Big East goes west for football

WELL, SAN DIEGO State is 12 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. And Boise is east of Washington State.

In case you did not get that geography is no longer relevant to the college football landscape, the new Big East should convince you.

It was announced on a teleconference yesterday that Boise State and San Diego State would be joining the league for football in 2013. Central Florida, Houston and Southern Methodist will be joining for all sports.

All of which means the league will have at least 10 football-playing schools in 2013.

Temple remains on the outside looking in longingly. The Big East eventually would like to have 12 football schools so it could stage a championship game between Eastern and Western division winners. Navy and Air Force are the most likely targets, with Temple somewhere just beyond that. Where Villanova football sits as it relates to the Big East is anybody's guess at this point.

When it was announced this fall that Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be leaving for the ACC, some moves were inevitable. When it was announced that West Virginia would be leaving for the Big 12, the Big East was down to five football schools. And that wasn't going to work.

Unless the departing schools are allowed to leave before 2013 - and the league is adamant that they won't be - the Big East will have 13 football schools in 2013, just to add to the confusion.

This is not helping basketball, which some may remember is why the Big East was formed and what made it famous. When you replace Pitt, Syracuse and WVU with UCF, SMU and Houston, you don't help basketball.

But this is not about basketball. Football is where the money is now and where it will be for the foreseeable future. This is about television and the money it might want to pay for the rights to broadcast Big East football. Unlike the other five BCS conferences, which have long-term TV contracts in place, the Big East's contract can be opened up after an exclusive 60-day discussion with present partners ESPN and CBS in the fall of 2012.

Getting back to 10 for football - and eventually 12 - also makes the league a player at the BCS table, with all of that bowl money.

"Our conference will continue to have, by far, the single-largest media footprint in intercollegiate athletics, spanning literally from coast to coast in football and all major regions in between," Big East commissioner John Marinatto said on the teleconference. "In fact, the Big East Conference will be the first truly national college football conference . . .

"The addition of these five new marketplaces also boosts the number of the Big East's potential TV households by more than 6 percent, up to almost 28 million. Four different time zones will also allow us the potential to schedule four football games on a given Saturday back-to-back-to-back-to-back without any overlap. It's a powerful model and one that we believe will be unmatched by any other conference."

At the moment, the Big East has eight football schools and eight schools that just play basketball. It will be that way again when the five new members are playing. If it gets to 12 in football, there would be 20 in total.

"The Big East has had a history of reinventing itself since it was created in 1979," Marinatto said. "We are going west. It's another step in our history . . . This expansion clearly moves us far beyond our origins in the northeast."

The conference began as a Northeast basketball conference. In 1990, the Big East football league was formed. Then, in 2003, it became a 16-team basketball goliath.

Marinatto cut off any discussion about potential members or other schools that may have been involved in these discussions.

"We will not comment on any schools that are not part of our announcement today," he said. "I can only say there are continuing discussions with select additional institutions."

Marinatto also said Boise State and San Diego State would play some of the basketball schools each season. Details will be worked out over time.

More schools will almost certainly be added in the future. And some of the current members might decide to leave.

One thing that never changes in all this is that everything keeps changing.