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What’s in a Name?: New name ideas for old Big East

With the seven Catholic schools leaving and taking the name “Big East” with them, the no name conference, that will add Houston, Tulane, East Carolina, SMU, Memphis, and UCF for the 2013 season, is in desperate need of a new name.

Perhaps the most confusing thing about all of this conference realignment is what to name these new conferences. The Big 12 has 10 teams, the Big 10 has 12 teams, and the SEC has teams outside of the Southeastern region of the United States. It can be confusing, but if you change the Big 12 to the Big 10 and the Big 10 to the Big 12 life will make sense.

Luckily for the remaining teams in the old Big East, there are some solid options for the new name of the Big East. Here are a few conference name suggestions for the remaining non-Catholic schools in the old Big East:

Conference Formerly Known as the Big East
Think of that picture like the symbol that the artist formerly known as “Prince” uses. Any symbol will work, a dollar sign with a huge slash to symbolize the lack of money the teams formerly in the Big East will make compared to the BCS conference schools, or a frowny face which will show how sad the schools are for not being invited to the Catholic 7′s new “Big East”. Think about it, how many conferences are recognized by just a symbol? None, so being able to add a unique twist to the conference name might actually help make up for some of the revenue that is going to be lost. Just pick a symbol, throw in “the conference formerly known as the Big East”, and let the merchandising of the conference begin.

Conference USA 2.0
Makes sense to me. After all, the Big East certainly likes snatching teams from C-USA. When they first expanded in 2005, the Big East took C-USA football members Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida. This time they take Houston, SMU, Tulane, Memphis, Central Florida, and East Carolina of C-USA. With the departure of Louisville to the ACC, this makes eight of the 12 schools (Navy is not scheduled to join until 2015) former members of C-USA.

Please Take Me Next Atlantic Coast Conference Conference
The PTMNACCC is a mouthful, but when you take into account that the ACC pillages the Big East much like the Big East pillages C-USA you can understand the name. With Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Syracuse leaving to go along with Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College from 2005, the Big East is looking like a minor league farm system for the ACC.

Metro Conference
This was the conference Memphis, Cincy, and Tulane belonged to before it folded resulting in the formation of C-USA. Since C-USA and Big East are now taken, and nobody has the name Metro Conference, it also makes sense. Most of the universities in the old Big East are in major metropolitan areas so the name works from that angle as well.

Catholic 7
Since St. John’s, Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, DePaul, Villanova and Georgetown are taking the Big East name with them, why can’t the old Big East teams take the name those schools have been known by the past few months. Stealing the name of the seven schools that crippled an already struggling conference, seems like the right thing to do to spite them.

CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. If you think you have a better name for the new look Big East tweet him @churtj09 #newBigEast for his and your amusement. He also live tweets from different college football games throughout the Mid-South.

Memphis and Ole Miss are bitter rivals with a lot in common right now. Both are coming of two football seasons which fans want to forget with athletic directors that are stepping down in the next year. With all of these similarities between the two struggling programs the question becomes what is the better situation for an incoming coach?

Let’s start with Ole Miss, which because of unrealistic expectations and a tough division makes it easily the worst available job in all of college football. The fans are so delusional that they do not realize the best they can hope for is third or fourth place in the SEC West and maybe a bowl appearance. Every year they expect their Rebels to win the western half of the SEC, and when they do not it is time to fire the coach. So why would a coach place himself under that type of scrutiny when history suggests he will not be successful? The next head coach at Ole Miss is destined for failure, and if you do not believe me, just take a look at the Rebel’s history since the SEC split into two divisions in 1992.

Since SEC football expanded in ’92 there have been 19 seasons, with each season concluding in an SEC championship game. Ole Miss has played in none of those games. That means that Ole Miss has never won the outright SEC West title (but they do have a SEC West co-championship in 2003). In fact, the last time Ole Miss won the SEC title was nearly five decades ago in 1963. Also, the Rebels have finished in the top three of the SEC West just six times since ‘92, while finishing in last place four times with two winless years in conference (they have more seasons with no wins in conference than they do SEC West championships!). During this time span Ole Miss has only seven seasons with a conference record of .500 or better, and four of those seasons are 4-4. So the Rebels have only three seasons with five or more wins in conference, but fans expect Ole Miss to compete for SEC West championships.

As long as LSU, Auburn, and Alabama are in the SEC West the Rebels will never have a realistic shot at winning the division. With Arkansas on the rise, the addition of Texas A&M to the SEC West, and the addition of Missouri to the conference, the future of Rebel football is beginning to look bleak.

On the other hand, Memphis football is so bad that the Tigers probably couldn’t win the OVC right now, making it easily the second worst available coaching job in all of college football. Three pitiful years (one under West and the other two under Porter), combined with a leadership group that cannot run a football press conference correctly let alone a football program, and a frustrated fan base have severely crippled any incoming coach’s chances to be successful.

However, there are no national powerhouses in C-USA, whereas the SEC West alone has three. In fact, all the good teams in C-USA are leaving for AQ conferences, which should serve as an encouraging sign for Tiger fans who want wins. One would think that with Houston, UCF, and SMU leaving the Tigers will be able to win more games in conference. Alas, remember when Louisville, Cincinnati, and USF left before the 2005 season, the Tigers were supposed to dominate, but sadly they have not.

Memphis has a conference record of 18-38 in the seven seasons since C-USA split into two divisions. The Tigers have never won a C-USA championship in the leagues 15 year history, and are routinely the worst team in the conference. At least the fans know the program is bad and they only want a few wins every year, not a conference title.

The Tigers are so desperate for wins that if the next coach can average four or five wins over the next three seasons he might earn himself a contract extension. Conversely, if the Rebel’s next coach averages four or five wins over the next three seasons he will be fired. Just ask Houston Nutt who averaged six wins in his four year tenure.

Really this argument all comes down to whether you want to be a bad team in a mediocre conference (Memphis) or a bad team in a good conference (Ole Miss). However, Ole Miss is a job that pays much more than Memphis. And since both programs’ next coach will be gone by 2015, it might be best to take the millions of dollars Ole Miss is willing to pay and make off like bandit.

Click here to read 5 Reasons Why Memphis Should and Should Not Hire Houston Nutt.

Click here to read Who should replace Houston Nutt at Ole Miss?

Click here to read The end of an era in University of Memphis athletics.

Click here to read All Shook Up: R.C. Johnson in his own words.

Click here to read Fantasy Shirley: A Real Interview with a Fake University President.

CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09 for live tweets from different college football games throughout the Mid-South.