Sponsorship Link
The Big East is in desperate times and now needs to make a desperate move: it needs to extend an invite to Boise State.
The Big East wants to expand its current batch of six football playing schools to 12 and is considering a hodgepodge of schools throughout the country. Central Florida is expected to be the first school to get an invite into the Big East, according to reports, while the service academies of Air Force and Navy could also join in the near future.
/
But it's Boise State -- not UCF and all the other rumored expansion targets -- that can actually help the Big East keep its BCS automatic qualifier status, which is all that really matters.
There's been some speculation that Boise State could get an invite -- football school athletic directors are certainly pushing for it -- but most still put the Broncos as a longshot to join the Big East.
Why?
Follow us
Must Read
Distance is one factor. Boise State, on average, is more than 2000 miles away from the current Big East member schools.
The Mountain West school is also currently dealing with NCAA violations for improper football recruiting.
But none of that should really matter.
Is Boise State extremely far away from the rest of the Big East?
Sure it is. But so is Texas Christian -- which was set to join the Big East in 2012-- and so is Air Force.
But the difference between Boise State and Air Force -- besides about 700 additional miles in travel -- is that Boise State is actually good at football.
The Broncos have gone and won two BCS games in the last five years, including a memorable overtime victory over Oklahoma in 2006, and are poised to make another BCS bowl game this season. Boise State is currently No. 5 in the polls, has an incredibly strong, young coach in Chris Peterson, and has emerged as a clear media darling over the past few years.
Boise State is actually good at football and although the Big East might have tried to ignore the notion as much as possible, football is what drives the money train.
The wild scrambling of schools from conference to conference has been driven on making more money through football. The conferences with the best brands of football -- the Big 10, Pac-12, and SEC -- earn the most money from television contracts.
