Merger with Big East a super-duper idea

Try this one on for size: The Big 28 Conference.

Or better yet: The Big 32.

The commissioners from the Mountain West and Conference USA are in New York and scheduled to meet today with Big East Conference commissioner John Marinatto to present him with this proposal: Come. Join us. Make our Super Conference a Super-Duper one.

Big East officials denied such a meeting on Tuesday (of course they did) and reports suggested Marinatto would instead make like the Lone Ranger and try to save his sinking league, apparently by poaching teams from others.

The crazy part: This whole Mountain West/Conference USA/Big East idea isn't all that crazy.

It is the next step Craig Thompson from the Mountain West and Britton Banowsky of Conference USA feel is necessary to better position their leagues for automatic inclusion into the Bowl Championship Series or whatever postseason/playoff scenario exists in college football a few years from now.

Connecting the dots: Missouri is bound for the Southeastern Conference and will be replaced in the Big 12 by West Virginia from the Big East, leaving a suddenly desperate conference with just five football members.

If the Big 12 decides to expand to 12, it could also take Louisville, meaning the Big East is in a bad way here, no matter how you spin the conference expansion dial.

You need eight football members to retain an automatic BCS bid. The Big East won't be close if Thompson and Banowsky can keep their teams home.

It's the reason Big East officials have had their eyes on the likes of Boise State and Air Force from the Mountain West as possible new members, but why would the Broncos agree to pay an exit fee that could top $21 million and the Falcons one of nearly $10 million to join an incredibly unstable conference?

Yes. You read those figures correctly.

It seems leaving the Mountain West these days is paramount to purchasing waterfront property in Monte Carlo.

The Mountain West-Conference USA union for football only would mean 22 teams if no current members from either bolted for other leagues.

Now, you could add five from the Big East and one from another conference to make 28. There are even plans to grow the proposed league to 32 teams.

Super.

Duper.

"Is it fool-proof? No," UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood said. "But the last thing we should be doing now is sitting back and seeing what might happen next. This is a time to be aggressive. The (Mountain West-Conference USA) merger gives us a fighting chance, and (adding the Big East), if it means automatic BCS qualification, is a no-brainer.

"These are the most unusual times I have ever seen. We have to stop it. Every day, from a.m. to p.m., you're wondering who's in and who's out. You're looking around every corner. Teams are being poached or putting feelers out to other leagues. Call me nuts -- and more than one person has -- but I believe we could pull this off with the Big East and come out of it very well."

And, even better for those who have always known the many warts of The Mtn., likely with a new television deal.

Look. I'm not going to pretend four divisions of seven teams each and enough time zones to fill a short novel is the most ideal scenario on its face. At first glance, it makes the old 16-team Western Athletic Conference resemble more of a United Football League division. It's this short of Pod Hell.

But even a depleted Big East would come with a level of clout those in the Mountain West and Conference USA lack, and when you peek across how many states this union would include, you discover several with the sort of sizable markets that television executives drool over.

Secondly, while no one knows what the BCS will resemble or if it will even exist in a few years, it's difficult to imagine any postseason tournament not including the monster that the Big East/Mountain West/Conference USA trio would represent.

If the merger with Conference USA was the best Mountain West teams could hope for last week, then taking on the Big East only enhances the possibility of automatic inclusion today.

The issue here will be whether the Big East's overall ego -- and there is a massive one in play here -- will ultimately decide trying to poach from others is a better solution than joining forces with two non-automatic qualifying leagues.

My thinking is the Big East will do everything in its power to remain solo, which means Thompson needs to quickly remind Marinatto of those Mountain West exit fees.

"The Big East is not going to have the (football) numbers it needs to remain an automatic qualifier," Livengood said. "If nothing else, this sort of (merger) would slow down or absolutely stop all this poaching of teams.

"The worst thing we can do right now is wait and end up as the status quo. We need to act."

The Big 28.

The Big 32.

The upside: Potentially limitless.

The downside: They could kill entire forests putting out the weekly football notes.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.