Food for Thought: SMU to the Big East?

Well, it seems that Southern Pigskin is discussing WVU-Pitt to the ACC (personally, I just make a loud fart noise at that notion)… I was wondering, “Why the hell not stay in the Big East and let more teams in?”

Several friends have brought this up, and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to bring this out in the open.

SMU (Southern Methodist University) to the Big East. Bear with me, folks.

With TCU coming in to the Big East in the 2012 season, that brings the football conference to 9 teams. And, for a long time now, people have been deliberating who to bring in for Team #10, as well as teams 11 and 12.

People have said, “Bring Houston in! They’d be a natural rival for TCU.” True, with both teams being in Texas. The distance from Fort Worth, TX (TCU) to Houston is just slightly over 260 miles.

Now, we all know the history of SMU’s dominance in the mid-70s through the mid-80s (they even beat Pitt at one point!) We also know of the infamous Death Penalty they received from the NCAA… that death penalty nearly bankrupted SMU. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, find a way to watch the ESPN 30-for-3o documentary that talks about this scandal: Pony Exce$$. Awesome documentary.

However, when June Jones was hired at SMU away from Hawaii, he has turned around the fortunes of the SMU Mustangs (despite going 1-11 in their first season.) Jones took the Mustangs to their first bowl in 25 years with a trip to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl (very familiar territory for Jones) and they defeated the Nevada Wolfpack 45-10. This past season, SMU was in the Conference USA Championship game and lost to UCF 17-7, but still went to a bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, where they lost to Army.

But… a rivalry between TCU and SMU? It’s already existent… anyone heard of the “Battle for the Iron Skillet?” It should be a natural rivalry. Fort Worth and Dallas, TX is a mere 40 miles apart… closer to each other than Morgantown and Pittsburgh are.

TCU leads this rivalry by a score of 44-39-7. And, even though both schools are not in the same conference (with SMU in C-USA and TCU being in the Big East next season), they are going to play against each other.

I say bring SMU into the Big East… to give TCU a REAL Natural Rival, along with the Iron Skillet. This will get a lot of the boosters and alumni who would like to see SMU dominance again behind the team because the team is in a BCS conference, as well as open up their checkbooks! And, yes, bring on Houston, too.

Thoughts?