BYU Football: Big East Move Seems Likely and Would Bolster the Program

All indications point to Brigham Young moving to the Big East conference.

According to ESPN and the Associated Press, BYU moving to the Big East has become a high priority for the conference as it looks to expand to 12 teams in football.

Cougars coach Bronco Mendenhall recently stated that there was a push by the Big East to include BYU.

There are complications with the possible move, which revolve around television rights and revenue. BYU struck a deal last year with ESPN that runs through 2018, after it left the Mountain West to become an independent.

Should BYU move to the Big East, the school will likely have to fix its television deal. The new Big East schools stand to make a sizable profit by joining forces.

The conference is seeking a West Division, and plan on inviting Boise State. Since Provo and Boise are just 382 miles apart, BYU and Boise State would probably be each school's main conference rival. The Broncos have had great success in football over the years under Chris Peterson, and BYU has a solid football history.

With Pittsburgh and Syracuse leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference, and West Virginia moving to the Big 12, the current eight-program Big East is restructuring. Along with BYU and Boise State, the Big East's new football look would also include plans to add Air Force and Navy.

SMU, Houston and Central Florida could join for all sports. The five football programs that would be holdovers include Cincinnati, Rutgers, Louisville, UConn, and South Florida.

What's curious about BYU and Boise State perhaps moving to a new conference was how the two programs might have been better served moving to the Pac-12. Utah and Colorado started playing in the conference this season, and BYU would have been an obvious inclusion based on the school's extremely close proximity to Salt Lake City.

With all of the restructuring in college athletics, 16-team conferences seem inevitable, and the Pac-12 will likely add more programs one day, despite Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott's recent statement that the conference won't expand.

As for BYU's possible arrival in the new-look Big East, there is the promise of new rivalries. In terms of distance, BYU fans will likely welcome a rivalry with Boise State. The Broncos have made great strides in recent years to become a perennial BCS contender, and BYU being more closely linked to the Boise State program would be a boost to BYU's image.

More importantly, inclusion into a big-name conference will strengthen BYU's future chances of a BCS bid. The possibility of succeeding in the revamped Big East seems higher for BYU than if it was in the Pac-12 or the Big 12, based on the level of competition in those conferences.

It will also make BYU more of a prominent program on the national scene, which is something it probably lacks as an independent.