Expanding the Big East good for Pitt

In a move that makes the Big East Conference a little bigger and a little less eastern than it… In a move that makes the Big East Conference a little bigger and a little less eastern than it once was, the conference added Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Marquette and DePaul. The latter two will not be joining for football.

This swell in size comes a few months after Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and stands to make the Big East the nation’s top basketball conference. Although this change may mean that the Big East’s Bowl Championship Series bid may not be renewed in three years, should it not be, the conference will then be at the top of the non-BCS Division I-A teams.

All this is good news for Pitt. Pitt will be a big fish in a little pond, rather than the nurse shark in a tank full of hammerheads that we were before. And it was the Big East’s best available option – not that there were many others.

Being part of a basketball-oriented conference can only mean good things for Pitt’s programs: higher rankings and better opponents, for example. Because no matter how firmly Pitt trounces suck-tastic teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff or Chicago State, Pitt’s rankings will not improve until their opponents do.

Pitt’s new conference-mates seem like worthy opponents. Marquette beat Pitt to go to the Final Four last year, Cincinnati and Louisville both have high-profile coaches, and DePaul fares better than Virginia Tech, Miami or Boston College at basketball.

Of course, none of these new additions create the geographic rivalry that Pitt so needs – West Virginia is too busy setting things on fire to inspire the necessary froth and vehemence required for true rivalry. Cincinnati is the closest of the bunch, but still mired in the depths of Ohio.

Yet the Big East is something of a misnomer- it’s the Big East(ern Midwest) now, with UConn, South Florida and Marquette demarcating the edges. This is fitting – it’s not as if the other conferences have names that make particular sense. The Atlantic Coast Conference could be renamed the Southern Coast Conference with token-Yankee Boston College, and the Big Ten has 11 schools.

Which conference Pitt belongs to is one of the many things that affects its sports programs – an important component, though not the sole factor in determining Pitt sports’ future. But for now, we can rest easy knowing that the Big East’s status as a basketball conference will be one of the best in history.