Big East or BCS?

[Panth]

After all this talk about UC joining the Big East and how it would help
the football program, my only concern is:

Does the Big East (with only 8 teams) keep its BCS status?

If the 8 basketball schools leave, will an 8 team league have the power
(i.e. votes) to keep its BCS berth? Is there any doubt that the other 5
conferences will be licking their chops to kick the BE out of the BCS
and divide the pot by 5 instead of 6? Unless the Big East keeps 16
schools (i.e 16 votes), the Big East might lose its bargaining power
with the BCS and may not retain its automatic berth. If that happens,
the Big East is no better than C-USA or the MAC or the WAC. 

I frankly don't care if we stay in C-USA or move to the Big East - the
most important thing is for UC to get into a BCS conference. The Big
East without a BCS spot is totally useless for UC. 

Food for thought - suppose the Big East does come down to 8 teams. If
the other 5 conferences try to cut off the Big East from the BCS (or a
playoff system), is there any doubt that the rest of the football
playing schools will gang up on the other BCS conferences and absolutely
change college football as we know it today? Keep in mind that without
the Big East, the BCS will no longer hold a majority among Division 1-A
schools.

Panth