I'll be shocked if the league holds together. A large conference made up of FB/BB and BB only schools is simply problematic in this current collegiate athletics climate. The NCAA requiring 12 FB programs to hold a conference championship and the BCS structure simply struck the Big East fuse that has been burning ever since.
Now I wouldn't be surprised to see the remnant BE FB programs that don't find a new home soon add a few D1 FB programs to get back to 8 or more. That's assuming they many of the remaining programs are not able to find a good home elsewhere. I don't know what the critical mass would be but if WVU, UL, UConn and RU all find new conferences soon, forget it! And even if they do build back up, it's just a matter of time before it gets raided again or loses it's BCS auto bid, and then what?
I wounder if the FB only schools are hoping to hang on to the FB schools for dear life. I still think a day will come when the BCS conference schools break off from the NCAA and form their own mega conference. So many of the ADs and some school presidents must be champing at the bit to kick that huge NCAA rule book and those who try to enforce it to the curb. If a new association were to form and the BE is no longer a BCS conference, it would destroy some of the elite BB only programs.
I'm saying this will happen anytime soon, or even ever, but it sure seems to be heading that way. If schools are willing to bail on conferences they've been a part of for decades to chase after the money, what's going to stop these mega conferences from deciding to take all of the pie and no longer share it the conferences in the outside looking in?
Face it, building up the BE is only putting a band-aid on a broken arm. I think those at Pitt and SU feared that the FB schools were not about to break away from the FB only ones and the league as it is currently constituted is simply not in position to add better FB programs. Yeah, they added TCU which is not in the East, but unless they split from the BB only schools how big could they BE grow? There simply aren't many mid to northeast FB powers that are there for the taking. SU and Pitt realized that there are simply few good options out there and once the ACC came knocking at their door, the decision was really not that hard to make. Imagine if UConn, ND & RU jumped first? Then that would leave one slot if at all for Pitt & SU.
Okay, I'm likely stating the obvious, but once SU & Pitt announced their departure it became every man for himself. We'll either see some token let's hold this together statements or none at all. If the ACC doesn't take them, then UConn could be in a whole heap of trouble. If it doesn't look like there's a home for us, and recruiting starts to suffer in both FB and BB, it could be a big time spiral downward. Add that to JC retiring within the next few years.
I'm not worried or panicked. I think in the end, we'll land in the ACC. If that door does shut on us, then I'll begin to worry.