The Big East is getting a bit bigger with the addition of the Navy Midshipmen in 2015, this according to ESPN's Joe Schad. This will give the Big East 11 football playing members by the time West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh head off to their new respective leagues. Navy has been a name associated with Big East expansion but they were unsure of leaving their long-time history of being an independent. Well, Navy made the decision to leave and the 2015 date was due to long-term television contracts Navy had with CBS Sports:
In 2013, the Big East is adding Boise State and San Diego State as football-only members and UCF, Houston and SMU as all sports members, but Gladchuk previously said it was unlikely Navy could solve a myriad of its scheduling problems and television contracts in that short of time. Navy has games scheduled through 2017 and television contracts with CBS College Sports and CBS Sports (Navy-Army game) through 2018, Gladchuk said.
Well, with Navy in the Big East that would help solve the scheduling issue by having the Navy game be a conference game each year, and if the Big East were to stick to an eight-game conference schedule then Air Force could still schedule three non-conference games in addition to the Army game.
Expect a call from the Big East office to Air Force in the near future.
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