Big East Divisional Alignments Could Be Announced This Week

Via Dennis Dodd of CBS sports.

The divisions will be split geographically (East and West) for the soon-to-be far-flung conference according to senior associate commissioner Nick Carparelli. But because the "Big East West Division" sounds too confusing there will be other distinct names for the divisions. The announcement could come as soon as Wednesday.

The reconfigured Big East will operate as a 12-team league in 2013 and 2014. League presidents are expected to consider the issue Tuesday at a Big East meeting in Chicago.

The East/West split puts Cincinnati right in the middle, along with Louisville I suppose. The West division would almost certainly include all of the new schools; SMU, Houston, San Diego State, Boise State, Memphis and either UC or UofL. The East would obviously then include UConn, Rutgers, USF, Temple, newbie Central Florida and, again, either UC or UofL.

I don't have any read on which division would be "better" for Cincinnati in terms of competition. From a travel cost/logistics perspective the east division would be better. But that could negate some of the appeal for the conference going coast to coast, namely less recruiting exposure in Texas and California in a yearly basis. I am interested to find out how this shakes out later in the week.

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