After news broke that Syracuse and Pitt were leaving the Big East for the greener pastures of the ACC, it seemed like the Big East might need to make some big moves to remain relevant and especially maintain its BCS status. After all, the addition of TCU made it seem like there was nothing to worry about. Then TCU announced that it was not even going to bother with the Big East and join the Big 12 instead and Big East commissioner John Marinatto was seen feverishly Googling “seppuku.”

The departure of Pitt and Syracuse leaves the league with just 6 teams, so the Big East is now finally recognizing an urgency to add 6 schools and become a 12-team conference. Hold on to your zany foam hats, because they are doozies – UCF, ECU, Temple, Navy, Air Force, and maybe Boise State. And that’s assuming that none of the Big East’s other schools leave.

The issue lingering over the league’s future involves Missouri. If Missouri leaves the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference, that would put Big East football in peril. The Big 12 would probably grab West Virginia or Louisville, or both, to replace Missouri. The Big 12 could also take one or both if Missouri stays. Big East officials say they will not wait for Missouri to decide, but no definitive timetable is in place.

(Via The New York Times)

With all of the other big news and rumors that have been circling the Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big 10 and PAC-However-Many-Schools-They-Have-Now, the Big East has been easy to ignore. But here’s a quick recap – nobody wants to join the Big East except for schools the other schools don’t want. For instance, USF has been trying hard to keep UCF out. Does anyone care about that? No. Hell, UCF is my alma mater and I don’t even care about it.

Ultimately, the Big East is going to lose West Virginia and probably Rutgers. If Louisville can get its act together and start winning again, it will probably leave as well. Best case scenario – and probably only case scenario – the Big East ransacks Conference USA and locates photos of NCAA President Mark Emmert in bed with a transgender donkey. That’s about the only thing that will save it.

UPDATE: My buddy Brandon Helwig at UCFSports.com Tweeted earlier that a rumored scenario is an East Division with UCF, USF, UConn, Rutgers, Temple and Navy, while a West Division would be WVU, Cincinnati, SMU, Louisville, Houston and Air Force.

The Big East conference could make an argument for sending as many as 11 teams to the NCAA tournament, which starts next week. Rutgers (5-13 in conference, 15-17 overall) was not one of those, and desperately needed to make a run through the arguably the toughest conference tournament in the country to find a spot in the big dance. Last night, in the Big East tournament’s quarterfinal round, Rutgers ran into St. Johns–and an incompetent officiating crew.

Rutgers would lose, but not before having their last gasp stolen out from under them. Watch after the jump as St. Johns player Justin Brownlee travels AND steps out of bounds AND throws the ball in the stands with more a second remaining. Whether St. Johns was handed a break by the timekeeper because they play their home games at Madison Square Garden–the tournament site–or one of the referees really had to pee is up for debate, but it’s ugly. No one in the St. Johns basketball program should ever ridicule the WWE ever again. Read the rest of this entry »

Texas Christian University has accepted to the Big East conference, effective at the start of the 2012-2013 academic year, according to reports citing sources close to the industry.

The Horned Frogs (12-0) are ranked No. 3 in the current BCS rankings and are guaranteed a BCS bowl. By adding TCU for the 2012-13 school year, the Horned Frogs would take “all of their data to their new league,” BCS spokesman Bill Hancock told FanHouse.

The current four-year evaluation period for the BCS concludes in December 2011, so TCU’s past BCS rankings – three consecutive top 11 BCS rankings, including this year – will transfer to the Big East since it joined the league before the 2012-13 school year.

–FanHouse.

So TCU won’t have to run the table for BCS consideration and the Big East actually gets a football school. This is a win-win for both parties. Oh, I guess it’s sort of a draw for women’s volleyball team and the like, who will be leaving sunny Texas for an annual pilgrimage to Storrs, Connecticut. Oh, I’d love to be working the TSA gate when those ladies roll into the airport. I’d give each of those girls a private screening, and then have the video shown in a movie theater with a few close friends. It would be a private screening of private screenings. Oh, you thought I was taking that joke somewhere else…

The Big 12 has saved itself from the threat of extinction, and Big East Commissioner John Marinatto could not be happier. He who has assembled the greatest football conference in history, was so moved by Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe’s wheeling and dealing, that he decided to send Beebe the gayest gift he could possibly think of:

If the Big 12 had folded, the Big East may have soon followed in a domino effect of teams leaving for superconferences that would have changed the college landscape forever. A college landscape that may not have included the Big East.

So on Tuesday, Marinatto showed his appreciation with a small gesture. His office sent 10 red and 10 white roses to Beebe and the Big 12 conference with a card that simply read “Unity.”

“The color combination signifies unity and 10 — rather than a dozen — represented their new membership number,” Marinatto told FanHouse Wednesday. –FanHouse

10 white roses, you say? That’s some pretty poetic symbolism, John. Soon, you’ll be able to get into some complex ideas, like how things that are white are good, and black things are evil. Just like the LAPD would have you believe.

As an undergrad of a Big East school, I would love nothing more than to see the football conference fold. Have you ever watched a Big East football game? It’s terrible. So terrible, that Duke Basketball superstar flop artist Greg Paulus started for Syracuse last season. I’d love to make a joke about it, but that’s just so infuriating I’m about to have an aneurysm. Marinatto was the working for the conference when they let all of their best football teams leave for the ACC, so you know he’s business savvy. Tony Hayward and the BP boys could have at least convinced Boston College to stay. More Greg Paulus highlights after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Maller, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that the University of Pittsburgh is joining the Big Ten conference, that it’s a done deal and that some announcement will be coming down the pike on Thursday. Whether or not the report is actually true, it’s worth looking at how Pitt would fit into the Big Ten, and what that school’s departure would mean for the Big East, which would be left with only six teams. Well, seven…if you count Louisville.

Pittsburgh is a near-ideal fit for the Big Ten, geographically speaking. The University of Pittsburgh campus is almost exactly between Ohio State and Penn State, giving Penn State a natural rival and Minnesota another boring (but not terribly long) plane ride, a situation that should be alleviated once the conference breaks into divisions. It’s the ideal spot for a 12th school not named Notre Dame.

Academically, Pitt will hold its own. Pittsburgh received a score of 52.0 in the latest US News and World Report university rankings, which put it 56th among all national universities so ranked. The average Big Ten score was 57.1, and the average rank was 50th. Their strong academic reputation will ease the school’s entry into the conference, which must be ratified by the faculty of the current member institutions.

Pitt is pretty good at football. Pitt finished 15th in the AP rankings after a 10-win season; the Panthers also finished 2nd in the Big East, trailing only undefeated Cincinnati in their conference. The rest of the Panthers’ sports programs are not quite as strong; Pitt finished 93rd in last year’s Directors’ Cup, which is based on schools’ performance in all varsity sports. The average Big Ten school finished 29th in that same span.

The Big East is all but finished as a BCS conference. Pitt’s departure would leave the Big East with seven teams, two of which were acquired from Conference USA less than five years ago. And the options to bolster the conference’s membership are rather slim. Geographically, the best prospective members would be Temple (MAC), Marshall (C-USA), Buffalo (MAC), and Navy (FBS Independent). Yeah, I’m not impressed, either.

ASYLUM POLL: Which team would YOU like to see in the Big Te11n?

But the biggest question might deal with the Big Ten’s name. The conference kept the “Big Ten” moniker even after adding Penn State as its 11th school in 1990, though they’ve now committed to always spelling out the “Ten.” Honestly, I don’t really care. If they can squeeze a two into that logo of theirs, that works for me. And put a pirate ship on their, too. Pirates are pretty sweet.