Big East looking to expand to 14

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Not so new news, but more a confirmation.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8319551/big-east-looking-add-14th-football-member

Big East looking to expand to 14
Updated: August 31, 2012, 1:04 AM ETAssociated Press Recom

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- New Big East commissioner Mike Aresco confirmed Thursday that the conference wants to add a 14th member for football, and is planning to have a championship game after next season.

Aresco spoke with reporters Thursday night before Connecticut's football game with Massachusetts.

"We're looking at a 14th," he said. "I'm not talking about which ones. There are some obvious candidates, but we're not talking about raiding anyone and there are some independents that might potentially want to be a member."

Aresco also said he's confident the teams committed to the Big East, including Connecticut, will stay.

The Big East lost West Virginia to the Big 12, and will lose Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC next season. Connecticut last year expressed an interest in joining the ACC, but has been working with the Big East on its expansion.

"I think they'll stay," Aresco said, "and I think they'll want to stay because I think we'll work hard to keep them here."

The revamped football conference will span four time zones, with Boise State and San Diego State joining for football only, and Central Florida, Memphis, Houston and SMU coming on board for all sports. Navy is set to join for football only in 2015.

Aresco says his two top priorities when he starts work next week are negotiating a lucrative television deal, and making sure the league is recognized as one of the nation's top six football conferences.

The Big East has held a lucrative automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series, but that system is being replaced by a playoff in 2014. As a result, the league no longer will draw postseason revenues equivalent to the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC. But it is still hoping to land a television deal worth upward of a billion dollars.

"You have a pretty huge divide now between our conference and anything below us, and almost no gap between us and what they are calling the Big Five," Aresco said. "We say it's the Big Six. I'm not going to yield on that at all."

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

[GGGG]

So, if they are not going to raid anyone, the football independents are Notre Dame (yeah...right), BYU (might be the best choice but they are going to want some games on their Mormon channel), Army (repeatedly turned them down...perhaps changed their mind?), and Idaho (does Boise need a travel partner???)

We'll see.

[Donnybrook]

Not an expert here on college football by any means, but I can't figure out why they would not be interested in Army. An hour train ride from NYC and they play in one of the coolest environments in the nation at West Point. Very loyal fan base too.

[Dr. Blackheart]

BYU would be the draw to balance (numbers and geography) two divisions of football for a championship.  If the talk is in the future, then Salt Lake is a big Comcast market.  Face it, this is a conference made for TV. 

For BYU, this exposes the whole country to their games and school, puts them in a religiously skewed conference, and let's face it, alums and fans like to travel to see football games to cheer their schools on and the Mormons are a national draw.  More so, it is harder to be a football independent out West, so have set teams out there must be attractive if the conference is stable (something I think that scared them last go around) .

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

This is the BYU tip-off line.

"We're looking at a 14th," he said. "I'm not talking about which ones. There are some obvious candidates, but we're not talking about raiding anyone and there are some independents that might potentially want to be a member."

Why not shoot for 16 in football:
BYU, Air Force & Army?

[bilsu]

Are the any votes here for adding BYU for all sports and kicking Notre Dame out? In my opinion as long as Notre Dame remains independent in football they are a threat to our conference being stable.

[avid1010]

Are the any votes here for adding BYU for all sports and kicking Notre Dame out? In my opinion as long as Notre Dame remains independent in football they are a threat to our conference being stable.

i wouldn't think a non-football school would be a threat to the stability of the BEAST???  i don't know what goes into kicking a team out, and i can't believe doing so would force their football program join any conference either...

[Dawson Rental]

Are the any votes here for adding BYU for all sports and kicking Notre Dame out? In my opinion as long as Notre Dame remains independent in football they are a threat to our conference being stable.

The problem is that ND may then feel they have to move to a conference to have a home for their Olympic sports.  And when they do that, the new conference may want another member to keep the numbers even, like say Connecticut, for instance.  Plus, if ND goes maybe the football members start to wonder what they are keeping these non-football schools around for.

[Stronghold]

As much as I don't like ND, I feel it is in the best interest of the conference if they stay.

BYU wouldn't have made sense a year ago, but with the current situation I don't see why not.  Like someone above said, the Mormon draw would be big around the nation. 

[GGGG]

BYU would be the draw to balance (numbers and geography) two divisions of football for a championship.  If the talk is in the future, then Salt Lake is a big Comcast market.  Face it, this is a conference made for TV. 

For BYU, this exposes the whole country to their games and school, puts them in a religiously skewed conference, and let's face it, alums and fans like to travel to see football games to cheer their schools on and the Mormons are a national draw.  More so, it is harder to be a football independent out West, so have set teams out there must be attractive if the conference is stable (something I think that scared them last go around) .

The only disagreement I have with this is that the football members aren't "religiously skewed."  And they are already in such a conference for their other sports in the WCC.

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Not so new news, but more a confirmation.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8319551/big-east-looking-add-14th-football-member

Big East looking to expand to 14
Updated: August 31, 2012, 1:04 AM ETAssociated Press Recom

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- New Big East commissioner Mike Aresco confirmed Thursday that the conference wants to add a 14th member for football, and is planning to have a championship game after next season.

Aresco spoke with reporters Thursday night before Connecticut's football game with Massachusetts.

"We're looking at a 14th," he said. "I'm not talking about which ones. There are some obvious candidates, but we're not talking about raiding anyone and there are some independents that might potentially want to be a member."

Aresco also said he's confident the teams committed to the Big East, including Connecticut, will stay.

The Big East lost West Virginia to the Big 12, and will lose Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC next season. Connecticut last year expressed an interest in joining the ACC, but has been working with the Big East on its expansion.

"I think they'll stay," Aresco said, "and I think they'll want to stay because I think we'll work hard to keep them here."

The revamped football conference will span four time zones, with Boise State and San Diego State joining for football only, and Central Florida, Memphis, Houston and SMU coming on board for all sports. Navy is set to join for football only in 2015.

Aresco says his two top priorities when he starts work next week are negotiating a lucrative television deal, and making sure the league is recognized as one of the nation's top six football conferences.

The Big East has held a lucrative automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series, but that system is being replaced by a playoff in 2014. As a result, the league no longer will draw postseason revenues equivalent to the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC. But it is still hoping to land a television deal worth upward of a billion dollars.

"You have a pretty huge divide now between our conference and anything below us, and almost no gap between us and what they are calling the Big Five," Aresco said. "We say it's the Big Six. I'm not going to yield on that at all."

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

Despite past refusals on the matter, this SCREAMS Villanova to me.

[MarsupialMadness]

The Big East has held a lucrative automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series, but that system is being replaced by a playoff in 2014. As a result, the league no longer will draw postseason revenues equivalent to the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC. But it is still hoping to land a television deal worth upward of a billion dollars.

Yikes that is a lot of money.

[DFW HOYA]

Not an expert here on college football by any means, but I can't figure out why they would not be interested in Army. An hour train ride from NYC and they play in one of the coolest environments in the nation at West Point. Very loyal fan base too.

Army is very much against a conference affiliation. West Point remembers well the beatings they took in C-USA and finds little gain in 2-9 seasons in the Big East.

As to the other Big East options, Georgetown was dismissed many years ago by the conference, while Villanova remains interested but has no suitable stadium to play in. Temple secured an exclusive contract with Lincoln Financial Field and Penn isn't intersted in ceding dates to Villanova at Franklin Field. Villanova had talked about playing games at a 24,000 seat MLS stadium in Chester, PA but the Big East said no.