Big East Football Expansion

With the expansion of the Big Ten and Pac-10 to 12 teams by 2012, the MWC scrambling to maintain numbers and the depletion of the Big 12 and WAC, only the Big East and Sun Belt remain unchanged in the near future. As a Pittsburgh alumni, I feel it is in the Big East's best interest to expand to 12 teams ASAP before there are no teams left to maintain their own conference. The Big East can do this without depleting any other conference, unlike the aforementioned conferences.

To expand to 12 teams, the Big East should simply 1) secure Notre Dame, whose others sports programs are already members of the conference, 2) reinstate Temple, who was a member from 1991-2004, thus returning the MAC to 12 from 13 teams, 3) add the other two independent teams of Navy and Army. All the added teams are in the primary geographical are that is the Big East.

Notre Dame adds the BIG name and is returning to form under former Big East coach Brian Kelly. Temple has rebuilt their program and is consistently towards the top of the MAC. Navy is a strong program that would typically finish amidst the middle of the Big East. And while Army is not prominent team, they are no worse then the worst of the current Big East, having won at Rutgers this year.

The hardest part of this expansion, next to convincing Notre Dame, Navy and Army to give up their independent status, is divisional alignment. Here are the primary alignments to consider.

East/West
West: Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Notre Dame, South Florida
East: Syracuse, Connecticut, Army, Rutgers, Temple, Navy

North/South
North: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Army, Rutgers
South: West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Temple, Navy, South Florida

NW/SE
NW: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Notre Dame
SE: Connecticut, Army, Rutgers, Temple, Navy, South Florida

Old/New
Old: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers, Temple*, Connecticut
New: Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Notre Dame, Navy, Army
*Temple was an original member 1991-2004

Or any mix of new schools and old schools. Considerations to be given during alignment are traditional rivalries. You would want to keep as many of these traditional rivalries within divisional alignment so that teams can strengthen their non-conference games. It would make sense to keep Pitt/WVU in the same division and Army/Navy in the same division. You would probably also like to keep Notre Dame/Navy and maybe Cincy/Louisville together. Given that, the Old/New alignment would be best.

Here is a link to a map with demarcations for all four alignments.