Big East, MWC, C-USA considering super conference?

[Brad]

Big East, MWC, C-USA considering super conference?

By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff

While the Big East considers its next move on expansion, it is now being asked to consider a plan that would create a nation-wide football conference incorporating between 28 and 32 teams in four divisions from Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference as well as the Big East.

According to sources from those conferences, the plan was devised as a way that the Big East could ensure its place as one of the six conferences receiving automatic BCS bids.

The document, which was obtained by The Globe, reveals an alternative plan which would help the Big East maintain its AQ status -- automatic qualification -- but also provide access to the Mountain West and Conference USA, who hope to gain such status.

Under the plan, Super Conference would consist of four divisions: West, Mountain, Central and the Big East.

In the 32-team format, the West Division would consist of Boise State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and San Jose State.

The Mountain Division would consist of Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP, SMU, Tulsa and Houston.

The Central Division would consist of Marshall, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, UAB, Rice, Temple and Louisiana Tech.

And the Big East Division would consist of Louisville, UConn, Rutgers, Cincinnati, South Florida, Central Florida, East Carolina and Navy. West Virginia is not included in this plan, with the assumption being the Mountaineers would be headed to the Big 12 to replace Missouri which will presumably wind up in the SEC along with Texas A&M.

The scaled down version of 28 teams would not include San Jose State in the West, move Houston from the Mountain to the Central Division, eliminate Temple and Louisiana Tech from the Central Division and not include Navy in the Big East division.

Although no details of how the divisions would be worked out, the prevailing wisdom suggests that the four divisions play a round robin schedule of 7 games to determine a champion and then have the four division winners meet to determine a conference champion which would get the automatic BCS spot currently held by the Big East.

While the Big East optimum plan is to make a run on its own with the inclusion of six new schools - -Boise State, Air Force, SMU, Houston, Central Florida and Navy -- the problem of the Big East maintaining its AQ status remains.

West Virginia's loss to Syracuse on Friday night basically eliminated the Big East from the Top 25 in next week's BCS standings, a potentially crippling blow to the Big East's chances of maintaining its AQ status (which is based on the results over a revolving three year period).

The plan is for football only and would allow the Big East to maintain its membership in basketball and all other sports.

Clearly, the Mountain West and Conference USA would love the plan because it elevates their status as potential BCS conferences. The Big East's acceptance of such an arrangement remains problematic.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2011/10/big_east_mwc_c-.html

[DERBY]

This is a terrible idea for everyone involved. 32 teams sharing one AQ spot? And to get into that AQ spot you have to play 2 extra games after the regular season before your BCS game. I'd rather just go back to conference USA and hope for an at large spot from an undefeated season.

Ridiculous.

[JuicedBull]

This is a ridiculous idea; way too many teams sharing a bid!

[79 Bull]

No way the NCAA or BCS would allow this. They would have to grant an extra semi-final/championship game to handle the 4 team playoff and decide whether everyone involved plays an 11 game or 12 game regular season schedule. Ain't gonna happen.

[joe7f]

I think it could work (not exactly desirable but probably better than losing our AQ bid).

You schedule 12 games but do an opponent switch if you are the head of your division. Here is an example.

Let's say Boise wins the west, Houston the mountain, southern miss the central and USF the Big East and all of this is decided by game 10. You deliberately schedule out of division but within conference games for weeks 11 and 12.

Let's say USF was scheduled to play at UTEP and Southern Miss host Louisville, Boise to play at Marshall and Houston to host Fresno. USF plays Southern Miss (UL goes to UTEP) and Houston hosts Boise. The winners of each let's say Boise and USF, play in game 12, everyone else goes on to play their regularly scheduled game except for our scheduled opponents who play each other.

You would be hard pressed to say a team that plays runs through that schedule wouldn't deserve a BCS bowl bid.

--Joe

[Doc]

The problem here is that it renders our AQ meaningless from a recruiting standpoint. We would get the same calibre of recruits as Nevada and LA Tech.

[joe7f]

I see what you are saying but on the other hand just as Vanderbilt doesn't get the same quality recruits as LSU, I would expect that USF would get better recruits than Nevada. I am not suggesting this is ideal by any stretch. Hopefully we can solidify the Big East and not worry about this.

[Costa]

No