As far as the Big East and expansion are concerned, it’s officially on.
According to an announcement made on the conference’s official website, Big East presidents, the release reads, agree that the interests of each of the conference’s 16 member institutions would be served by increasing the number of Bowl Subdivision (Div. 1-A) football-playing members to 10. The vote for moving forward with expansion was a unanimous one, and came after the conference presented a report to the presidents relating to the benefits of adding additional football schools.
“Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value,” Commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement.
There was no timeline given for when invitations will be handed out -- a report from earlier today suggested it could happen before the end of the football season -- nor was there any indication from the conference as to which schools they would target.
The most talked-about school in relation to an expanded Big East has been TCU. The current Mountain West school is reportedly very interested in the Big East despite the obvious geographical logistics, and would be a huge boon to the Big East’s tattered football reputation.
Other schools who have been connected to the Big East include Houston, Central Florida, Temple and Villanova. Another school that should not be completely dismissed is Memphis, in no small part because that school’s largest donor is also chairman of FedEx and may be willing to ship (see what I did there?) some of that company’s money to the conference in the form of sponsorships.
Our guess as to which two schools ultimately jump ship to the Big East? TCU and Houston. Packaging those two schools in the move would somewhat mitigate the overblown travel concerns, plus it would give the Big East a toehold into the fertile Texas recruiting grounds and two very large markets for their own soon-to-be-created television network to sell to advertisers.