CHRIS DUFRESNE / ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL

East is West and up is down in college conference realignments

You need a score card to chart the moves football teams are making across conference lines. But there's a reason for the school scramble. (Hint: It's green.)

By Chris Dufresne

December 21, 2012, 6:00 a.m.

Tired of tracking the conference whereabouts of your favorite school?

Well, take a number and get in realignment line.

Even the people paid to cover the sport have trouble keeping up.

INTERACTIVE: Conference Realignment chart

The turning point for "yours discombobulated truly" was the announcement that Temple would be joining San Diego State in the West Division of the Big East.

Temple is in Philadelphia.

"OK, Mr. BCS bus driver, this is where I get off."

Take last Saturday … please.

On the day Utah State won the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl as part of the Western Athletic Conference, staging its last season after being plundered out of the football business, Big East basketball filed divorce papers against Big East football.

Basketball will probably keep "Big East" as part of the settlement as the cobbled-together football wing tries to go it alone.

The 13-school football configuration sounds more like a road trip on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

—Memphis (barbecue)

—Cincinnati (chili spaghetti)

—Tulane (jambalaya)

—San Diego State (fish tacos)

—Temple (cheese steak).

It's hard to imagine why the seven Catholic basketball schools would not want to partner up for some of these Lewis and Clark excursions.

Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco, in a statement, insisted the football schools are "working together to forge a future."

It could be a long, cold winter in Valley Forge.

We've even provided a color-coded map to keep up with all these conference swaps.

Comments (5)

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Ashley MacAlister at 9:40 AM December 22, 2012

As a Liberal White Irish Catholic woman Pornography, the problem with my fellow Californian's is that this is not a GAMBLING state. When I was a Journalism student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) working as a STRIPPER which helped pay for my tuition books at UNLV & later receiving my Master's of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), many GAMBLERS from many Southern states like Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolian, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, etc. would come to my former hometown of Las Vegas Nevada to wage huge money on their respective sports teams. As a UCLA MBA graduate, one of the reasons that Southern schools like Texas & Oklahoma refused to join the PAC-12 conference is the huge amount of money betting on their College Football teams that they don't want to share. My 2 Nevada schools of UNLV which I attended & the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR), Sports wagering on these 2 teams are not allowed because of the Nevada constitution where the Nevada Gaming Commission does not want Mafia involvement. The problem with the state of California is that they have a PROTESTANT-ETHIC where Gambling is looked down upon & discouraged. But in the Southern states which are Protestant, Gambling is encouraged where MONEY is everything.

stnlong71 at 1:04 AM December 22, 2012

Chris,

You want to gag or get the big chuckle?

Atttend and listen to either the USC, UCLA or any of the major schools commencement speech by the honcho to the graduating seniors. No honesty there in telling the seniors that they have to screw the lower class six ways from Sunday to make the buck.

You will hear Mr Chips, reincarnated.

archhill at 2:31 PM December 21, 2012

Terrific graph! To be able to sort all that out - by year, by conference by direction - is great.

Now all these other conferences need to do to keep up with the SEC is to only schedule 8 conference games (or less). Keep those undefeated and once-defeated teams right where you want them, at the top of the BCS poll.

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