Skip to main content
Come Fan with UsSaturday, June 20, 2026

Big East Expansion: Conference Determined To Recruit New Members

After its football schools met Tuesday evening in New York, the Big East issued a statement that essentially says that despite the impending departures of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC, the Big East will go on.

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.

Ralph D. Russo reports that the Big East teams who are left will try to recruit new members, and that the Big East believes there’s no rush to do this, since Pitt and Syracuse are supposed to be committed to the conference until 2014.

The really important thing here, of course, is who the Big East ends up recruiting. If it’s schools like Navy and Air Force, as one report recently suggested, then the Big East’s already-poor reputation as a football conference can only get worse, and a serious football program like that of West Virginia might really get left out in the cold.

For more on the Big East, check out Big East Coast Bias.

See More:

More in General

GeneralFromPosting and Toasting
An SB Nation New Yorker needs our helpAn SB Nation New Yorker needs our help
GeneralFromPosting and Toasting
General
Sabastian Sawe breaks 2-hour barrier, shatters marathon world recordSabastian Sawe breaks 2-hour barrier, shatters marathon world record
General

The mythical two-hour mark was broken at the London Marathon.

By Bernd Buchmasser
A Huge Dog
THE HISTORY OF CHARGING THE MOUND, EPISODE 1THE HISTORY OF CHARGING THE MOUND, EPISODE 1
Play
General
Super Bowl 60 coin toss resultsSuper Bowl 60 coin toss results
General

The Seahawks and Patriots will open the Super Bowl with the coin toss to determine who starts with the ball. We have the full coin toss results for Super Bowl 60.

By David Fucillo
General
Marc Marquez completes a comeback for the agesMarc Marquez completes a comeback for the ages
General

MotoGP’s Marc Marquez completed a comeback for the ages with his 2025 title

By Mark Schofield
General
How to make sure SBNation.com appears in your Google search resultsHow to make sure SBNation.com appears in your Google search results