The new Big East is awesome

College football has dictated the changing landscape of conferences across the land. It led big state schools out of the Big East, while the Big East tried to recoup with whatever detritus it could. It wasn’t a great situation, for the conference. It once had West Virginia and Louisville, and now it had East Carolina and Tulane.

Likewise, it was a bad situation for the basketball only schools that had formed the backbone of the original league. Cutting to the chase, the schools all split from the rest of the Big East. Coincidentally, they all happened to be Catholic institutions, and were dubbed the Catholic 7.

Well during the past week, it was announced that the Catholic 7 were starting their own conference… and they were taking the Big East name with them. In addition to the 7, they are also adding Xavier and Butler from the A-10 next year, followed, perhaps, by Creighton, Dayton and Saint Louis.

That’s awesome. In an era of football driving conference realignment, we are being gifted with a basketball-centric conference that is glomming up some of the East Coast’s (and Midwest’s) most historic basketball programs. As a basketball fan, I love this.

But I say why stop there. Xavier, Butler, Dayton and Saint Louis are all A-10 teams. Creighton, Xavier, Dayton and Saint Louis are all Catholic Institutions. Clearly, being from the A-10 and run by Catholics are qualifiers for joining the new Big East. There are 5 more teams, then, that can be added to the new Big East, and I say we should go for it. Those schools are Duquesne, La Salle, Saint Bonaventure, Fordham and Saint Joseph’s.This would give the conference 17 teams. That’s a lot, certainly, but more troubling is that it has an odd number of teams, making a tournament more difficult.

There are four options for sorting that issue out. 1) The glamorous option would be to get Notre Dame to join. They get a huge Catholic conference to be a part of, and they still get to remain independent in football. 2) The less glamorous option would be to add one of the numerous Catholic institutions out east. I recommend Iona, Siena or Manhattan. 3) Kick out Butler. They aren’t Catholic! They don’t fit! Or kick out Creighton, because they didn’t fit the original geographic template. 4) Who cares? Leave it at 17!

I think Notre Dame would join, though, giving you an 18 team conference with schools that are generally known for their basketball prowess. Heck, the carcasses of the A-10 and Big East could merge too, and nobody is left out.

Even if none of this comes to pass beyond the expansion to 12, it’s still going to be one of the more entertaining basketball conferences around. In an era where football drives everything, it’s nice to see basketball leading the way for once.