As we noted earlier today, Big East officials, including athletic directors and presidents from the seven remaining football schools, met in New York to explore all options as it pertained to conference realignment and expansion.
Several hours later, it appears the Big East football members have decided to stick together as a conference, while pursuing other members down the road.
According to a series of tweets thanks to Associated Press writer Ralph Drusso, Big East commissioner John Marinatto said Big East members have pledged to stick together and aggressively pursue replacements for Pitt and Syracuse, who departed for the ACC over the weekend, but that there is no timetable at this time for the expansion (hardly aggressive then, no?). Marinatto added that he will hold Pitt and Syracuse to the 27-month period before the two can withdraw, and that candidates for new members were discussed.
CBSSports’ Brett McMurphy wrote earlier today that conversations with Air Force and Navy as football-only members were held over the past week or so.
For what it’s worth, here’s the Big East’s official statement:
Our membership met this evening and we are committed as a conference to recruit top level BCS caliber institutions with strong athletic and academic histories and traditions. We have been approached by a number of such institutions and will pursue all of our options to make the BIG EAST Conference stronger than it has ever been in both basketball and football.
You could make the assertion that the remaining Big East members, including TCU, chose to remain in the conference because, at this point in time, there is no offer from any other conferences. Rutgers, UConn and West Virginia have all been rumored to have been reaching out to the Big Ten, ACC and SEC, respectively.
Earlier today, the SEC reportedly “rejected” WVU’s attempt at membership. Whether that means that will be case down the road is yet to be seen.
Additionally, ESPN’s Joe Schad tweets that the Big East is looking into increasing their exit fees for members who wish to leave.
And with news that the Pac-12 is not expanding, there is the possibility that Big East would not mesh with the remains of what would be a dissolved Big 12.
In any case, this is still a very fluid situation with many pieces still left to placed. Stay tuned.