BRANCHING OUT: Tulane and East Carolina will soon be squaring off in the Big East Conference, which the Post’s Lenn Robbins writes should change its name to reflect its geographical reach. (Landov)
BRANCHING OUT: Tulane and East Carolina will soon be squaring off in the Big East Conference. (
)
IT’s time for the Big East to do what once would have thought to be unfathomable — change its name.
The conference formerly known as the Big East should now call itself the Big National.
Yesterday’s announcement the league is adding Tulane in all sports and East Carolina in football, less than two weeks after losing Rutgers to the Big Ten, continues the league’s transformation from an East-centric league to a national conference.
That’s fine. The league is doing what it needs to survive. It is setting itself up to score a lucrative TV deal, probably with NBC/Comcast.
The Big East, whose membership once resided only in the Eastern time zone, is now comprised of schools from Connecticut (assuming UConn doesn’t jump to the ACC), to South Florida, to Milwaukee to San Diego and all points in between — Houston, Idaho, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Louisville (assuming the Cards don’t jump to the ACC or Big 12).
It is a national, made-for-TV and multiple platform viewership conference — the Big National.
Before everyone in the league office in Providence rails against this idea, think of the opportunity:
A cool, new logo, new merchandise (Nets gear is selling like wrapping paper at Christmas), but most of all, a chance to start fresh.
The league has been kicked around so much, the brand known as the Big East has been irreparably harmed.
Walk away from it. Let it be remembered as the Saturn of car companies — a noble idea that an American automobile company could produce fuel-efficient, reliable cars.
The Big East was never going to compete with Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC in football. Those conferences weren’t going to triumph over the Big East in hoops.
Unfortunately for the Big East, it came of age in an era that was rapidly fast-breaking toward college football. It was a passenger on an express bus.
You know the names of Big East casualties. And you know the names of the replacement programs. The Big East is Big and National.
It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. The Southwest Conference became the Big 8, which is now the Big 12. Anyone seen the Metro Conference lately?
The latest addition of Tulane gives the league another football-playing member in what eventually will be its Western Division.
The irony of Tulane joining is that its president, Scott Cowen, led the charge to abolish the BCS and get more financial equality for schools not in BCS conferences. He was full of sound and fury.
Yesterday he was all smiles and wit:
“We look forward to our mutual association and we are delighted to welcome the BIG EAST to the Big Easy!”
Big Apple, Big Easy, Big Oil, Big Sky, Big Sur, it’s all Big in the Big East. It’s the Big National.