RE: Could the Big East remained a Power Conference in the College Football Playoff era?
Big East Football lost its long-term status as a power conference when it lost both Miami and Virginia Tech in in 2003. While Louisville, Cincinnati and USF all were incredibly strong additions for football (each had top-10 statuses at respective points), the reality is that rankings simply do not matter in the determinations and perceptions of power conferences. UCF's run over the past two years has proven and established that. Power leagues are anchored by blue-blood, power programs. While programs like Wake Forest, Rutgers, Kansas, Indiana, Oregon State, et. al. are not power programs, they are supported by their long-term associations with those types of programs. The Big East (circa 2012) was simply the final blow to the league as a true tweener conference, which lost that status when its automatic bowl tie-in was removed with the P5/G5 split.
The biggest problem in 2012 was that, due to the number of mass defections from Big East Football, there was a lot more added weight to the bottom of the league than the top. UCF, Navy, Memphis and Houston were all strong football additions to the league. However, other programs like Tulane, ECU, Tulsa and SMU, along with the steady downfall for UConn, have a strong impact towards the perception of the league. The power leagues can get away with the weak bottoms of their respective conferences. Established G5 leagues cannot. The other big problem facing the establishment of a true P6 conference is the lack of a clear power program that would help drive the reputation and perception of the said league. Even by taking the top of the AAC, along with the very top of the G5 (Boise State, SDSU, Fresno State, Army, et. al.), there still lacks a true anchor to drive the product. Long-term, I could envision a program like UCF becoming that (not unlike Miami's rise in the early 80's). However, by that point, UCF will have been taken by the ACC, SEC or Big 12, and the whole process gets blown up (once again).
Finally, it goes without saying, that the C7 would have wanted no part of that hypothetical league. The league's footprint was once again extended away from the NE, in addition to the acquisition of full members who simply did not put the resources into men's basketball, nor did they have the strong history or postseason success that the basketball league desired.
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