Wednesday, September 29, 2010

THE BIG EAST CONSIDERS EXPANSION, EYES A LESS ACCURATE NAME THAN THE BIG TEN



In the madness of conference expansion news that dominated college football headlines during over the summer, a clear dynamic emerged: the power hungry Pac-10 and Big11Ten were dead set on ripping apart and feasting on the poor carcasses of the Big 12 and Big East like they were a delicious Thanksgiving turkey (with the apple pie - ACC - looking on nervously and hoping that dinner alone would satisfy their ravenous appetites).

In the end, the changes to the conference landscape were in fact minor, and eventually the college football world turned its attention towards the 2010 season while things calmed and the dust settled.

That is, until the Big East - slow, "special" child of the BCS conferences that they are - decided they wanted to join the side of the agressors. The conference of 8 football and 1,478 basketball teams has decided to expand its ranks. And in a stunning imitation of the fine batch of QBs populating the conference at the moment, their expansion plans have landed unfathomably far from any predictable target...as word has gotten out they are interested in TCU.

The Big East's 2005 expansion to University of South Florida may have indicated the league's desire to break out of its traditional Northeast shell. And hell, that was a match made in heaven - the school, located in the North Florida city of Tampa was already geographically challenged. But the possible move for TCU defies any sort of logic.

Except for this: joining a BCS conference opens the door for TCU to make a national championship run - something non-BCS schools could never do (I'm looking at you, Boise St). It would also give the Big East conference some small bit of respectability, as TCU has already beaten more BCS conference teams this season than the whole Big East (2 versus 1). Of course, TCU also has one more ranked team, #24 TCU, than the Big East can lay claim to at the moment.

Folks, reality continues to out-do fiction.

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