Q: Should the Big East expand to 12 teams in order to keep its status as a major conference?
Larry Braasch of Carney's Point, N.J.
ZEISE: Only if the football schools do what they should have done last year - break away from the basketball schools and make a commitment to becoming a football conference. As it is, in order to expand to 12 football schools, it would either have to find four football-only members or add four new members and have a 20-team hoop league - which would be ridiculous. I think if the Big East were going to expand as a football conference, the other issue would be finding four more teams worthy of being in a BCS league -- or capable of growing into a legitimate program. They would also have to fit geographically, academically and have strong, or at least potentially strong, basketball programs so as to ensure the grouping of football schools also yields a strong basketball conference. Obviously with Pitt, UConn, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Louisville, the basketball conference is off to a great start. Given that criteria, however, I'm not sure there are four schools out there that make sense at this point. So in short, the best the Big East football conference can do is schedule well out of conference, win the majority of those games and field multiple top 25 teams every year.
Next year, I think, will be a huge year for the conference because it will prove whether or not it can be a competitive BCS conference. Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville and West Virginia could all end up being ranked by the end of the season if all four play up to their capabilities. It is critical, for the conference's sake, for instance, that Pitt win at Nebraska and beat Notre Dame. Those are the kind of out of conference wins the Big East needs to start compiling and those four teams appear capable of doing it next year.
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Q: I keep hearing the Big East football schools want to break away from the basketball schools, but never a reason why. I trust basketball schools do not share money from bowl games.
Joel Nace of Girard, Pa.
ZEISE: That was one of the great debates during the whole Big East break-up and frankly there was some sentiment to split up between basketball and football schools. That is one of the reasons Miami wanted to leave -- they felt the conference was dominated by the basketball school's voice and that the commissioner was a basketball guy. I'm not sure that sentiment still exists today, especially since the basketball conference is going to carry the load until the football conference gets on its feet. And you are correct, the bowl money is split among the football members only.
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Q: Do you think Boston College is thinking twice about its decision to join the ACC?
Chris F. of Pittsburgh
ZEISE: If they aren't, they should be. My goodness, this has to go down as one of the most asinine conference jumps ever. They have no geographical rivals in the ACC, the non-revenue sports travel costs will balloon (there aren't any more bus trips or short, easy flights) and the football team has almost no chance of ever winning the conference and going to the BCS. If they were still in the Big East, they'd contend for the football title every year (the conference would be stronger and thus, the BCS berth less in question) and they'd maintain their geographical rivalries. Of course, I'm sure the Bostonians are thinking about giving up their ALCS tickets and lining up to catch that scintillating Boston College versus Georgia Tech football match-up in Chestnut Hill. You didn't know it but those two are storied rivals and there is far more interest in that game than say, Syracuse versus BC. Please! More importantly, the fact that BC doesn't want to play Connecticut and Syracuse tells me they are clueless. They should want to play those two schools, especially at home -- at least then they may have a chance at selling a few tickets to a game other than Notre Dame.
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Article: Q+A with Paul Zeise of the PPG
