Notre Dame has decided to take it's non-football programs from the Big East to the ACC. Notre Dame football is expect to remain independent. There is also a scheduling agreement between Notre Dame and the ACC for football. ND will play 5 games per season against ACC competition, presumably later in the season. What we do not know right now is when this is expected to begin, but the earliest this could happen without penalty is 2015.
What we also do not know, but expect, is how this will affect the Big East. Notre Dame was the keystone holding the Big East together. There are 7 other non-football members of the Big East and some experts are expecting them to bolt from the Big East and form their own WCC-like conference. These members are St. Johns, Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul, Marquette, Georgetown, and Villanova. They may also invite some other non-football (or lower-level football) religious schools to join them, such as Creighton. That should be a good basketball conference.
The football members of the Big East should remain tenuously together, until someone bolts for a bigger conference. Louisville and Cincinnati are courting the Big 12, while Rutgers and Connecticut are hoping the ACC becomes a 16-member conference or needs to replace someone like Virginia Tech.
For those of you needing to update your playbill, here are the remaining full-time members of the Big East: Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, UConn, South Florida with Central Florida, SMU, Houston and Memphis joining next season. Boise State, San Diego State and Navy will be joining as football-only members. Boise State and San Diego State will have their non-football programs in the Big West Conference while Navy expects to keep their non-football programs in the Patriot League.
The football Big East is currently courting Air Force and BYU.
In other realignment speculation: many are expecting that the WAC and the Great West Conference are going to merge. The Great West currently does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. This would be a win/win situation. The new alignment of the WAC would be: Denver, Idaho, Seattle, New Mexico State, Utah Valley, Texas Pan-American, Chicago State, Houston Baptist and New Jersey Tech. The WAC may also extend an invitation to CS-Bakersfield or Longwood. Without New Jersey Tech, this would be a good solution to the WAC problem. Otherwise, it may be the only solution left.
Note: forgot that Temple is in the Big East as well.
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