Conference Realignment

After last season's movement, now comes the biggest movement of them all with universities going after spots in certain conferences. It's too bad it has to be this way but it comes down to the almighty dollar, like I have said before. I'm going to talk about the Big East first because it will be the conference most affected by the conference realignment because of the way the conference is structured.

As of last season the Big East had 16 members. It somewhat created a mega-conference for basketball. Now, the challenging part is that college football is going to ruin that conference for all. Pittsburgh and Syracuse have already jumped ship and the conference could go to shambles. The biggest problem for the conference is that several of it's schools either do not have football (Marquette, Providence, St. John's, and Seton Hall), played at the 1-AA level (was Villanova and Georgetown), or compete as an independent (Notre Dame). Football is the sport that schools get the most money because it isn't technically controlled by the NCAA. The NCAA has no control over which schools go to bowl games or the BCS rankings. The NCAA Tournament for basketball is huge money maker for the NCAA and they get a lot of the money from that while in football the conferences get the money.

I'm not sure what I will think once the Big East doesn't have it's tournament at Madison Square Garden. There have been so many memorable games there and now with Steve Lavin bringing back the Red Storm, the Mecca of Basketball is making it's way back. Who can remember Ray Allen's shot over a Georgetown defender for UConn to win at MSG? What about Da'Sean Butler making game winning shot after game winning shot leading WVU to it's first ever Big East Tournament title? What about Kemba Walker carrying the young Huskies on his back last season? What about the 19 overtime game between UConn and Syracuse a few years back? That is some of the most exciting basketball of the whole year.

I don't want to see the Big East go away. I could probably do away with Big East football. What about this idea? Why can't schools align themselves to conferences for certain sports? It would save Big East basketball. We already have a 1-AA for football, could there be another level added on to that?

Don't be surprised to see four mega-conferences with 16 teams each and then they separate from the NCAA. The NCAA is essentially a monopoly with no wiggle room for it's members, that could change quickly. The worst part of that is that it would greatly affect D3 athletics. We wouldn't get any funding to our championships.

If is this all about the student athlete then why do have college football games on Thursday and Friday nights. Why does South Florida play Marquette on a Wednesday night in hoops? Don't say it's about student athletes when money is coming in and helping the WHOLE university.