My World: Big East, Big Mess

Nebraska to the BigTen, Colorado to the Pac-10, Texas AM to the SEC—it was only a matter of time until the Big East would also undergo re-alignment along with other conferences. Only instead of expanding, the Big East conference is losing two teams, two of Cincinnati's rivals in the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, with both moving to the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference).

What in the world is going on? Why doesn't everything just stay the same as it was two years ago? With all of the conference re-alignment going on, some of it doesn't even make sense geographically.

Take, for instance, the desperate invitation sent to Texas Christian University—a football team that could run the table in the Big East every year, which it considered joining but then accepted an invitation to join the Big-12 Conference. That move made more sense from a fan's point of view. Away games would have been too much of a hassle to go to, not to mention a TCU basketball team that went 12 and 22 last year and wouldn't stand a chance in the Big East.

Commissioners have to consider the other sports that will be affected by the change in conference. It seems as though everyone is worried about the football, and even as a huge college football fan myself, I can notice the greed involved amongst schools and commissioners, who want to change conferences due to competition in schedules.

Football is the sport that pulls in the most revenue for most universities in America, but it shouldn't be about money. Whatever happened to that thing called "tradition" and true rivalries? Now on top of worrying about whether or not the head coach will be there for four years, recruits have to worry about whether they'll even be playing in the same conference.

So with two of Cincinnati's rivals playing in the ACC next year, what's the next move for the Big East? Why, what else besides another desperation move to try to obtain six other teams? Within the last two weeks, Air Force, Navy, Army, Memphis, East Carolina, and Villanova have been extended offers to play football in the Big East.

With Army, Navy, and Air Force least likely to join, the Big East still may have a few kinks to work out before a super conference can be formed. Let's just hope that all of the shuffling around is done soon, so that we can get back to just playing football.