I came back from lunch and saw dozens of tweets on my twitter account that report the following...
It appears to be official that Air Force, Boise State, Navy and BYU will join the Big East as football-only members. Houston, UCF and SMU will join the Big East in all sports. It is unclear whether this will happen in 2013 or 2014 after West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse leave. The Big East will break into East/West Divisions and have a conference championship game. The official announcement is expected soon.
It is assumed that BYU's other sports will remain in the West Coast Conference. It is also assumed that Navy's non-football sports will remain in the Patriot League. We do not yet know where Boise State and Air Force will put their non-football sports. Boise State is rumored to either rejoin the WAC or rejoin the Big West. Air Force is rumored to either rejoin the WAC or join the Missouri Valley Conference. The Big East may go to 14 schools for football if they can convince Army to join her sister academies.
It is the Salt Lake Tribune that is breaking this news.
Looks like the new BYU/Boise State rivalry will be something to look forward to.
The divisions will likely be thus.
Western division
Air Force
Boise State
Brigham Young
Central Florida
Houston
Southern Methodist
Eastern Division
Connecticut
Cincinnati
Louisville
Navy
Rutgers
South Florida
There will be a scheduling arrangement so that USF and UCF play every season and Air Force and Navy play every season. Reason for UCF being in the west...neither Cincy nor Louisville want to be west.
Does this look like a BCS conference? In the past 4 years, the only BCS team that people have questioned is UConn. Cincy, Boise State, and Houston (likely this season) have legitimately earned BCS bids.
Update...
Washington Examiner is reporting that the invitation has been extended, but the BYU Board of Trustees has yet to approve the move. They meet on Thursdays.
Sources...
http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2011/11/15/2564587/big-east-expansion-byu-possibly-on-board-speculation-on-possible
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/cougars/52922957-88/football-byu-east-conference.html.csp
4 comments:
If this actually happens, I hope they have the realization, that a name change is in order. How about the Continental Conference?
This only looks like a BCS conference until 2013.
Good, not great move for BYU. But its probably better than staying independent.
http://planetbyu.com
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