Those familiar with the work of author Simon Winchester probably know about the great work he did in examining earthquakes in "A Crack in the Edge of the World."

(OK, I probably lost a lot of you. But there is a point to this, besides linking to a solid summer reading choice.)

Anyway, Winchester discusses a lot of the history behind plate tectonic theory, meandering along the way to talk about a great many topics and neatly tying them in to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

That event was a startling event for obvious reasons, and did a great deal to change the landscape of the Bay area (and eventually helped people understand what the heck had just happened).

Anyway, an event that could be incredibly disruptive to the college lacrosse world --- its own massive tectonic shift, if you will --- could be coming later this month: The formation of a Big East men's lacrosse conference.

The Syracuse Post-Standard's Dave Rahme examined this in Sunday's edition, with Syracuse AD Daryl Gross saying he was on board for if and when the topic arose at this month's conference athletic director meetings in Florida.

(If I was Winchester, I would begin a sharp-witted 10-page aside on how athletic directors manage to find a way to go to a nice resort for a few days, filling some meetings around inevitable trips to the golf course. I'll only say it must be nice work if you can get it, and I don't have the patience for golf.)

Anyway, one of the two sticking points Rahme looks at are getting Providence and Villanova to add financial support to their programs, since at least one of the two is needed to make the conference big enough to earn an automatic NCAA berth (and make it a worthwhile endeavor, since everyone but Syracuse already is in a league with an AQ and the Orange have done well for themselves as an independent).

The other is Gross' insistence the league tournament be played at the Carrier Dome every year, giving ingrained national power Syracuse an extra edge annually.

I brought that up with Georgetown's Dave Urick when I swung by the school yesterday afternoon.

"Gee, I don't know. I think it would be nice to have it in the nation's capital every year," Urick said. "Come down here and see the cherry blossoms. I'm not sure where that's coming from. I think there's a few other teams in the Big East that might want to weigh on that. I talked to the Notre Dame coach [Kevin Corrigan] about it and he had the same reaction you did --- a little bit of a chuckle.

"That's a little down the road a ways. It hasn't occurred yet. I think we're getting very close to Big East lacrosse, and I think that's a good thing. Hopefully, it continues to move in a positive direction and we get there someday. I think we're a lot closer now than we ever have been, but it's not a done deal."

Rumblings in the coaching community suggest this could be in place by the 2010 season, and this is where the tectonic shift occurs. The Big East would take teams out of the ECAC, the Colonial, the Great Western Lacrosse League and the Metro Atlantic, potentially setting off a chain reaction in all of those conferences. It would also leave Johns Hopkins as the lone powerful independent.

Toss in the fact the heretofore nonexistent in lacrosse Northeast Conference will have six teams playing the sport once Bryant moves up to Division I next year and another league could form as well (The NEC would peel teams from the MAAC, the CAA and the GWLL), and the possibility the MAAC takes in regular members Fairfield and Loyola and the landscape could be incredibly different.

There are only eight leagues in Division I lacrosse, and chances half of them --- the America East, the ACC, the Ivy League and the Patriot League --- will emerge in their same form. Two leagues will be added, and the ECAC is the top candidate to be erased from the sport's map altogether.

Remember, none of this is guaranteed to happen, and chances are the future will not be identical to this. But it could be like when Homer Simpson turned a toaster into a time machine; the final outcome might turn out to be close enough to previous expectations, minus a meeting with an ill-tempered Mr. Peabody.

It's just one man's guess. Perhaps Penn State joins Ohio State in the GWLL rather than taking associate membership in a souped-up CAA with the Buckeyes (either way, the schools make for a logical partnership since they are the only Big Ten schools in Division I). Maybe Saint Joseph's and VMI head someplace other than their current MAAC membership.

But even if those projections are correct, there's no question it's still a different looking world. It would impact 35 of what will be 59 Division I programs, nearly three out of five overall.

Teams in black would remain in their current leagues.
Teams in blue would switch leagues.
Teams in green have announced plans to establish Division I programs or move up from Division II.

Anyone have any thoughts on the possibility of this brave new world, or is it just full of sound and fury? (And I'll take any other Shakespearean allusions if you've got them).

--- Patrick Stevens