Bye Bye Big East – gone with the "Catholic 7" basketball schools. Hello America 12 Conference? Yep, that's right. Well, that is if you believe the sourcing of one Brett McMurphy of ESPN (and why would we doubt him with this news anyway). He's reporting that the name "America 12" is considered the front runner to replace the Big East moniker.
"America 12 Conference" favorite to become new name for Big East, league sources told @espn. Not official; other names being considered
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) March 7, 2013
You'd think the former Big East and it's new members would've at least learned the lesson of not tying yourself to a number when creating your conference name, right?
The real question is should we really even care? After all, what's really in a name anyway? Ask the Big Ten and it's soon to be 14 members or the Big 12 and it's 10 members. Nothing about conference names these days make sense and frankly other than a way to tell us who plays who and who gets to chant their conference name when rubbing it in to fans of other conferences (Looking at you B-1-G vs. S-E-C), there is little in the way of a name holding much weight at the end of the day.
Now, that doesn't completely hold true as fans of the SEC, B1G, Pac-12 and ACC have some very deep historical ties to their conference names and their traditions because of it – but I just can't imagine anyone saying "Hell Ya! I can't wait for that big time America 12 battle," can you?
Whether or not you care what the conference name is, at the very least this name fits the description of telling us where and who these schools are. After all, there will be 12 schools and all of them will be in the United States of America. So, at least there is that, right?
The other name that a lot of people are buzzing about is possibly naming it the Metro Conference. You know, because all schools in the new league are in metro areas – plus it would be a swipe at some of the departed schools like Marquette, Louisville, and Cincinnati who were once members of the Great Metro Conference. Ohhhh boy wouldn't that just be juicy (laying the sarcasm on pretty thick indeed).
