Big East Expansion: Conference To Expand Football By Adding Two Teams

All the rumor-mongering about the Big East's expansion plans can be shelved this evening as the conference made it official today: They will expand by two teams to give the league 10 competitors for the league title and BCS bid.

Given the cloud of speculation that has hovered over the Big East since it replaced Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College with three Conference USA teams in 2005, today's news brings much-needed relief.

Just who are the additional teams? If Villanova decides to accept Big East Commissioner's John Marinatto's invitation to join the eight football members, who will be the one true new member?

Texas Christian University is still considered to be the No. 1 pick. If and when Villanova moves from FCS to FBS, the Horned Frogs would complete the league's goal of a 10-team league.

Central Florida appears to be very much in the mix, and Houston, the subject of yesterday's rumors, is still in the running, but a distant fourth-place pick at this time.

The NCAA requires 12 teams in any conference wanting to play a championship game. The fact that the Big East settled on the number 10 says more about the league's desire to keep all the teams it presently accommodates for basketball than plans for a football championship game.

The league spokesman was very clear that no decisions about basketball alignment have been made.

Those fans who have suggested the league chuck out DePaul for poor performance or Seton Hall and Providence for irrelevance have missed the league's intentions all along. With a nucleus of Catholic universities trying to complete at the highest level in college basketball, momentum to throw out a Catholic university could not be sustained.

This time there is no one like Villanova cheerleading to dump Temple. If the league does decide to invite Central Florida, it would show fans that petty jealousies will no longer be given weight to determine membership.

In total, today's announcement from the Big East doesn't appear to be much. When expansion speculation reached a feverish pitch in June, many fans thought Marinatto would take action then.

Four full months have passed and finally, with little fanfare, the Big East has decided to expand. For fans who love the Big East and want it to survive both by relishing its storied hoops past and building for the future, today's news will be greeted with thunderous approval.