In Ivan Maisel and Gene Wojciechowski’s column on ESPN.com this morning (click on the “For Argument’s Sake” link on this page), there is a brief discussion on the future of the Big East Football Conference after Miami and Virginia Tech leave.

Will the Big East be football irrelevant in three years?

Let’s see: Rutgers will be looking for another head coach — again — if Greg Schiano doesn’t start proving he knows an X from an O. The Scarlet Knights are 3-20 during his tenure, 0-14 in league play, and gave up 34 or more points in nine of 12 games last season (including a 37-19 loss to D-IAA Villanova). UConn (which joins the schedule in 2004) is finding it a challenge to find buyers for its big-money seats at new Rentschler Field. Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Boston College are tracking upward, but Syracuse has won six or fewer games in three of the last four seasons. Temple is about to become Big East history.

League commissioner Mike Tranghese, who didn’t exactly have his finest hour during the ACC raid of his conference (a little too much finger-pointing and verbal hysterics for our tastes), says the Big East will survive. Tranghese is a smart guy, so you know he’ll do what he can. League athletic directors have had recent meetings and teleconferences to discuss the conference’s future makeup.

For now the Big East is good to go in the BCS for three more seasons (that’s when the BCS pact expires). Then the BCS powers have to decide if the Big East is worth the trouble.

Right now, the vote appears to be a tentative and polite yes. But that could change, depending on what direction Tranghese and the school presidents point the conference.

In other words, Commissioner Tranghese, stop pointing fingers, rebuild the Big East Football Conference with the best teams you can realistically get, and you’ll probably stay in the BCS. Chas and I would both argue that splitting the league’s non-football-playing members off might be a good fiscal move.

But either way, Pitt will most likely continue to have direct access to a BCS bowl after 2005. I’ve been arguing this for a while now. The BCS needs the Big East to maintain its majority over the Division I-A schools, and to maintain a presence in the most populated corner of the United States.

So once again, Mr. Rudel, forget about Pitt begging Joe Paterno for forgiveness and admittance into the Big Ten. We’re probably going to be better off where we are.

Hail to Tranghese Getting Off His Butt And Doing The Right Thing