The Big East Divorce

With the loss of Rutgers and presumed loss of UConn the Big East is left dazed and confused.  ESPN is reporting that future football affiliates San Diego St and Boise St are in discussions with the Mountain West about cancelling their Big East departure and remaining in the conference.  Furthermore, it's been speculated that the Big East's top remaining Catholic basketball schools--Georgetown, Villanova, and St John's, could be part of a bold move by the ACC to claim the Eastern Seaboard and capture the basketball glory of the old Big East.  The Big East could also potentially be losing some of their best remaining football programs to an expanding Big 12.  The US Naval Academy is supposed to be joining the BE for football in 201 but at this point if I'm Navy I'd be cancelling those plans and remaining independent.

Provided UConn, Rutgers, San Diego St, Boise St, and Navy are all lost on the football side and in basketball the Big East loses Georgetown, Villanova, and St John's, we're looking at a Big East consisting of:

Providence
Seton Hall
DePaul
Marquette
Temple*
Cincinnati*
Louisville*
Memphis*
USF*
UCF*
Southern Methodist*
Houston*

At this point I think its time for a divorce.  The football and basketball factions are better of separate than together at this point.

For the four basketball schools I would consider asking the top members of the Atlantic 10 about joining them in a new league.  St Louis, Xavier, Dayton, UMass, Richmond, George Washington and Duquesne are schools I'd be looking at but that's not to say that I'd take them all.  I think the goal should be 12 schools, 6 in the Midwest and 6 in the Northeast.  If Villanova no longer in the picture I'd consider adding St Joeseph's as well to keep the Philadelphia market--or--I'd see if Temple could work out a deal to go with the basketball schools but play as a football only member of the new conference created by the old BE football schools.  This conference would be attractive in large markets in the Northeast and Midwest.

As for the football schools, I think their best is to recapture the essence of the old Metro/C-USA.  I would go after the best programs and markets remaining in the current C-USA to do it.  East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa all seem like logical picks but I think I'd also gamble on a couple up-an-comers like UTSA and Charlotte.  This league could potentially look like this:

WEST                                      EAST
UTSA                                      Charlotte
SMU                                        East Carolina
Houston                                   USF
Tulsa                                        UCF
Tulane                                     Cincinnati
Memphis                                  Louisville