Mailbag: Conference Shakeups... Again

I give up. I can't keep track of it, I can't remember who is going where or when it's happening, and it's just getting ridiculous. The landscape of college sports has shifted drastically the past couple years, and it's going to continue on for a couple more.

I was staying out of it, really. I'd stopped trying to remember which school belongs to which conference, and I wasn't going to start trying again until at least 2015 when things have hopefully died down and stabilized a bit.

But it was not to be, for the lone question (at least that I have much of an answer for) in my mailbag this week, was this:

What's the deal with everyone hating on the Big East? It seems like a ton of teams throughout the NCAA are switching conference left and right-- what about just having a giant restructuring meeting where all the presidents sit down and "redraw the lines?" -Ben H.

The landscape is changing: where does everyone belong?

First of all, let's make that meeting happen. Let's sit everybody down for a week long meeting. Let's get school presidents and ADs, along with the NCAA president and conference commissioners, as well as all TV network leaders to hash out broadcasting rights... Dang. I'm starting to think a week may not be long enough. Well let's make it a month long meeting, but the TV guys don't need to show up until the last week. Okay perfect, let's get this thing going so we can be over and done with conference realignment.

So we'll have the conferences all be pretty close to even numbers, and maybe get rid of some of the talent disparity - I mean, the SEC is right next door to the Sun Belt, the Pac-12 is close to the WAC, the Big Ten is near the MAC, let's even these things out!

There are currently 11 football conferences (plus four independent teams) and 124 teams. Why don't we make 12 conferences of ten teams in eight of those conferences, and 11 teams in the remaining four?

There are 32 basketball conferences and 347 schools. Why don't we make 30 conferences, with 17 conferences having 12 members and 13 conferences having 11 members?

Okay, okay, you're right. I'm getting a bit carried away and admittedly a little ridiculous. But here's my point: if we're going to have to endure all of these major conference shakeups throughout the NCAA, can we just get it over with and get it right? I'm not going to suggest that what I have listed above is right. In fact I don't think it is at all. I'm not sure that the best system is to rid the sports world of talent disparity. For example, if you do that in basketball you severely limit Cinderella stories in March. (Speaking of, shout out to Butler for taking down top-ranked Indiana today!)

I don't know what the best solution is, but I would really love to see this shuffling stop.

As for the Big East's problems in particular, I believe there are two problems: 1) They have really struggled in football in recent years and schools are trying to bolt to more respectable conferences, and 2) It's just getting a little too crowded in basketball.

The only thing certain for Coach Thompson's Hoyas right
now is that the future doesn't involve the Big East.

I get why a team would leave the Big East right now, especially these seven schools, all non-football schools. Football drives everything in college sports. It has driven this conference realignment the past few years and continues to do so. There are currently 15 schools participating in basketball in the Big East Conference, with more coming and more leaving, so who knows exactly where the count will end up. For those seven non-basketball schools, now is the perfect time to get out; conference realignment is running rampant, and DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova are some quality programs that could make a pretty decent basketball conference of their own.

And sometimes it's just nice to have some stability, and those schools will likely find it while the Big East remains in turmoil and uncertainty.

Actually, now that I've answered this, I still think I stayed vague enough that I can avoid trying to memorize new conference structures until 2015!

What is your opinion on super tall kids trying to longboard? -Heather P.

Yeah... Not really my area of expertise, but if they get a longer board and bend their knees they should be able to counteract that center of gravity issue, right?