Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

There’s no rush for a 12th Big East team, because it doesn’t improve much

Mike Aresco

In this photo taken Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco answers a question during an NCAA college football game between Connecticut and Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J. Aresco has to be smiling heading toward the midpoint of the football season. He has three ranked teams, and they’re all unbeaten. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

AP

Today, Big East Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco told reporters that the conference is looking to add a 12th team after the recent losses of Boise State and San Diego State.

“We probably at some point will add a 12th team,” Aresco said. “We are going to have 11 when Navy comes in ’15. We’ll have 10 this year. There’s no urgency, but we think we’ll probably think about adding a 12th team.”

First of all, kudos to Aresco for not pushing the issue too much. He’s accepted they’re going to be at 11 for at least a season. In an age when teams and conferences are looking to move as quick as possible, sometimes patience can help out when making a move that, at least Aresco is hoping, will last a long time.

But no matter what you do, Mike, it will never be the same Big East.

Yes, it’s a take that has been echoed many times over for a year or so now. But it’s not just in the drive for a 12th team that makes me say this. It’s with the seemingly unabashed notion that the Big East can still be up with the rest of the college basketball world — and really, the rest of the college sports world — that Aresco speaks of.

That’s the main reason I like the direction Aresco is taking. There’s no pressure to add the 12th team so quick, because plain and simple, there isn’t a 12th team that can truly improve the Big East’s stature going forward. At least not one that hasn’t left or isn’t already set to leave.

Looking at the possible candidates, it’s not exactly an easy pick. The team will probably come from Conference USA or even the MAC. Because conference realignment, in all its ridiculousness, has been predictable when it comes to where the new teams come from. The Big East is becoming Conference USA. Conference USA is becoming the Sun Belt Conference and so on. Everyone thinks they’re taking a step up, but they’re really just staying put, with a few new neighbors and a new conference logo attached to a few more dollars in their budgets.

Because that’s what it’s all about, more money in the budgets.

And I think Mike Aresco understands that. Whoever he gets, he believes that that program will benefit the Big East. He no doubt knows what he’s doing, so I’m willing to bet the yet-to-be-named 12th team will, at least to a certain degree, help the Big East stay relevant.

But there’s no way that any of the teams that departed or are departing the Big East can be replaced. So with that, Aresco is able to take his time. Watch the teams looking for an opportunity, and then invite the one with the best chance at helping the Big East stick around. Even if that means becoming Conference USA-plus.

David Harten is the founder of The Backboard Chronicles. You can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.