I'm not going to call these posts "Big East Expansion:" anymore. For all we know, that's the last thing that's going to happen...
I'm also not going to bother recapping what's going on with Texas A&M, The SEC, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and the whole lot. By the time I hit publish on this article, five more rumors and nuggets of news will be out there. Just go to this stream on the discussion and keep an eye on it.
As you might have assumed, John Marinatto remains mum on the matter (save for "his" Twitterfeed). However, there is one voice that has emerged to represent the Big East...or better or worse. Instead of following Big East protocol, which is to "walk softly and don't bother anyone while they sort out our future for us," West Virginia AD Oliver Luck is doing the unthinkable...talking openly about the future of the Big East.
Flush with beer money, Luck isn't afraid to talk about, of all things, the possibility of merging the Big East and what's left of the Big 12.
"I think that with TCU coming into the Big East that there's a possibility that if the Big 12 suffers another defection, like a Missouri going to the Big 10 or maybe Oklahoma State or a Kansas going off to the Pac-12, I think at that point there's a possibility that there could be some interest on our part to look at a Kansas or an Oklahoma or potentially even a Missouri," says Luck.
"Maybe we as the Big East should talk to the Big 12 and say, ‘Let's merge,'" says Luck. "Call it the All-American Conference or whatever it may be, you know? And we'll be at 18 teams with pretty good schools."
In a way, he might be right. We know the Big East has and is talking to some Big 12 schools about the possibility. On Monday, the New York Post reported that Big East contacted Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri (sorry Iowa State) about joining if the Big 12 loses more teams.
Feel free to concoct your new Big East divisions and tell DePaul to rue the day it ever joined but I'd wait until the dust settles before thinking any of us this a foregone conclusion. For all we know, the ACC will end up taking South Florida, Pitt and West Virginia end up is some kind of weird new version of the Big 12 and Syracuse will spend its remaining days in the Patriot League.
New York's Patriot League Team.