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The new look Big East announced how it will split up its 12 schools on Tuesday, putting the University of Houston in the Big East West Division.
For a Cougars football program with dreams of national relevance, the headline is an annual date with Boise State, as none of the other schools in their division – SMU, Memphis, San Diego State and Temple – have had much football success in recent years.
Most of the existing Big East schools will be in the appropriately named East Division – Central and South Florida, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville and UConn.
And while the "automatic qualifier" designation will no longer exist, the highest-rated team of the other "non contract bowl" conferences (Big East, Mountain West, C-USA, MAC and Sun Belt) will be in a BCS bowl, which should give a huge leg-up to the Big East champion, since they'll be facing a comparatively more difficult conference schedule.
Th Cougar basketball program, meanwhile, will benefit from playing the big-name schools in the East every year, even if they won't be coming to Houston as much as fans may have wanted.