The anticipated bomb of Big 12 was diffused in the course of 24 hours when Dan Beebe sold his soul to Texas in order to keep the band together. In that same 24 hours the Big East went from being in a relative position of strength, in good shape to add up to four of the Big 12 castoffs, to once again being the most vulnerable of the BCS conferences taking that mantle back after the Big 12 held it for all of about two weeks. So the Big East was proactive for a bit, going so far as to say that they are willing to listen to anyone who wanted to be included.
The problem now is that the schools with interest now are far less attractive than if the Big 12 had gone all Bikini Atoll on themselves. Instead of Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and maybe Missouri it is back to Central Florida, East Carolina and Memphis. That is regression in my book. The Big East does have a problem with perception in Football. The actual performance of the conference on the field probably places it either 3rd or 4th over the last 5 years, but the perception is that the Big East doesn't play football at a high level. If the league seeks to remedy that problem of perception adding one of those C-USA schools to the rotation isn't the obvious solution. One thing is clear though, the Big East needs to capitalize on it's new lease on life quickly and the only way to do that seems to be a Big East Network. The Big East is not in a good shape with its TV deals, which is pretty poor when you consider the TV markets this conference serves, and that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately the league offices will play it very safe to the determent of the conference as a whole, and its Football playing members in particular.