Big East gets bigger; who cares

   The Big East Conference announced Wednesday to add Houston, SMU and Central Florida in all sports while also adding Boise State and San Diego State as football only members.  Congratulations Big East, you've lost your best members and all regional rivalries and created another Conference USA that for now remains a BCS automatic qualifier.

I imagine Boise State head coach Chris Peterson will be singing a different song than he was last week.  After his Broncos were left out of the BCS and forced to accept a bid to the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas to face a 6-6 Arizona State team who just fired Dennis Erickson, Peterson fired off, claiming "everybody is just very tired of the BCS."  Don't worry Coach Peterson, you'll soon be able to play a daunting schedule of SMU, UConn, directional Florida schools and the other powers of the brand new Big Least and cash in with a trip to the Fiesta or Orange Bowls.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto bragged in his news conference about the huge footprint the new Big East will have.  Really sounds great doesn't it?  Ya know, those big time Central Florida and Boise State games or how about the San Diego State versus UConn matchups?  One thing's for sure, these coaches and players will be racking up some serious frequent flyer miles.  Miles, and plenty of out of conference losses I'm sure.

Who cares???  Not one damn person.  The Big East has an awful television contract currently and losing their historically best teams and two of their largest television markets is not going to help when they re-negotiate.  Nobody's going to be tuning in for the Big East snoozer of the day at 11AM on Saturday.  This conference is going to be fighting it out with the MAC for Tuesday and Wednesday night games.

If the name of the game is self-preservation then kudos are to be given to the Big East.  They've managed to delay their death for at least a couple of more years.  That is until Rutgers, UConn, Cincinnati and Louisville head for higher grounds in the inevitable flood that is super-conference expansion.