Big East officials, including university athletic directors and presidents from football member schools, are set to meet in New York tonight to “examine every option for every scenario and that they will be ready to act quickly should the opportunity present itself.”
That may, or may not, include opportunities to pursue the following teams: East Carolina, Navy and Air Force.
According to (*winces* please don’t hurt me) Brett McMurphy of CBSSports, both Navy and Air Force were being discussed as football-only members about a week prior to the announcement that Syracuse and Pittsburgh would be departing for the ACC. Reportedly, no formal invitation was extended by the league, but the conversations between the parties were “extensive”.
“There were discussions and dialogues on a number of issues,” said source with knowledge of the talks. “The question now is: what is the Big East going to look like in the future? How do they right the ship? I don’t think they even know that.”
As the Big East has flirted — but mostly sat on its butt — with expansion for the last year, Navy’s name has come up on a recurring basis. So has East Carolina’s, but the Big East has made it abundantly clear that they want the Pirates like the ACC wants West Virginia.
That reportedly didn’t stop the Pirates from applying though for the 27th time.
No, seriously.
Pete Thamel of the New York Times tweets that “East Carolina (again) applied to the Big East today. They didn’t want it a secret, as ’50 people were copied on the e-mail.’”
And you know what? That doesn’t even surprise me in the least bit.
As conference realignment reaches comical proportions, about the only thing we can guarantee is that institutions are talking to whoever will listen. Additionally, only a handful of people — if that — really know what’s going on with each scenario.
So, until something is finalized (and who knows when that’ll be), we get to discuss the possibility of teams like Air Force moving to the Big East.
Good Lord….they were clearly unprepared for all this. Sad.
The government doesn’t have enough money to send the Air Force to the east coast every other week for 6 or 7 games.
I’ve always thought adding Army and Navy made some sense. I would rather add Central Florida rather than East Carolina just to get the Orlando market.
If you’re going to go for Air Force, I say go for Boise State.
You could have
Western
Kansas
K State
Baylor
TCU
Boise State
Air Force
Houston
SMU
Eastern
WVU
Louisville
Cincy
S Florida
C Florida
Army
Navy
East Carolina or Villanova
The SEC it ain’t, but its way better than the current MWC, WAC or Conf USA. You have several teams that have played in BCS bowls the past few years. From a basketball perspective, you let Army and Navy play basketball somewhere else. You bring in Notre Dame and either Marquette or Georgetown. So, you have a pretty good basketball conference as well (IMO better than the current Big 10 or Big 12).
Not sure what to call it. Maybe the Lewis and Clark conference because it stretches all across America.
Air Force? Navy? Really? No, No, No. I don’t know everyones problem with East Carolina, but at least they play a lot of BCS schools and usually give them a good game. You pick up UCF also. I like adding Houston, good market, and SMU, although TCU takes care of that market. And basing this on the Big 12 imploding, pick up their remnants and go for Boise. And you have to break off from the basketball only schools. That is half the problem, the Big East office still thinks it’s a basketball league. As for Notre Dame, they bring in football also or tell them to pound sand. The Big East has kissed their butts long enough. It made their basketball relevant again, but wouldn’t bring in football to help the league. See ya! No it’s not the SEC, but it might work.
What business is it of yours to run down East Carolina? How about you let another Notre Dame Priest touch you and let people who know sports report on sports.
Did you post the link just so I would read the last sentence. LOL
The wince was funny, thanks.
East Carolina does well for themselves. What I don’t get is all of the speculation regarding Villanova. They have subpar attendance (even when they were the defending FCS National Champions), a stadium that’s not up to any BCS standard you can think of, and this year they are 0-3, having been stomped on by Temple, Towson State, and Monmouth. I just don’t see them as anywhere close to being ready for moving up to the BCS.
All of this is very similar to a bunch off rats getting off a ship. They don’t know exactly where they’re going, or if it will be better or worse. It’s kind of sad, these knee-jerk reactions are not well thought out, and therefore will probably be bad for college football and the fans. Especially those who embrace tradition.
“Let another Notre Dame priest touch you?” That’s about as Anti-Catholic a statement as I’ve seen right there. Nice job.
Hey Ken, why don’t you head on back to South Bend, the only place in America where you, your lame opinion, and your crappy network have any relevance.
@dmc…
Couldn’t agree more. The fact that Villanova is even still in the conversation is mind blowing.
@paul…
The knee jerk reactions that have happened since last Friday are already bad for college football and the fans. Any additional will definitely be so.
If Notre Dame had little interest in the Big East before, now they would consider it a joke to ever play Big East football.
Notre Dame will end up in the big16 with Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State. the Irish will be forced to join because theywon’t be able to maintain their schedule. Big Conferences mean more league play. More league play means it will be harder to rank teams, which turns into a playoff.
SEC+ A&M, Mizzou, Clemson, GT.
Big16= Notre Dame, Kansas, Kstate, Iowa State
ACC+ Syracuse, Uconn, and big east leftovers. WV, Pitt, Rutgers, Cincy.
Pac16= texas, OU, okstate, Tx Tech.
This is all poorly thought out, and we the fans will pay. Maybe the Mayans predicted that college football would be destroyed in 2012, not the world.
@ thefiesty1
Ya the government doesn’t have enough money to send Air Force 6-7 games out east, but it does have enough to send Navy to Ireland for a game against Notre Dame next year. Honestly it doesn’t matter where they play the school will be covered financially.
@meglasdad
Do a little research before you run your mouth. Navy just gave #10 South Carolina all it could handle before losing 24-21. 2 years ago Ohio State needed an INT on Navy’s 2pt conversation attempt at the end of the game to outlast Navy in the Horseshoe. Missouri hasn’t faired much better losing to Navy 34-17 a coupld years ago in a bowl game. And Navy has beaten Notre Dame 3 of the last 4 years. Also, Navy beat East Carolina 76-35, yes I said 76-35 (and the score was a lot closer than the actual game) in Greenville last year. Navy has been to 8 consecutive bowls and is competitive with any team in the country. East Carolina can not say the same.
Having said all that, and as a Navy season ticket holder, I would not want Navy in the Big East as a football only school.