re: In realignment circus, desperate Big East likely to lose its AQ status

Saw a couple flaws in that article. Unless they altered the contract, an AQ conference does have to meet certain standards to maintain an autobid. (In fact, the BE failed that test a few years ago and got a waiver).

Another issue--the B(C)S contract expires every few years and has to be renewed. There is no explicit or implied guarantee for the Big East, or any other conference, to be included in the next deal.

The real reason the BE has an autobid is that with the autobid, there were 66 AQ schools and 54 coalition schools, going by the last time the contract was renewed. Without the Big East, there would have been 58 and 62, which would have allowed the coalition schools to outvote the AQs and impose NCAA legislation.