Report: Boise State, Houston, SDSU, SMU, UCF to join Big East in 2013

By Kevin Kelley -

Big EastBoise State, Houston, San Diego State, SMU and UCF are set to join the Big East Conference in 2013, Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com has reported.

McMurphy also reported that Navy will join the Big East as soon as the other five schools are official. That would give the conference 11 football members. He also stated that they hope to add Air Force as their 12th school with Temple as a backup plan.

Boise State and San Diego State would be football-only members, as would Air Force and Navy if they decide to join. Houston, SMU and UCF would join in all sports.

The Big East is trying to rebuild after losing TCU and West Virginia to the Big 12 and Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC. TCU never played a season in the Big East.

West Virginia is currently suing to leave in 2012 rather than heed the Big East’s 27-month exit notice. If they are successful, Pittsburgh and Syracuse could follow suit rather than waiting until 2014.

Last month, Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner reported that the Big East was trying to add a “…West Division that would be comprised of BYU, Boise State, Air Force, Houston, Louisville and Southern Methodist.” Although talks between BYU and the Big East broke down, it now appears that some of the schools from that list will make the jump.

Here is a look at what the Big East could look like by 2014:

East Division

West Division

Comments (10)

The NCAA football is falling apart, not only this, but everything (Really, Boise State and SDSU join the Big EAST). Not giving any ideas, but I think they are just going to keep the big conferences (SEC, Big 10, ACC, Pac12, etc.) and just get rid of the others

navy in the western division. This news is shameful and really a slap in the face to football fans everywhere who thought the big east would be killed off. It’s pretty meager. Why not add byu, unlv, fresno state, or nevada to create a realy western division if they are going this far?

still not enough to lose the Big East AQ bid. Too little too late. Maybe the Big East Champ can play the CUSA/MWC champ for the right for a single AQ slot. College sports will be the downfall of not only higher education in this country but also athletics as a whole.

What’s with all the whining? Are you all CUSA and MWC fans? Why do people actually want the BE to die? (I don’t have a dog in this, BTW, as I’m a B10 fan.)

Anyway, BYU and the BE couldn’t come to an agreement and Navy is more attractive than UNLV, Fresno, or (certainly) Nevada. They wouldn’t have a problem with playing in SD every other year or Texas once a year either.

Change the name of the conference to the American Conference.

OR BETTER YET…. THE MWC/CUSA/BE merges to create a super coference with a 4 division champion mini-playoff that gets a BCS bowl. Call it the AFA. The American Football Alliance.

I agree with you Bobby, change or alter the Conference’ name. Meanwhile with Rutgers(N.Y.) S.D.S.U.(L.A.) Temple(Phila.) and S.M.U.(DALLAS)your T V MARKET is twice that of my powerful conference, THE SEC. TV dollars equals BIG TIME FOOTBALL.

I just heard that Navy will not be joining the Big East until at least 2015. Presumably, same will go for Air Force.

i agree the navy has a huge base in san diego, so that can be a plus as why navy is joining the west (i am a big ten fan as well) but this just shows college football needs to revamp the way thes schools are jumping ship to these big conferences , college football needs basically a comissioner

i think the Big East should stay an AQ but they do need to some refiguring on the logistics of their conference.