Good grief, what happened to the Big East? It's now the Bloated East

[brentspeak]

I haven't paid attention to college basketball in a while, and when I checked out the various conference final standings, I see that the Big East is about twice the size it used to be, with all kinds of schools included from all over the place (Louisville?) And how did Boston College end up in the ACC????

I remember the Big East's glory days of the 1980's, when most of the conference made the Final Four at some point, and even Seton Hall almost won an NCAA championship. Back then, it was simply: Syracuse, Georgetown, Providence, Boston College, Seton Hall, UConn, Pittsburgh, Villanova, and St.John's. Much simpler, much better.

[fishwax]

1. It's largely because of football

When Miami, Va. Tech, and BC left for the ACC, the Big East were pretty gutted football wise, so they reached out to Louisville, Cincinatti, and South Florida of Conference USA to shore up their football cred. They also invited DePaul and Marquette, in order to create a sixteen-team power conference in basketball.