Bigger East? New Commish Talking Bowls, Expansion

The New York Post is reporting that Big East officials are considering a couple of proposals that could help tip the balance of power in the college football world back in the conference's favor.  The first is a potential New York City bowl game played in either Yankee Stadium or the New York Giants football stadium and would match a Big East team against a team from the Big 10.  The second---get ready for this bombshell---is the potential targeting of Boston College and Maryland for conference membership (or remembership?). 

Let's tackle these proposals one at a time because frankly, the magnitude of all this is too much for me to handle while I'm hungover at 1:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. 

Obviously, the bowl game would be the more likely of the two to come to fruition.  There has been talk of this floating around for awhile now, especially in connection with the construction of the new NFL stadium.  Now, with Yankee Stadium already hosting regular season games, that gives bowl advocates some more ammo if they want to get the ball rolling.  If they can play bowl games in Toronto, Detroit, and Boise, they can play one in New York City.  Who knows whether the game would be another New Years Day fiesta (NYE in Times Square followed---with no sleep and the Crystal still flowing, mind you---by WVU-Penn State at noon with about 4 inches of snow on the ground?  Let me think, umm...YES!), but even if it's not, it would still be an easy trip for most fans and a good matchup against a relatively weak BCS opponent.  It's a no-lose situation.  And honestly, references to the 2007 USF debacle after DickRod declared that WVU "is like the Yankees" aside, I'd rather play this thing in the Bronx, poor seating angles be damned.  There's just something about football in a baseball stadium (not one of those hybrid deals like old Three Rivers, but a baseball-specific stadium like Notre Dame used to play away games in back in the 1930's) that gets my heart going.  There's no telling how close this deal is to getting done, but if John Marinatto needs some help at the negotiating table, he knows how to reach me.

Now for the BC and/or Maryland proposal.  Hahahahahahahaha.  No, really.  Why either one of these schools would ever leave their nice home with a warm bed in the ACC to join or rejoin the Big East is beyond me.  Despite the conference's recent struggles, they are making more money and getting far more TV exposure in the ACC than they ever could in the BE.  And what about the basketball schools?  "Hey DePaul, thanks for letting our old guard pad their tournament resume's against you for a few years, but we think the conference needs to make a more concerted effort to constrain itself to one time zone.  Have fun in the Horizon league."  Yes, we would all love to see BC, Maryland, Penn State and Notre Dame join the BE for all sports, but we would also all love to see Megan Fox lying in our bed in nothing but a Noel Devine jersey when we get home from work.  Neither is going to happen any time soon.  That being said, if either happened, I would definitely have to change my pants.

Apparently, the conference has had so much success recently on all fronts that new commish Marinatto thinks we're dealing from a position of strength now.  Dream big, John, dream big.  Aim for the moon and if you miss you'll land with a loud thud among the non-BCS conferences. 

[Photo via riveraveblues.com]