The Big East, while mainly known as a basketball powerhouse, had a span of being one of the top football conferences in the country. The Big East sponsored football starting in 1991 through the 2012 football season and had an automatic qualifier in the BCS from its inception in 1998 until the conference’s final football season in 2012.
Big East football fell victim to the 2013 conference realignment when West Virginia left for the Big 12, Pittsburgh and Syracuse left for the ACC, with Louisville leaving as well the following year. This resulted in the non-football schools breaking away from the rest of conference and taking the Big East name with them. While it is not possible to use the Big East name in College Football 25, here is how I would get all the former football members back together.
The Base Members
From 2005 to 2012, Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, South Florida, and West Virginia made up the Big East for Football and are who I think of when I think of the conference in football, so I added all of them to Conference USA. But as mentioned in my PAC-12 rebuild article, despite eight members being the minimum needed for a conference champion to be recognized by the NCAA, 10-12 members is a better option to make your conference stronger, so I have a couple of options on who to add to get to those numbers.
The American Athletic Conference Option
It was rumored that Memphis, Tulane, and UTSA were targeted for PAC-12 expansion along with USF. Now that the Bulls are in the Big East, those three schools could potentially follow them to the Big East. To make the conference at an even twelve teams, I also brought Temple over from the American. The Owls were a Big East football member from 1991-2004, as well as in the final Big East football season in 2012. This would be a good option if you did not want to make the Big East the 5th power league, but realistically, I am not sure schools like Rutgers and West Virginia would leave their stable power leagues for this version of the Big East.
The ACC Option
If you want to make the Big East a power conference once again, adding Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech is a good start. These three schools were members of Big East football from its beginning in 1991 through 2003 when they left for the ACC the following year. UCF or SMU would be a good addition for the 12th team since they are both now in power conferences as well. I chose UCF due to their rivalry with USF and moved SMU to the Big 12 to replace the Knights moving to the Big East.
The Super Conference Option
This option adds schools that would make the Big East rival the Big Ten and SEC, as well as give you a chance to rewrite history. Penn State was in discussion to join the Big East in 1982 but was rejected membership by one vote. Many people think that if Penn State was granted membership to the Big East, it could have potentially stopped the split of basketball and football schools that happened 30 years later.
Notre Dame joined the Big East in 1995 but remained a football independent. Since only conference champions can earn a bye in the current College Football Playoff, while unlikely, maybe that is what finally gets Notre Dame to join a conference. Clemson and Florida State are currently unhappy with their current standing in the ACC, so with six other ACC schools leaving to join this new Big East, Clemson and Florida State would probably look to go with them.
Where to Put the Current Conference USA Teams
College Football 25 currently does not allow you to add an extra conference; one current conference had to be disbanded to add back the Big East. While the PAC-12 might have been an easier option with only two teams in it currently, having an East Coast conference with Pacific Coast branding did not make sense to me. Conference USA used to be home to Cincinnati, Louisville, and USF. But with many of their schools leaving for power conferences, they have had to backfill with teams transitioning from FCS to FBS, and teams left without a home when the WAC disbanded, significantly reducing the talent level in the conference, and making them an easy option to disband and move members to other Group of 5 conferences. Here is where I would put each team:
FIU and Liberty: American Athletic or Sun Belt
Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State: Sun Belt
Louisiana Tech and Sam Houston State: Mountain West or Sun Belt
Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky: Sun Belt or MAC
New Mexico State and UTEP: Mountain West