this continues to be a very dark time in college athletics as money and green and trumpeted natural rivalries and tradition. i think with Louisville's exit of the big east yesterday, the time has come for marquette to leave as well. by 2014, the big east will be a shell of its self when marquette joined the conference in 2005. i think marquette has 3 options. The ideal one is to try to pair up with DePaul and move to the big 10. i would be tough since they have no football, but it gives the big east a team in chicago and gives the big 10 a team with a good decade of basketball success. the second scenerio and probably the least exciting is to join the A-10. this is a conference where teams where football is not king. you would be regularly be playing the likes of butler, vcu, xavier, and dayton. these are teams that have had some success, but is a step down from playing georgetown, nova,and memphis . this brings me to my 3rd scenerio is to form a conference of schools that do not have football and therefore protect each other against future teams leaving. i think you could put 10 private catholic universities that have enough prestige that you could have espn or another network give you a decent tv deal i would propose: marquette, xavier, georgetown, villanova, st louis, providence, st johns, seton hall, Creighton, DePaul. this effectively kills the big east and turns into conference USA, but it protece these schools.