Marquette & Big 11 Expansion

No, Marquette will not be joining the Big 11 but now that we've moved past Tournament expansion, we should revisit the likely expansion of the Pac-10 and Big 11 and how this will directly affect Marquette.

Though the Big 11 has publicly stated expansion is just being evaluated, it's more likely a matter of time before you see expansion and likely the creation of the first real super conference - a 16 team football AND basketball conference. We can guess at the schools but it'll hardly matter. Current rumblings have conference officials trying to push current members to stop scheduling non-conference games against Notre Dame to force its hand and basically strong arm them into joining.

It's possible the Pac-10 moves first and expands to 12 teams. Though BYU seems a natural fit, member school presidents don't like the idea of adding an academically inferior school which BYU falls under. Utah seems certain with a strong possibility of pursuing Colorado.

What does this mean? Well, the ACC & SEC would more than likely react by expanding themselves cherry picking the Big East leftovers and with the SEC pushing hard to bring Oklahoma and Texas in the fold - which would in turn bring Oklahoma State and Texas A&M with them. The Pac-10 would expand again and the Big 12, WAC & Mountain West desirable leftovers would create a 5th Super Conference.

But what about Marquette? The Big East because of its non-football schools would see Notre Dame (Big 11), UConn (ACC), Syracuse (ACC), Rutgers(Big 11), Louisville(Big 12?), Cincinnati(Big 12?), South Florida(?), Pittsburgh(Big 11) & West Virginia(ACC) leave. The non-football schools could theoretically stay in the Big East but it would be more likely that if a Big East were to survive, it would have little choice but to try and keep Louisville, Cincinnati & South Florida and expand with schools such as Memphis and the non-affiliated BCS Florida schools (UCF, etc.).

It's possible the Big East does that and keeps Seton Hall, Villanova, Marquette, DePaul, Providence, St. John's & Georgetown for basketball. The question will be does Louisville, Cincinnati & South Florida want to play in what will be considered a non-BCS conference? In all likelihood, no. To keep them would likely lead to some very interesting decisions in regards to the non-football members.

I firmly believe we will see 5 power conferences within the next two years being formed and Marquette scrambling to find a new home, possibly a basketball only conference including old guard Big East schools. If you're a Marquette fan, you should pay attention to how all of this plays out.