NEW YORK — The Big East plans to invite Boise State, Air Force and Navy as football-only members, and Central Florida to compete in all sports, after it doubles the exit fee for current members to $10 million.
An official in the Big East, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conference had not authorized anyone to speak publicly about its plans, said the invitations could go out next week.
The official also said commissioner John Marinatto was in Cincinnati on Friday meeting with UCF’s president and athletic director.
The Big East announced this week it wanted to expand to 12 football schools. Houston and SMU are likely next in line as full members as the conference tries to get to 12 schools.
Big East officials made protecting the league’s automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series their expansion priority. That pushed Boise State, which is in its first season in the Mountain West Conference after a decade in the Western Athletic Conference, to the top of the Big East’s wish list, along with the service academies.
MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said he has been notified by the leaders of Boise State and Air Force that they had been in contact with the Big East, but the presidents of those schools also participated in the league’s unanimous vote to approve a merger with C-USA. Thompson would not speculate on what those schools would do.
