Big East Expansion A Desperate Scramble

As the senior prom that is conference realignment unfolded, the Big East saw its date leave with someone else. Syracuse and Pitt promised the last dance to the ACC, TCU disappeared while John Marinatto was pouring it a glass of punch, and West Virginia sneaked out to the Big 12’s party.

With Journey’s “Open Arms” blaring over the shoddy sound system for the last dance, Marinatto scrambled for a partner. And as a desperate seeker is wont to do, he avoided a lonely drive home with the equally desperate and ditched, diamonds in the rough, and late bloomers.

The new Big East is certainly an odd grouping. Boise State found itself arriving to the dance with a seemingly ideal date. When BSU joined the Mountain West in the summer of 2010, the conference’s future looked bright: TCU, Boise State, BYU and Utah were a foursome worthy of BCS status, that proverbial seat at the popular kids’ table. But a better offer for Utah, and conflict with the league office for BYU sent them packing and TCU scrambling for an alternative.

BSU was right back where it started, the banner carrier for a mid-major conference. A stark reminder of what that entails preceded the Broncos’ merger with the Big East, as the BCS bypassed No. 7 BSU for power conference representatives Virginia Tech and Michigan. Indeed, the BCS proved it’s nothing more than a high school cool kid clique that will look out for its own first.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

At least, that would be the concept on its face. Were Marinatto’s moves enough to ensure the Big East remains No. 6 among the Big Six? BSU is the sole addition of the five with a track record for success, either on field or as a television/stadium draw.

Houston and UCF each have double digit-win seasons in the last two, and there is undeniable potential for major program-level success in each. Both are in metropolitan areas, thus have nearly unlimited fan base possibilities, and both are amid recruiting hotbeds — the recruiting hotbeds of the entire nation, no less. UCF also boasts brand new facilities, an attractive asset of fellow Big East newcomer SMU. SMU wooed June Jones from Hawaii with the promise of state-of-the-art facilities, and the university delivered.

The Mustangs are headed to a third straight bowl game, and like the Golden Knights and Cougars, are in recruiting country.

San Diego State is the most perplexing of the additions. SDSU is a football-only member like BSU, the right choice for travel expenses. But SDSU was remarkably unsuccessful for over a decade, a skid that was only snapped last season. The Aztecs are headed to consecutive bowl games for the first time in program history, but Rocky Long’s ability to sustain the recruiting success of his predecessors remains to be seen.

A sales pitch for Long, as well as the other four head coaches at the new Big East members, is participation in a Big Six league — a ticket to the prom’s hottest after-party, if you will.

Assuming the party isn’t broken up, that is.

None of the Big East’s new members aside from BSU has BCS experience, never been to that party. Is the clique willing to invite outsiders, several of them, based solely on arriving with a league that was already a black sheep? Will the party even still exist?

This season’s BCS debacle may be the most egregious in the system’s 13 years. The system’s contract with the NCAA is expiring, and sentiment against it as at an all-time high. With the MWC likely to consume the WAC and merge with Conference USA, conference numbers slash from 11 to nine. Keeping the status quo with so few leagues wouldn’t make sense.

And that would leave the new Big East’s efforts for naught.