Navy to the Big East in 2015: Will There Even Be a Big East Conference by Then?

Back in early December, when the Big East invited five non-BCS schools—Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State and SMU—to join the conference, there was also talk that Navy could also be in the mix at some point in the future as well. 

Well according to the Washington Post, the Midshipmen will indeed join the Big East as a football-only member in 2015.

Navy's addition gives the Big East 11 potential members moving forward. The conference is set to lose both Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and TCU (which was a member in principal, never an actual member), and West Virginia to the Big 12—some time either before this season or after, pending a lawsuit involving the Mountaineers and the conference.  

What is certain is that Syracuse, Pittsburgh, TCU and West Virginia will all be gone. What’s not so certain is if the Big East will be able to survive another round of college football realignment, which could strike at any time.

The massive movements that were talked about at the start of the 2011 season never really came to fruition—the Big 12 managed to survive, only losing Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC—and conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided to stay at 12 teams.

The only big loser of this past year’s wave of realignment turned out to be the Big East, which was put on theoretical life support after losing four key members in the span of just a few months.

In the wake of all of the defections, commissioner John Marinatto and the rest of the conference officials came up with an emergency plan that included inviting some of the top non-BCS schools from around the country to join, regardless if they were a geographical fit or not.

So far, the plan seems to be working, as the addition of the six new members has helped calm the craziness, but who’s to say that if the realignment talk starts back up again, that schools like Boise State, Rutgers and Louisville wouldn’t be potential targets of other BCS conferences?

It will be a little more difficult to leave now that the buyout clause is set to double from $5 million to $10 million, but if the Big East loses one more prominent school to a BCS conference, it could start a dangerous domino effect that could spell doom for the league.

The wise move for the Big East could be to make sure that the conference brings in a 12th team. Bumping up current Big East basketball member Villanova to the FBS level might be the easiest move to solidify a revenue-generating conference championship game, which would give all members more incentive to stay.

Right now, it’s all just speculation, but we have to realize that with the way things are heading with major college athletics these days, and with so much money at stake, nothing is a given anymore.

Would it really be surprising that by the time 2015 rolls around, there isn’t even a Big East? The entire college football landscape could drastically shift over the next few years.

So while it’s nice to see a quality program like Navy getting some love from a BCS conference, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves just yet.

A lot can happen in three years.