Not so fast on those rumors of the Mountain West and Conference USA commissioners meeting with the Big East on Wednesday. The New York Daily News reports that the Big East has denied this rumor:

"We are not part of any meeting with those two conferences,'' Big East spokesman John Paquette told the Daily News, in no uncertain terms.

Now, this could all turn out to be a bunch of bluster, or the Big East might actually try to keep itself alive. However, possibly losing West Virginia to the Big 12 makes it hard for the conference to survive. What school would want to go to a conference that now lacks a perennial Top 25 team?

The Big East probably needs to raid the Mountain West and Conference USA to survive as a league, but any team that leaves would need to calculate the possibility of the Big East losing its automatic qualifier in the BCS.

For more on the Mountain West and possible realignment, visit Mountain West Connection.