At this point, with other conferences moving to 14-16, the question remains that if the Big East is going to withstand the raid, how many teams will be absorbed and what kind of configuration will they take?

Frankly, if the league is going to thrive, I'd imagine that there'd have to be a sound geographic basis for the additions. Coupled with relevant television markets, that'd seem to make UCF (Orlando), UH (Houston), and Temple (Philly), no brainers. UMASS and ECU would make sense for an 11 and 12.

UL
UC

WVU
ECU?

UH?
TCU

UCONN
UMASS?

UCF?
USF

RU
Temple?

I believe that in the current Big East structure those programs would bring stability to the football league. ECU, UH, and UCF, are all highly competitive programs with recent bowl success and Top 25 rankings. Temple is on the verge.

The question is whether the Big East football schools will hold onto the Basketball/football hybrid model to rebuild. IMO, keeping that structure is the best thing for the football schools. Even with the loss of Cuse and Pitt, the BEAST basketball alignment allows the remaining football schools to maintain their identity as the premier Northeast conference. Perception-wise... It offers an umbrella for the AQ bid, IMO. Nevertheless, further additions must be carefully addressed, rather than bringing in the Big 12 reject club (which includes Baylor and ISU) or else the Big East may lose their identity altogether.