Could the Big East lose its BCS status?

[TheGallopinGoose]

With the loss of Pittsburgh & Syracuse to the ACC and TCU to the Big 12 (though they weren't really a member to begin with), football power in the Big East is really starting to wear thin.

Who's going to bring football prestige to this conference? West Virginia? Rutgers? Cincinnati? Lousiville? All of those teams are being eyed by other conferences for expansion, and if the Big Ten or SEC or even the Big 12 come calling, the Big East won't be able to hang on to them. And then who is the Big East looking at to bring in? Army, Navy, Air Force, Memphis, East Carolina, and Villanova are the leading candidates. That's two independents, three non-BCS teams, and an FCS team that would move up to the FBS level. Army would be the only team in that Big East with a National Championship on its mantle--two, to be exact--but they were both won during World War II.

The Big East stinks. It was the first and only conference to send an unranked champion to the BCS, and is the only BCS conference whose champion does not have a bid to a particular BCS bowl (they're just bounced around between the Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange Bowls). There is no football prestige in the Big East anymore. How can they possibly hang on to their BCS status?

 

[Pogo]

They definitely won't hold on to the auto-bid much longer. Once they lose a few more of their better teams (WVU, Lou, Cin, Rut), they will
be best served by re-branding themselves as a solid mid-major football conference (like MAC or C-USA) and a powerhouse basketball
conference.

We are not headed toward 4 major BCS football conferences. The presidents don't want 16-team conferences. The Big 12 will live for
quite some time.

 

[Longhorny630]

The Big East will only have 6 football members once pitt and the orange leave. I believe it states somewhere you have to have 8 members to be an AQ.

 

[BevoJoe]

I think if WV bolts, then the AQ status is history.

 

[H-D Rider]

When WV leaves, the Big East is nothing more than a glorified C-USA!

 

[darius]

I believe the Big East is getting ready to add Central Florida.

 

[general35]

i don't think they ever should have received one. the mountain west has been a better conference than the big east for years. if a conference doesnt have a team in the top 15 of the bcs, regardless of whether or not they are champions, the bcs bowls should not be required to select them. seriously, look at the crappy match-ups in the orange bowl the last few years. nobody watches that stink of a game featuring cincinatti and virginia tech or some crap.

 

[nwking]

I read in another post they have 2 years to regain the necessary number of teams before they lose the AQ.