Wish list for additional BE teams if anyone is raided

While we are in a holding pattern waiting to see if Buzz signs Dieng or Noreen, stays with the current roster, or signs someone else, Joe Paterno this weekend once again called for the Big 10 to move quicker to expand. If they do manage to get some combination of Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn and Notre Dame, the SEC is expected to raid the ACC and the dominoes will start falling.

It will be hard to stop either conference, since at a reported $22 million (Big 10) and $17 million (SEC after new CBS deal), either conference could probably go all the way to 16 teams if they want, and the Pac10 has a pretty free shot at Utah, Boise State and Colorado, and might even play for Texas schools. That would leave the Big 12, Big East and ACC weighing options.

I hope the Big East stays intact with the Big 10 just grabbing one Big East school and going west for the rest (they really don’t care about college football in New York), but if the conference is raided, the following is my first stab at a wish list of potential replacement teams.

My criteria is footprint (believe we need to be in Florida and the Northeast), if the basketball could realistically get up to the level of Big East play, and if the school has a football program that could help offset any football teams that left to maintain the BCS status. I have no idea which of these are realistic, so shoot holes in it, but here we go. I list current conference, basketball ranking among 347 schools and football ranking among 120 schools:

1 Boston College, currently in the ACC, ranked 62nd in basketball by Pomeroy, ranked 43rd in football by CBS – First on my wish list would be getting BC back. They can’t be happy traveling to empty ACC football title games instead of playing their northeast rivals.

2 Maryland ACC 11 106 - If Big 10 raids the Big East, it’s pretty clear the SEC will raid the ACC going after Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State, at which point we might have a shot at getting both BC and Maryland from a weakened ACC.

3 Temple A10 22 60 – Football is really improving, and certainly the basketball is always there if Nova doesn’t object to another Philly school.

4 Marshall CUSA 81 65 – same as Temple, good fit if WVa doesn’t mind.

5 Butler Horz 12 no football – Butler, Xavier and Dayton offer no football, but could help keep the Big East as the top hoops conference if we lose a few others.

6 Xavier A10 14 no football

7 Dayton A10 26 no football

8 Central Florida CUSA 167 61 – if the SEC grabs Florida State and even Miami, the theory is the ACC will push hard for South Florida. I believe Central Florida could excel in basketball as quickly as they have in football with the huge growth and funding behind all the Florida schools, which is why I list a couple of other state schools further down.

9 Ohio MAC 93 54 – maybe I’m overreacting to one upset win over Gtown, but with a football team that led Ohio State in the 4th quarter a couple of years ago, that might be a play.

10 Memphis CUSA 55 112 – starting to stretch the geography a little, but if we did start to look at 20 teams the hoops is obviously there and a BCS affiliation would help them keep some of the incredible local football talent.

11 Buffalo MAC 164 87 – they played UConn tough in hoops, and the football is just one year removed from a conference title.

12 Houston CUSA 89 39 – I know we are really stretching geography here and the Big 12 would probably grab them if the Pac10 and/or ACC raid them, but if we got Memphis we may want to recreate a division of our former CUSA foes.

13 Central Michigan MAC 193 20 – admittedly purely a football play.

14 Western Michigan MAC 143 93 – if we brought in Central Michigan, Western does have a little big of basketball history.

15 Florida Atlantic SB 208 95

16 Florida International SB 291 108

17 Bradley MVC 114 no football

18 St. Louis A10 94 no football

19 UAB CUSA 64 88

20 Navy Pat 288 25 – if another David Robinson were to ever show up, Navy’s resurgent football would be a nice fit, but I just can’t see them getting remotely respectable in basketball.

As I said, hopefully the Big East stays in place and the Big 10 grabs Rutgers, Nebraska and Missouri, but if not, this is my wish list for consideration.