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Okay, my problems with this:

1.Temple is in the MAC and just joined as a football only member this year. Why would they leave now?

2.Put Temple in the Big East? Have you seen them play? They were a total disaster last season, and are the least deserving team to move up.

Check your facts.

FaustoCarmonaFan* | 12/29/07, 10:59 PM

Temple was kicked out of the Big East because they sucked so bad. Personally, I think the Big East should get rid of all of the basketball-only schools and start another major conference for basketball with Seton Hall, Georgetown, Villanova, Notre Dame, St. Johns, Marquette, DePaul, and Providence. For this, they also add Butler, St. Joseph's, St. Louis, and Xaiver. This makes it all-private school and all-Catholic besides Butler. For the "football" conference, they add Memphis, Florida Atlantic, UCF, and Navy. In this, the Big East struggles a bit in basketball, but they would have 12 football teams and divisions. For basketball, all schools besides Notre Dame do not have Division 1-A football teams, making it a non-football conference. I will call it the Private School 12.

IrishR#1 | 12/30/07, 12:09 AM

Big east is on the rise

Associated Press | 12/30/07, 01:08 AM

The Big East went 6-6 prior to the bowls against the other majors
Only 2 conferences were above .500, none more than a win

5 of the 6 losses were by Syracuse and Pittsburgh, the 2 worse teams in the Big East, otherwise the Big East record would have been 6-1
...at least 'cuse and Pitts tried - half of the bottom 2 teams from the majors didn't schedule a game against the other major conferences

They have 2 quality wins againt teams that finished in the top 1/3 of these conferences - Auburn, Oregon State (PAC-10 and SEC who most consider to be the toughest 2 conferences)
No conference had more than 2 quality wins against the other major conferences

They're doing it with the fewest # of teams - to equate the record the other teams would need to have gotten 3 quality wins

None of the other majors average more inter-conference games per member between the majors than the Big East - as college football fans forget about giving them the boot, try to get the other majors to emulate the Big East

I am not certain what your issue is with the Big East, but it is obviosly more subjective than objective

Prove It | 12/30/07, 06:26 AM

Army and Navy in the big-east just won't work.They're both service academies and they just wouldn't be able to play in a BCS conference.

(Cincy) Eddie Vedder | 12/31/07, 12:02 AM

Fausto, IrishR, and Cincyfan: this throwdown is only here because of the one in which I argue that the Big East should be demoted to "mid-major" status... in football. I don't see any real difference between the Big East and the MWC/old WAC (such as BYU, Air Force, and Utah) in terms of quality--where the football programs are concerned--which is what I'm talking about. So, Army, Navy, and Temple would fit right into the MID-MAJOR Big East.

Fausto, they were no more a disaster than Syracuse was this year ;-)

In basketball, it's fine. And Temple was an INDEPENDENT in football before the Big East was formed... as were Syracuse, Pitt, and Boston College...

IrishR, if you do a throwdown for that, let me know and I'll vote for it. I specialize more in football, but I'd support a Big East split along those lines. In fact, I have other throwdowns specifically mentioning UCF, FAU, and Navy...

AP, it's too early to render judgment on that. I'm going to wait at least five years, to see if a Big East team makes it to the title game, now that Miami and Virginia Tech (the only ones from the Big East to do so up to now) have left.

Prove It... my issue is that the Big East was started as a basketball conference, and essentially still IS a basketball conference, **** the BCS football teat. It had no existence in football before 1992, and was created purely with the aim of sucking up the "independents"... both its own (such as Pitt, Syracuse, and Boston College) and others (such as Miami and Virginia Tech) that were *cough* liable to be *cough* snapped up by the ACC if they didn't move first. So once you have FIVE years of data (not just one) for the Big East as currently constituted (unless the membership changes again), then you can compare it to the other conferences and see how it stacks up. Isn't the BCS going to be re-evaluating the automatic bids starting with next year?

KansasToonami | 12/31/07, 02:55 AM

Ok, I will humor you just this once and only once
From here on, if you want to back up a point, do your own homework because few are convinced by your current spattering of irrelevant facts.

Nobody cares about the conferences history, geography, how it was started, how and when teams were added, etc. any more than they care about when you liked or didn't like the current conferences make up.

It is entirely up to the colleges in the conference and other schools whether or not others should be included. Army, Navy, Temple apparently have no personal reason to join and/or the Big East teams see no reason to invite them.

The same holds true for the teams you have noted as needing to see change conferences.

In between your intermixed TD ramblings and long winded comments we get your viewpoint - it is just that virtually nobody agrees

Inter-confeence records
07 6-6 thru the regular season
06 14-7 not a typo
05 5-12
04 6-9
03 4-6 (for current members, include before entering conference)
combied 35-40

By Conference
SEC 8-3 (again, not a typo - 73%)
PAC10 2-2
Big12 3-3
ACC 17-19 if 1 loss had ended a win, would be .500
Big10 5-13
without their record vs Big10 would be over 500 against other majors

BCS 2-1
Louisvlle, WVU have wins, Syracuse has loss

Take into account 3 footnotes and the record is rather impressive:

1- Every team in the Big East has scheduled at least 1 game against the other major conferences every year except in 1 instance - Cincinnati in 2003. By comparison half of the last 2 teams in the other major conferences did not in 2007. If 1 of the last 2 place teams took the year off, the record would be above 500

This time span includes period of time when 2 of the top teams left the Big East and new teams were added.
2- Take out top 1/4 of teams of other majors and their records would look worse
3- It takes times for the new members to see the results of improved recruiting and develop recruits.
Result reflected in conference record - drastic improvement starting in 06 and continuing into 07

4- 04 on each team averaged 1.5 to 2.6 games per member against the other major conferences - subatantially more than the other major conferences leading to a more difficult non-conference schedule

Summary
They have an excellent record against the other major conferences, dwarfing anything the lesser conferences have compiled
Record is improving as a result of improved recruiting

There is no reason to swap teams, add teams, remove teams, etc. Personally I like the fact that the smaller conference size allows the teams to play round-robin, no need for Conference Title game, and allows them to schedule more inter-conference games

No reason to eliminate automatic bid in the BCS
2-1 overall record is higher percentage than any other conference who has made more than 1 appearance
If they loose this year, will still have better record than the ACC with Miami's winning record added, at best Big 12 can tie (.500), Big10 could end up with a better or worse BCS record

The Big East won't be "Given" an automatic bid into the BCS, they have earned it on the field.

Prove It | 12/31/07, 07:52 AM