Recently, University of Notre Dame shifted their major collegiate sports, besides football, from the Big East Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Accordingly, the Big East had a back up plan and knew of a possible departure. Starting within the next few years, future schools such as Navy, SMU, UCF will be joining the Big East to make up for the departure of other schools (UWV, 'Cuse, UND).
So this had me thinking. Will the shifting in bigger conferences change the dynamic in the smaller conferences? History has said yes and history is repeating itself. Small conferences are losing members to the bigger and better super-conferences (Pac12, Big10, SEC etc.) and/or the intermediate conferences (Big East, Big12 etc.) either to make up for a change in a different realignment conference or have an even number of programs in the league.
