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2003 Big East Roster:
Miami, WV, Pitt, VA Tech, BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple

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2004 Big East Roster:
WV, Pitt, BC, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, UConn

then...

2005 Big East Roster:
WV, Pitt, Syracuse, Rutgers, Louisville, South Florida, Cincinnati





It still had the bowl tie-in, sending its champ to the Fiesta/Sugar/Orange.
This was before WV went to the XII.  Was the 2004 and/or 2005 Big East champion a legit, "P5" champ?

WV, Pitt, Syracuse and even Rutgers were far and away better than just about anything in the G5. Louisville and Cincinnati were up-and-comers. Temple and USF were without a doubt G5 quality (at best).

So I'd say they'd be the redheaded stepchild of the P5-type conferences, as they didn't have any real "powerhouses", but still a major step up from the rest of the G5. 

And while this doesn't make sense from a pure football standpoint, their prowess in basketball raised the standing of the conference significantly. It shouldn't necessarily help them in football, but in my mind, it does. They were considered a legit athletic conference, that was just much stronger in basketball than football.

Kinda like Indiana or Kansas or Duke aren't exactly P5-level football programs, but their basketball programs are strong enough that they're never in danger of getting tossed from their conferences due to lack of football prowess.

This is for my game, as "mid-major" teams will get a downgrade, so you don't have a Boise State team slaughtering a lower-scoring LSU-type team over half the time.  
Since it's based on the actual statistics, I need to reel in the Other 5-type teams with big offenses.

I would say those programs you named retain their status.

I would say those programs you named retain their status.

i'd say they retain their status, but i'm not sure that status was that great to begin with.

big east was barely a bcs level conf with miami and vt. and outside of wvu, those other aren't much more than the boise/utah/tcu's of the 00's. good enough to put a good team together and win a good bowl, but not consistently.

miami didn't join be until well after snellenberger. and i didn't mean to discredit miami, they were a force well before, during, and maybe after the bigeast.

vt, on the other hand, wasn't. does no one else remember the outcry from the 99 title game, and how vt was some lowly team from a weak conference? but they had vick and were undefeated.

the bigeast just always seemed like by far the weakest of the bcs6.

Kinda like Indiana or Kansas or Duke aren't exactly P5-level football programs, but their basketball programs are strong enough that they're never in danger of getting tossed from their conferences due to lack of football prowess.

At one point when it seemed that the B12 might crumble it actually did appear that Kansas might find themselves without a major conference home.  

Their BB program is obviously one of the true Blue Bloods but they just don't bring a lot to the table in terms of what conferences are looking for today.  Ie, there aren't many eyeballs in Kansas.