NCAA Football Realignment

After being directed to the following article http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/06/01/conference-expansion/1.html, I decided to think about how I would align D-1 College Football and I thought that I would share my thoughts. I'm going to go conference by conference (BCS, Conference USA, Mountain West and WAC) and update you on teams that would stay, teams that would go and the teams that I would add to fill any void. I'm going to start out East and work my way West.

The first conference I want to touch on will be the Big East. Currently the Big East has 8 teams: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia.

The following teams would stay in the Big East: Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia.

Teams that will move to another conference include: South Florida

New additions to the conference will be: Boston College (formerly in the Big East), Kentucky and Notre Dame.

How was South Florida put into this conference in the first place? Geographically it makes absolutely no sense. You have several teams from the Northeastern part of the county and a team from Southern parts of Florida. It is a traveling nightmare for every team in the conference and is a huge disadvantage to the Bulls when they play up North during the Fall/Winter months and vice versa for the other teams when they travel South and have to face the humidity and heat of Florida in a time when they are use to snow and cold weather.

Boston College should have never defected to the ACC in the first place years ago. Notre Dame needs a home and considering all other athletic programs for them play in the Big East this is the logical fit. Kentucky will move from the SEC, where I viewed them as being too North to be in a Southern conference. Kentucky would also be able to compete in this conference vs being a bottomdweller year after year in the SEC.

When you look at the conference I have proposed I think any team could legitimately walk away with the conference championship next season, well maybe not the 'Cuse. I would also like to split this conference up into East/West. The teams in the East would be: Boston College, Rutgers, UConn, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. The West teams would be: Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Kentucky and Notre Dame. The winners of each division would play each other in a Big East Championship game and would potentially set up 3 games that are great rivalries. The Backyard Brawl between Pittsburgh and West Virgina has gotten bigger and bigger each season and it would renew the rivalry between Pitt and Notre Dame. Boston College and Notre Dame also have a pretty fience rivalry from back in the day.

If this conference started up next season, my guess is the standings at the end of the season would look like this:

East

Boston College

Pitt

Connecticut

Rutgers

Syracuse

West

Notre Dame

Cincinnati
West Virginia

Kentucky
Louisville

Give me Notre Dame over BC for the Big East crown in the inaugural first season of the new Big East Conference. Two teams new to the conference will make a mark on it from the start.