(This article first appeared on WVUPressBox.com on December 15th, 2009. With all the recent talk of conference shake-ups, we’re digging it out of the archives for a revisit.)

If you’re an avid reader of the site, then you’ve probably already seen the news story stating that the Big Ten Conference is looking to expand to twelve teams. Never mind what that sentence implies about the math skills of the universities in the Big Ten…

This isn’t really news, of course. Everyone knows that the Big Ten has been considering a new team for a while now; it’s just that now the idea seems to be gaining momentum.

As is often the case, a few Big East teams are being mentioned. I won’t type the entire article, since you can read it for yourself.

But the question to ponder is this – what happens if the Big Ten lures a team away from our beloved Big East?
Already sitting towards the bottom of the pile in terms of respect and reputation (even though stats and bowl performance show that we’re in the upper half of the BCS conference pile), the Big East can’t really afford to take any more hits. Especially since the BCS automatic-bid situation will be revisited in the near future.

So, what happens if Rutgers or Syracuse or Pitt make the jump to the Big Ten? Who will the Big East pick to replace them? What does this mean for the automatic BCS bid? Would the Big East simply dissolve as a football conference?

Fear not, my friends. I have a solution. However, it would take some radical thinking and, let’s be honest, “thinking” doesn’t seem to be the forte of the Big East leadership.

Let’s assume a worst case scenario. Rutgers or Syracuse switch to the Big Ten, Notre Dame can’t be cajoled into joining the Big East conference for football and all signs point to the conference losing its automatic BCS bid.

Why not scrap the conference altogether (for football only, of course)? Seriously…

Why not create a new football conference?

Kevin’s comment about picking up TCU or Boise St. got me thinking. Why is there such a need for the teams within a conference to be adjacent to each other? If you’re already packing everything up, heading to the airport and taking off, is it really that much more expensive or inconvenient to fly four hours instead of two?

My proposal: The Mountain Conference, with an Eastern (Appalachian Mountain) division and a Western (Rocky Mountain) division. Here’s how it would work…

The Eastern Division would simply be the now defunct football Big East, minus the departing school. So, there’d be seven teams. The Western Division would simply be the Mountain West conference, minus two of their bottom dwellers (Colorado State and New Mexico?).

Each team plays every team in their division, plus one or two from the opposite division. At the end of the season, there’s a conference championship held at a neutral site in the middle of the country.

The teams from the Big East get to keep their BCS bid. The teams from the Mountain West gain an automatic BCS bid. The goobers that run the BCS are happy because there’s less crying about mid-major teams not getting a fair shot at a BCS game.

Some people might say that the fanbase can’t travel a thousand miles for a regular season game. So? Have you seen how many fans from the opposing teams show up in Morgantown for games? Not very many. And, who’s to say that there isn’t a loyal WVU contingent residing in Forth Worth or Colorado Springs or Provo… just dying to watch a WVU game in person?

The TV and radio contracts stay intact, just as they were when the two conferences were separate. All that would be required would be adding a few things for the inter-divisional games and working something out for the championship game.

For basketball and all other sports, the teams simply revert back to their original conferences. (Let’s face it, the Big East leadership only thinks about basketball anyways.)

Am I missing anything here? Sure, we wouldn’t gain any real powerhouses (although let’s not forget that TCU is playing in a BCS game and BYU went 10-2), but if it means we hang onto our BCS bid, is it worth it?

What’s that? USF isn’t in the Appalachians? Yeah, well, the Big Ten doesn’t have ten teams in it, either.

(Note: I don’t actually expect this to happen… I know it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, but it’s fun to discuss, at least.)

Got a better idea? Something other than “hope for the best”? Prove it.