joining schools (mostly from Conference USA). Tulsa is a very recent addition. These schools will be known as the American Athletic Conference (AAC). My preferred name for this new conference would have been the "Big Triangle," as one would get from tracing the shape from Connecticut to Texas to Florida, to encompass all the schools. 

Schools in the new AAC play football in the NCAA's top classification (known as the Football Bowl Subdivision and formerly Division I-A) and have enjoyed various degrees of success on the gridiron. None of them would be considered among college football's elite, however.

I see the new Big East as being very stable, as it essentially is a new incarnation of a league that has been around since 1979, with a similar culture as the original.

In contrast, I would be very surprised if the American Athletic looked the same in five years as it does today. In general, circuits with large geographic distances between members have tended to be volatile. UConn and Cincinnati have been known to covet membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Further, though it may not currently seem likely, the two Texas schools, Southern Methodist (Dallas) and the University of Houston, conceivably could find themselves in the Big 12 (which currently has 10 institutions). U-of-H is building a new football stadium, which can only help the Cougars' prospects for joining the Big 12.

New Big 10 Divisional Set-Up for 2014

The Big 10 conference will go to a purely geographical divisional set-up for football, East and West, in 2014, according to this article. Previously, the conference had focused on schools' historical winning percentages to create two divisions that equalized competitive balance as much as possible.

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.