ESPN's Joe Schad is reporting that the Big East voted today to expand from 8 to 10 football schools.
Big East presidents agreed in a meeting on Tuesday that it would be in their best interests to increase its football membership from eight to ten members, the conference said. "Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value," Big East commissioner John Marinatto said in a statement.
Talk about a distraction TCU did not need this week. Right now the two most likely Big East football additions look to be Villanova and TCU with Houston, Central Florida, East Carolina, Memphis, and Temple trailing behind. If invited TCU can't afford to say no because the Big East offers more exposure, television revenue, an automatic BCS bid, and far better bowl tie-ins than the MWC could ever dream of. The travel issue is basically a wash when compared to TCU's current situation in the MWC and while the Big East is likely an unstable conference TCU has to deal in the now when it comes to conference affiliation, if the Big East gets raided TCU can deal with it then.
My guess on what happens is that Villanova says "thanks, but no thanks" and the Big East adds TCU and Houston giving it recruiting foothold in Texas and making the travel for the non-football schools a little easier.