Time to divide up the Big East basketball conference

In 2012, when the Big East formally adds Texas Christian University to the fold, they will have 17 teams in their basketball league. Of the original 9 schools, 8 of them are still in the conference - Providence, UConn, St. John's, Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Seton Hall, and Pittsburgh. Boston College, the other original Big East member, left for the ACC several years ago.

Of the 17 teams in the 2012 Big East Conference, all of the remaining 8 original members are east of the 80th degree longitude. West Virginia University and Rutgers are the only other members that are east of the 80th degree (Rutgers is in New Jersey, and WVU is at 79' 57"). Every other member is well west of that line.

Look at where the other Big "East" schools are:

Cincinnati, Ohio

Louisville, Kentucky

South Bend, Indiana (Notre Dame)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Marquette)

Chicago, Illinois (DePaul)

Tampa, Florida (University of South Florida)

Fort Worth, Texas (TCU)

Hold onto the geography for a moment and consider the sheer size of the conference, at least for basketball. 17 schools. It is enormous. It is unwieldy. I think it's time to divide up the Big East Conference in a way that makes sense. Here is my proposal.

I think they should have two divisions (they used to do this years ago when they expanded). In the first division, have all the remaining eight original members, and in the other, have all the "new" teams (though many have been in the conference for a while now). So:

2012 Big East Conference

Eastern Division

UConn

Providence

Syracuse

St. John's

Villanova

Pittsburgh

Georgetown

Seton Hall

Western Division

West Virginia

Marquette

Cincinnati

South Florida

Louisville

DePaul

TCU

Rutgers

Notre Dame

Rutgers is east of Villanova, Georgetown, and Pitt, but that's ok. The east/west thing never works out perfectly (the Dallas Cowboys (96' 48") are in the NFC East while the St. Louis Rams (90' 11") - who are located some 700 miles east of Dallas - are in the NFC West), but this is close enough for our purposes.

These divisions rekindle the oldest rivalries in the conference, but keeps the new teams very much in the fold. As of this moment, here are the rankings of these teams:

Eastern Division

UConn - #13

Providence

Syracuse - #17

St. John's - #31

Villanova - #15

Pittsburgh - #4

Georgetown - #9

Seton Hall

Western Division

West Virginia - #26

Marquette - #35

Cincinnati

South Florida

Louisville - #16

DePaul

TCU

Rutgers

Notre Dame - #8

As of now, the Eastern Division would be more "stacked", but the Western Division alone would make for a very competitive major conference, with two teams in the top 16, and two more just out of the top 25 (Cincinnati at 21-6 is very much in play for the NCAA tourney as well). The Western Division alone could have 5 teams in the NCAA Tournament.

Dividing up the conference would help rekindle, create, or enhance rivalries and would make a lot of sense geographically. It's time to re-align the Big East Basketball Conference for when TCU arrives in 2012.