Time for a Big East out West? (Basketball discussion)

Vanity

[dangus]

Presuming BYU does NOT go to the Big 12, I also foresee: Connecticut re-joins the Big East, giving the American Athletic Conference an ultimatum they won't refuse. But after allowing Connecticut and Navy to play only football in the American, Temple follows suit and re-joins the Atlantic 10. Thus, the deluge?

The best outcome I can foresee is that the American raids CUSA and puts back together the "old CUSA," minus, of course the basketball-only schools in the Big East (Marquette, DePaul) and Louisville. So UAB, Southern Mississippi and Charlotte come back. Maybe Marshall instead of one of the old CUSA teams... but I don't see Western Kentucky as ever becoming a truly national university, so I don't see their value to the American conference, even though they had a great year last year in football.

But then THAT scenario opens up the chance for some further expansion:

Losing Temple, Connecticut, and, let's suppose Cincinnati and Houston, the American becomes a very weak basketball conference. Southern Mississippi, Charlotte, UAB, Marshall, Western Kentucky... none of those teams rebuild it into a basketball powerhouse. What if Southern Methodist and Tulsa -- small, religious schools -- want to join better basketball schools?

The Big 5 football conferences aren't beating their door down. They'd be awkward additions to the Big East or the Atlantic 10. And if the Big East adds Connecticut and the Atlantic 10 adds Temple, they're not going to be hot to add more new teams... even if Dayton or St. Louis ditch the Atlantic 10 to go to the Big East.

But how about the West Coast Conference? The Midwest Conference might make slightly more sense geographically, but they're down to Northern Iowa and Wichita St. And even with good basketball programs, they'll probably always be second fiddle to Big 10 and Big 12 conferences.

Joining schools from the West Coast Conference would give the new conference 5 power-house teams: BYU (which might also be interested in the American as a football-only school if their major-conference bid fails), Gonzaga, St. Mary's, SMU and Tulsa. All the schools would have a Christian affiliation (presuming U of the Pacific gets cut; it's formerly Methodist).

If those 5 basketball programs begin getting some national airtime, they could also bring some attention to programs in huge TV markets: U. of Portland, U. of San Francisco, U. of San Diego, and Loyola Marymount of Los Angeles. Missouri Valley Conference, on the other hand, would go nowhere, and therefore would have next to zero chance of luring Tulsa and SMU out of the American Conference for non-football sports.