In the world of collegiate athletics, if football is king, then men’s basketball has been relegated to the dancing jester, begging for the court’s attention as they all gaze adoringly upon royalty. Football has always been bigger and better than basketball, – notice how very few care that the NBA is on strike – but in the last year, the demand for college football has been moving at a fever pitch.

I probably just told you something you know. Here’s something else – Saint Louis University doesn’t have a football team, nor are they planning to add football back to its roster of sanctioned sports.

It’s haunted SLU before. In 2005, the Billikens were exiled out of an imploding Conference USA after the Big East snatched five schools away –DePaul, Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida. SLU was hoping to be in that group, but DePaul, with the all the glories of Chicago, was a better draw. Plan B: the Atlantic 10 Conference. Plan C: the Missouri Valley. Plan D: oblivion.

SLU, of course, chose Plan B. Now, let me tell you something you didn’t know. SLU doesn’t have football – and that’s the best thing it has going.

In the past week, the non-football schools of the Big East – DePaul, Marquette, Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova – met to discuss their future in a conference where football is about to become king. Those schools happen to have something else in common. Throw in Notre Dame and you are looking at the premiere private, Catholic colleges in America.

I spoke to several sources this week — at SLU, the Atlantic 10, the Big East, ESPN – and everyone realizes, though they may not admit it, that the Big East is irreparably fractured. With the shocking loss of Syracuse and the University of Pittsburgh, the Big East has the opportunity to go all-in for football. That means that the basketball schools become the ugly stepchildren. Who would want to be in that conference?

Don’t believe me? Look at the struggles that are ripping the Big 12 Conference apart. The only thing holding that hodgepodge together is the University of Texas; it’s also the reason why the conference is on the brink of extinction. Texas refuses to share a nickel of the $300 million it will receive from ESPN in the next 20 years. Its brothers in the Big 12, and possible partners in the PAC-12 Conference, are balking. All that glitters is gold, I suppose.

So the Catholic schools in the Big East have a choice to make – go it alone or go without. This should have SLU licking its chops. The Billikens may get their second shot at the Big East – and soon. Because this is my column, I’m allowed to share my ignorance and bliss in any quantity I want. So sit down and relax. I am proposing, right here, right now, the creation of a Papal League.

Think about it. The eight basketball-only schools from the Big East and the best-of-the-best from the A-10 – SLU, Xavier, Dayton and Temple – joining hands, stuffing wallets and sharing courts. Throw in Butler from the Horizon League, and voila! You have a lucrative, competitive basketball conference. These schools are nearly identical to each other in every way – academically, philosophically – and would always have God on their side.

For SLU, it would mean a return to competitive basketball not seen since the glory days of Conference USA. The move would provide recruiting inlets in Chicago, Indianapolis and the Eastern seaboard for both athletics and academics. If we are truly to become the best Catholic university in the United States, this is a must.

There are two other options that SLU must consider. Remaining in the A-10 is an incredibly smart and viable option. I am not advocating that the Billikens aggressively look for a new conference home. The A-10 fits the profile SLU is looking for and has been a competitive fit thus far. SLU officials will tell you that the conference fits their desire to be associated with like-conferences – read, Catholic – and expand the University’s reputation eastward, but SLU wants in the Big East, make no mistake, and this may be their chance.

What I am suggesting is that SLU not wed itself to the conference. If the A-10 is to be picked apart by a bigger conference, SLU cannot get stuck the way it did in 2005.  If so, then they will have no other choice than to, dare I say it, join the Missouri Valley Conference.

Following the mass exodus of schools in 2005 from CUSA, SLU was offered a spot in the Valley. But they were smart and proactive, and they said no. The Valley would never advance SLU’s mission, and financially it would make no sense. SLU does not belong there.

But if the A-10 falls apart, a possibility however remote, then why not? Bring the Billikens home and let them dominate the mid-major of the Midwest. There would be no point in staying in the A-10 sans Xavier or Temple, and if I were calling the shots, they wouldn’t.

No one knows where the road is headed. But this much is clear: Chris May was brought here to make sure SLU competed at the highest level. It is now just a waiting game – and hopefully May, along with his boss, Fr. Biondi, are ready to play with the big boys. Time is a-ticking.