With realignment kicking in to high gear next season for the ACC and the Big East and thus some of the smaller conferences around the country some were asking what the new look Big East with six new teams would look like. On Tuesday afternoon we got our answer and the Big East is adopting divisional play for the first time in it's football playing history.
One would assume that there would be a championship game then played, but no announcement of that was made today.
According to Big East commissioner Mike Aresco it was a balancing act putting together these divisions, even though it wasn't that hard with teams from the east coast to the west coast.
"This new alignment gives the Conference and its fans the best of both worlds — national exposure that is a result of the Big East being in six of the top 10 U.S. media markets — with a schedule that focuses on spirited regional rivalries," Aresco stated in the conference release.
The Divisions will simply be called East and West so it'll be the the Big East East and the Big East West – if you weren't already confused enough directionally. So, who makes up each division, well here they are:
East Division:
Central Florida
South Florida
Cincinnati
Louisville
Rutgers
UConn
West Division:
Boise State
Houston
Memphis
SMU
San Diego State
Temple
So, Temple gets to play out their days by travel frequently through multiple time zones. It's hard to find fault in how they split up the divisions even if it's clear that right now the East division is 100% more loaded and difficult to navigate than the West.
What is a conference spread out from Connecticut to California and Florida supposed to do? Keeping as many regional interests together as possible was completely smart for fans, travel, the student-athletes and trying to expand the brand of the conference.
As for Temple being the odd man out in the East? What were they supposed to do? Someone was going to get moved and it makes no sense to split up rivals like Louisville and Cincy, or schools that are as close as USF and UCF are along with Rutgers and UConn. So, someone had to go and the odd man out was Temple.
It's not like this would be the last time it was on the inside looking out in the Big East either, having been booted from the conference in 2004.
For more of Andy's college sports thoughts and analysis from the Badgers, the Big Ten and more follow him on Twitter @andycoppens.
