The Big East Could Use Another Team

One dilemma currently facing the Big East football conference is that it only has eight members. Which means that each team has seven conference games. And depending on the year, each team has either three or four home conference games. Given the 12 game schedule of college football, that means that Big East teams have to play five non-conference games.

From time to time Big East coaches address this issue in the media like Randy Edsall did recently.

"It would be just so much more viable and more equitable to everybody in the conference if we all had four home games each year," Edsall said Thursday. "So that's why it's our hope as football coaches, to get to where we have at least another team in the league."

There are several teams that are brought up each year as possible additions like East Carolina, Memphis, Navy, etc. But none of those teams really inspires excitement in me, and I would guess in the rest of the Big East. For his part, Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese is opposed to anyone other than Notre Dame joining the football side of the conference.

League commissioner Michael Tranghese has said if the Irish would like to talk about becoming a football member, he'd certainly take the phone call. But otherwise, the league is not pursuing expansion, spokesman John Paquette said Thursday.

I don't know that there could be a bigger pipe dream than Notre Dame joining the Big East for all sports. I suppose world peace would rank up there. Or if Rich Rodriguez has any hopes of being welcomed back in West Virginia again.

The best answer would be one that isn't part of conventional wisdom . Teams like Maryland, Penn St., and Boston College fit the geographic make up of the current Big East and have a tradition of winning. While it isn't being talked about much at the moment, the Big 11 10 will eventually look to add another team to even out it's conference schedule. As soon as that Big 10 Network thing gets worked out, I would expect conference expansion to get pushed back to the top of the list.
The Big East could be a big help in this regard by simply stealing Penn St. and give the Big 10 and even number of conference teams again. Yeah, that would be a nice change. Instead of a conference raiding the Big East, the Big East could bring back one of the biggest rivalries for both Pitt and West Virginia. Otherwise, the Big 10 is going to come after Syracuse, Rutgers, or Pitt and make a bad situation even worse. And given Tranghese's stance, the Big East is going to continue to be an easy target for other conferences to raid.

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