Western division in all sports is a terrible idea. It will not work. That's why it isn't being pursued.
When the expected payout for the C7 for basketball is more than the MWC gets for hoops and football, what does that tell you? Those schools are entirely dilutive. And those markets will not tune in for Saturday morning football or weekday basketball at 3:00 pm. We need to stick to two time zones. Add ECU for all sports and we are at 10. Then decide whether schools like Tulsa, Rice or Southern Miss fit.
The MWC is locked into a contract they signed almost 10 years ago, so that is a completely ignorant comparison. The existence of that terrible deal is the only reason the Big East has the upper hand right now.
Obviously, a western division is not ideal, but the western schools want to join the Big East. If they don't, their conference will be better than ours in both basketball and football. Why would the Big East pursue a strategy where that is the obvious outcome?
East: UConn, ECU, Cincinnati, USF, UCF, Temple, Memphis
West: SMU, Houston, SDSU, Tulane (I would not be against simply dropping them), Fresno, UNLV, New Mexico
All sports. I don't think anyone expects Navy to actually play a game in this league, so let's leave them out for now. If Navy shows up, we offer Air Force a football only, which they would probably accept and try to park their other sports in the MVC.
Football schedule: Every division team plus 2 from the opposite league every year. The SEC made it work. If you end up at 16, break into pods.
Basketball: Home and home within the division, play 6 from the opposite division. There would be a total of THREE cross country trips per school, and some of those would only be as far as Texas for UConn.
Sample UConn basketball schedule:
Home: ECU, Cincinnati, USF, UCF, Temple, Memphis, SDSU, Fresno, Tulane
Away: ECU, Cincinnati, USF, UCF, Temple, Memphis, Houston, UNLV, New Mexico
Sample UConn Football schedule:
Home: ECU, Cincinnati, USF, Fresno
Away: Temple, Memphis, UCF, SMU
Obviously not the old Big East, but that ship has already sailed. This is a lot better choice than dropping the western schools and having the MWC be better than our league in both football and basketball.