With the Big East in full meltdown mode, two of the traditional basketball powers are considering a move to the ACC—or, barring that, UConn and Cincinnati will take their ball and go start their own conference, according to The Sporting News. The only flaw in this plan is that the new conference would blanket the entire continent and thus would turn all its members into hateful, travel-weary wretches.
Here's the breakdown:
Sources close to the discussions told Sporting News on Friday that one possibility to give the Bearcats and Huskies a home, which is at the early stages of discussion, would be a cross-continent all-sports league involving disenfranchised members of the Big East as well as the most prominent members of the Mountain West.
The proposed entrants would be UConn, Cincinnati, South Florida, Memphis, Temple, Boise State, San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico and possibly BYU or Central Florida. Such a league would include football programs that are comparable and competitive, as well as extraordinary basketball featuring eight teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
You know you're through the looking glass when you're bandying around phrases like "possibly BYU or Central Florida." Apparently NBC would be interested in televising this geography bee. But would anyone want to play in it? Would anyone travel for the games? How often would teams in non-revenue sports make the trip from Storrs to San Diego or from Boise to Tampa? And what do you even call such a monstrosity? (Unsolicited suggestions: The Big Everywhere, The Atlantic and Pacific and Gulf Coasts Conference, The Trans-Siberian Railway.)
Or, hey, Cincy and UConn could always join the ACC.
Cincinnati, UConn talk of new all-sports league, could leverage ACC offer [The Sporting News]