We will get back to previewing BASKETBALL momentarily, but ...
CBS Sports is reporting that Houston, SMU, Central Florida, Boise State, Navy and Air Force are all expected to join the Big East this week, with the latter three playing football only. The only last minute scrambling is apparently for Boise State to get their other sports into another conference this week.
If we take the current Massey Ratings for football and last year's final Pomeroy Ratings for basketball, the average football team in the new Big East would be the 56th best team in the country compared to the average ACC ranking of 55th.
| New Conference | Football | Basketball |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 29 | 84 |
| B12 | 33 | 72 |
| P10 | 44 | 80 |
| B10 | 47 | 38 |
| ACC | 55 | 57 |
| Big East | 56 | 77 |
| WAC | 79 | 151 |
| CUSA | 83 | 105 |
Big East football would have a huge edge over the next best conferences, and be within an average of 10 spots of the Big Ten, which once again ranks behind the Big 12, Pac 10 and of course SEC.
It would seem hard to justify dropping the Big East BCS status with the addition of Boise State and Houston, and as much as I would hate to lose Louisville or UConn for basketball, dropping either one would actually move Big East football AHEAD of the ACC by this measure.
So if the BCS status holds, then all of the attention can then turn to how good a basketball conference we have. Here the new conference falls behind the Big Ten and ACC, but would come in as the third best conference except that DePaul's ranking of 202nd drops it just behind the Big 12 to make it the 4th best conference. Clearly the Big East is not going to dominate and get 11 bids after the departure of Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia, but with the potential of Central Florida and Houston, there is no reason it can't solidify itself as one of the top three basketball conferences in the country.
Below is the team-by-team for what would be the new Big East (I listed Notre Dame's football rankings and the football-only basketball rankings, but they were not tallied in the average.) Overall, it could be a good week for the Big East after a terrible month.
| Football | Basketball | |
|---|---|---|
| Air Force | 65 | 133 |
| Boise St. | 5 | 85 |
| Central Florida | 93 | 102 |
| Cincinnati | 35 | 23 |
| Connecticut | 81 | 10 |
| DePaul | 202 | |
| Georgetown | 40 | |
| Houston | 28 | 209 |
| Louisville | 70 | 14 |
| Marquette | 32 | |
| Navy | 79 | 274 |
| Notre Dame | 25 | 15 |
| Providence | 96 | |
| Rutgers | 54 | 78 |
| Seton Hall | 59 | |
| South Florida | 55 | 127 |
| Southern Methodist | 48 | 154 |
| St. John's | 42 | |
| Villanova | 33 | |
| New BE Average | 56 | 77 |
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