DOUBLE CONFERENCE CHAOS! WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR USF?

The Bulls' 70-17 bulldozing of A&M last night came at a time that some USF fans could have used some kind of good football news. Earlier that day it had become apparent that Syracuse and Pittsburgh had been silent all this time and just submitted applications to join the ACC. Weeks of speculation about the Big XII conference members in trouble had sort of distracted the media from the fact that the Big East was still an unstable mess. Mentions of West Virginia to the SEC being the next domino to fall started talks among Big East fans about what would happen to them if the conference rifted. At the beginning of the month, some may recall, I drew up what a collection of four 16-team superconferences could look like. I didn't want to be right, but it's looking more and more like a possibility, and USF is one of those teams in limbo that doesn't have a definite home. I imagine the conversation between Doug Woolard and Judy Genshaft looked something like this:

So where exactly does this leave us?The Big XII has 9 teams, with three or four additionally thinking about moving out. The Big East has 7 teams now, which is pathetic for a conference that has BCS membership. They may have even less by the time I publish this. The ACC is sort of stable at 14 teams, but they're probably looking to even out their divisions. The SEC is even more unstable at 13, meaning they'll likely be knocking on some doors as well. The Big Ten (now 12 teams) and Pac-12 would both be behind the pack if the rest of the conferences in the East started expanding.

I'll be honest. As of yesterday, it looked pretty chaotic for the Bulls. But, it might just work out for us. As of right now, it's obvious that there is no solidarity in this conference and USF has no allegiance to any one team here. Luckily for USF, we have no true rival. All this time we've spent getting bent our of shape over not having someone to play every Thanksgiving weekend has finally given us a great, no-strings-attached reason to not care about anybody else. It's time to start looking out for ourselves instead of doing what we can to hold together a conference that had no chance of staying alive. I'll break it down here for the USF fans that need their worries quelled.

What We Know

• USF is a top-20 football team in a top-15 television market. The addition of USF to any conference would definitely bring money in television deals.
• The ACC appears to be looking to increase their basketball profile. This doesn't fare well for the Bulls, as everyone knows our basketball team is awful. The ACC may want to balance out their football, however, meaning the addition of USF or West Virginia could be in the cards.
• Before yesterday, no one knew a thing about Pitt's and Syracuse's intent to depart. Nobody has been quite as loud as Texas A&M, and those other schools likely took note of the way that's been going. This might mean that, who knows, maybe AD Doug Woolard has also been working on making a jump.
• 16 is more than likely the limit. Before all this mess happened, I didn't think conferences would desire more than 12 teams. But now, with two 8-team divisions, a football conference championship is so easy to determine.

What We Don't Know

• What's happening with the rest of the Big East and the ACC? It was widely speculated that West Virginia, Florida State, Clemson, and Virginia Tech were all mentioned in moving from their respective conferences to the SEC. Those teams' departures would mean two things for the ACC: One, there would be open spots for some other former Big East teams to come along, meaning there would be less concern for the teams floating around without purpose at the moment. Two, the loss of FSU, Clemson, and/or VT means a severe drop in the quality of football teams in the ACC, once again leaving USF in what would be the laughingstock of college football's BCS conferences.
• Will the other conferences that have been recently plucked try to rebuild? With the Big XII at 9 teams and the Big East now at 7, there leaves the dreadful thought that those conferences could get desperate and start inviting scrub teams just to stay alive. The Big XII would likely be looking in the direction of Houston and Tulsa, while who knows where the Big East would look. This would definitely not be something USF would want to be a part of, having built up themselves to be a nationally respected football team.

As USF fans, we can be fairly confident of two things that will happen by the end of this season: One, we will probably be a part of a BCS conference, and two, it probably won't be the Big East. The SEC seems unlikely at this time for several reasons. I love USF, but we haven't built ourselves up enough to compete on that level in our short history. Also, while geographically relevant, USF fans are definitely not a fit for the SEC. Regardless of all that, I really believe that the Bulls will be OK in the conference shuffle, but I would definitely like some reassurance soon, just to calm our nerves.