Another thought on the Big East/MWC saga?

[domangue]

I'm really starting to read some tea leaves regarding this poker game between MWC and Big East over Boise State...

IF the MWC wins them back, could it be the death spiral that terminates the Big East as a football conference?

There has been a lot of public chatter about the Big East TV deal... while the numbers are certainly on the high end relative to the other gang of five members, there seems to be some significant challenges on projecting anything past 3-5 years or so. There is a moderate chance that they won't get a viable long-term television deal offer whatsoever at this point.

This truly might become a "bird in the hand" type of deal for Boise et al... take the bigger $$ from the Big East knowing that the juice might only last for 3-5 years, OR take a 30% cut by staying MWC knowing the $$ is stable and for the long-term. And BTW, have MBB in the MWC instead of the Big West. And have the exact same chance of getting into an access bowl.

I am starting to have a few doubts of the premise that the Big East is in the "catbird" seat in all this as we've all been assuming.

So, the western wing of Big East: Boise State, SDSU, Houston, and SMU join the MWC. This allows Houston and SMU to save face and not crawl back to C-USA, and further, SMU has a history in western-based conferences anyway.

Then the remaining Big East: USF, UCF, ECU, Tulane, Memphis re-join C-USA. Temple as well. This creates a 20-team league for C-USA. ECU hadn't even figured out where to send MBB. After all said and done, CUSA lost 2 (Houston, SMU) and added 10 (La Tech, FIU, UNT, UTSA, Temple, FAU, MTSU, USF, ODU, Charlotte).

Cincinnati and UConn are still actively whoring themselves out for an ACC bid. In their elite arrogance, they hold their nose and join either C-USA or MAC for a couple of years as a placeholder until their bid comes calling. Perhaps they join the MAC in football and throw-in with the Catholic schools for MBB? Politically, they very well might champion the idea of dissolving the Big East as a mechanism to grease the wheels for further realignment scenarios. They've already floated their little idea about starting up their own conference.



I really am starting to wonder about how all this shakes out. Who knows, it might just work out for us after all!