When SMU accepted its invitation to join the Big East in 2011, it was thought to be the move that would deliver the Mustangs to athletic prominence. The Big East was one of six conferences with an automatic bid for a BCS bowl and the conference was full of programs with rich basketball traditions.
But when SMU actually joined the conference in 2013, that promise was nothing more than illusion. The Big East split down the middle, with the football schools forming the American Athletic Conference while the basketball powers regrouped under the Big East banner. The BCS lasted through the end of the 2013 season before giving way to the College Football Playoff.