Memphis to the rescue

The Big East should have had an arrangement similar to the Missouri Valley which has separate conferences for football and basketball that feature some overlap. Sometimes you just have to keep the two sports separate because it’s very hard to make an elite conference in one sport that competes nationally in the other.

The Big East expansion committee has had a majority of football programs in each of its recreations since the first ACC raid, and yet, until ‘Cuse, Pitt, and WVU left (each of who spent time on it in recent years), it could only come up with TCU to bring to the full membership for a vote — every program brought up for a full vote has passed unanimously. ND’s Jack Swarbrick has that expansion committee in overdrive — and he’s added Boise State, San Diego, Houston (their BCS ranks were better than WVU, ‘Cuse, and Pitt) — he also added a Navy squad that both Pitt and ’Cuse supported and who brings bowl tie-ins to the conference. He’s also back in discussions with Air Force and BYU according to NBC Sports Talk.

The Memphis move makes plenty of sense… they are better than a WVU or Pitt in baskeball right now, they are a 12th football member for television purposes. In what will likely be an era of no AQ after 2014, the Tigers will bring with them access to the Liberty Bowl into the Big East tie-in list. Plus they sit perfectly between the Texas schools and the Ohio Valley/Great Lake members.

With Boise St., the Big East has the closest thing to a “Football King” that actually vie for a National Championship, as they are going to get.

The other 11 football schools are for the purposes of a getting a conference championship game.

The rest of the league seems to be about adding as many big TV markets as possible for contract renogotiations.