Big East + Big 12 = Bigger East 12?

In some circles, there’s talk of nothing but a possible brand merger. No, not the can-they-or-can’t-they marriage of AT&T and T-Mobile, but a collegiate consolidation between two NCAA athletic conferences in crisis.

Over the weekend, the Big East Conference was blindsided by the announcement that Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh planned to leave the conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference, known as the ACC. If you can’t tell the Rose Bowl from March Madness, it’s like the Red Sox abandoning the American League and their rivalry with the Yankees. (Or, in a less accurate analogy, Pespi abandoning the cola wars to focus on sports drinks.) 

As the Big East and their fans reel from the news, up to four other NCAA powerhouses plan to bolt their conference, the Big 12. The potential conference shifts – the main reasons for which, unsurprisingly, have to do with football and money – are causing tremors across the college-sports landscape, and are also stirring speculation that what remains of the two conferences will merge into a single entity.

For both NCAA sports nuts and casual fans catching just the “big” games, conference-hopping destroys the rivalries that comprise the biggest reason to tune in. Unlike professional sports, where you can cheer (or boo) Derek Jeter for a decade and a half, college-level superstars leave school after four years (usually fewer), so the college teams’ brand strength is built from tradition, such as the annual gridiron battle between Ohio State and Michigan, crowned the greatest North American sports rivalry of the twentieth century.

Even if the merger is executed (and remaining Big East members don’t follow their brethren to the ACC), it’s questionable whether the resulting conference can gel, or become what it looks like on paper: two hemorrhaging conferences desperately trying to stay relevant. The Big East’s colleges are mostly along the northeast, while the Big 12’s reside in the heartland. Because most college rivalries are regional, UConn is considering jumping to the ACC – whose members are sprinkled along the East Coast – to continue its battles with Syracuse and potentially begin new rivalries with some of the biggest basketball brands in the nation, like Duke and the University of North Carolina. Why would UConn hang around to play Kansas State twice a year?

It’s tempting to combine forces with a rival to defeat common enemies. Sure, it can result in a big slice of humble pie with a side order of hubris, but you’ll always find an expert to claim that a failed brand merger might have worked. In the case of the Big East and the Big 12, however, is it really a merger if most of your valuable brand assets no longer exist?

Perhaps the new conference will be called the Big Leftovers.