Jon Wilner with the Mercury News did some digging into college football realignment today. The result doesn't sound good for the Big East conference, but could be pleasing to UConn fans who feared that their team would be left behind in a weak Big East during conference realignment.
Wilner cautioned via a tweet on the results that what he had was the "Word on the street (plz take it for what it is)."
BYU's entrance into the Big East appears to be an an impasse. Football officials were interested in the Big East but the school's officials were not. Part of the problem lies with the current TV contract the Cougars have with ESPN. If BYU joins the Big East in football, the Comcast problem about rebroadcast rights they tried to avoid by leaving the Mountain West crops up again. Mountain West Connection had a good take on the Comcast issue as the reason BYU left the Mountain West. As BYU going to the Big East doesn't seem likely to happen at all now, Boise State is hesitant about their move to the Big East as well. The other issue is the potential elimination of AQ status for the conferences in the BCS. Without that AQ status, Wilner's sources say there's no good reason for Boise State to make the jump to the Big East in football.
The door would then, reportedly, be open for UConn to jump to the ACC in another round of expansion when the conference goes to 16 teams. Rutgers would be the other team to go to the ACC with UConn. Both schools have made their intentions to leave the Big East known in the past. The Big East would then cease to exist as a football entity. At this point, Wilner's reporting should be considered more rumor than anything else. There's been plenty of attempts to kill off the Big East as a football conference with rumors over the years, though none as of yet have been successful.
For more UConn coverage see our team page or The UConn Blog. For more on the Big East see Big East Coast Bias.