Big East officials spent a good portion of today’s meetings working through divisional possibilities, and on that front, little ground seemed to have been gained. Where the winner of each of those divisions will play, however, appears to have been settled.
Kyle Veazey of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Big East ADs say they want a campus site to host the conference championship game beginning in 2013.
Former commissioner John Marinatto had previously thrown around the idea of holding the game in New York City, but with the current Big East being so scattered throughout the country, campus sites just make more sense. Besides, it doesn’t matter if the game is in New York or St. Louis, Central Florida vs. Boise State isn’t going to sell out any neutral stadium.
Unless you’re the SEC, Big Ten or the Big 12 in its properly-numbered days, a neutral site is going to be difficult to successfully pull off. The Pac-12 has gone with an on-campus game and so far it’s worked well, holding its first conference championship in Eugene last December when Oregon defeated UCLA. It’s an incentive for the higher-ranked team and it helps the local economy.
The Big East has plenty more to discuss in the future, but officials got one thing right today.