Sooner or later, fans of Navy football will know who to root against when it comes to conference play. The latest shuffle: The Louisville Cardinals will leave the Big East and join the Atlantic Coast Conference, according to an ESPN report, replacing Maryland, which will bolt for the Big Ten in 2014. This leaves the Big East with 13 football programs for 2015, Navy’s inaugural season: The Mids; current members Cincinnati, Connecticut, South Florida and Temple; previous expansion announcements Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State and Southern Methodist; and recent additions East Carolina and Tulane. For those…
Browsing: Conference Realignment
Navy football has existed outside the mess of conference alignment for more than a century. Now, two-plus years before it joins the Big East, Navy fans have reason to pay attention to who’s moving where. And if they’re paying attention, they’re not liking what they’re seeing. First, Rutgers announced it would leave the conference to join the Big Ten in 2014, a year before the Mids make the move to the Big East. Then, rumors swirled that the Atlantic Coast Conference could poach either Connecticut or Louisville from the Big East to fill a spot left by Maryland, which is…
It’s been a running joke for the last few years — the ongoing conference realignment in college football could eventually stretch the bounds of common sense to the point where someone would create a “Big East West” division. Well, welcome to that point. For the next two football seasons, the Big East Conference will have eastern and western divisions. Well, sort of — any geographic realignment that puts Philadelphia-based Temple in the same division with San Diego State hasn’t ironed out all the kinks. What does this mean for Navy? And what could it mean for long-rumored Big East expansion…
Most of the conference realignment headlines have centered around the Big East, which formerly hosted Notre Dame in sports other than football and will host its first service academy — Navy — come 2015. But the Mountain West Conference, which has been Air Force’s home since the league’s inception, hasn’t been immune to such major changes: TCU left to join the Big East, then ended up in the Big 12 beginning this season. Boise State joined the MWC in 2011 and has already punched out to join the Big East in 2013. BYU left the football-conference game entirely, leaving the…
A hat-tip to our good friends at FBSchedules.com for this one: For the first time, Navy football has released what could be considered a nonconference schedule. According to the official Navy athletics website, there are four games on the slate for 2015, not including whoever the Mids will face in their inaugural Big East season. The list includes a home game against Air Force (Oct. 3), a visit to Notre Dame (Oct. 10), a trip to Hawaii (Nov. 28, adjust your Thanksgiving weekend plans accordingly) and the Army-Navy game Dec. 12 in Philadelphia. The trip to Hawaii qualifies Navy for…
From leaving the Navy to being honored by the Army to the never-ending offseason soap opera that is the Big East Conference, here’s some quick football hits while you pick your favorite “Anchorman” clip — sequel trailer or Tim Kennedy experience: 1. Kettani’s quest. The Boston Herald gives an extensive look at Naval Academy grad Lt. j.g. Eric Kettani’s struggle to secure an early release from service to play football for the New England Patriots, a release he was granted late last month. Kettani must pay back about $60,000 for his education and will continue to serve in the Navy…
After Action weighed in Monday on what the resignation of Big East Commissioner John Marinatto might mean to the Navy football program, which will begin play in the Big East in 2015 and was brought in as part of a Marinatto-led football expansion. We weren’t the only ones. Click through for links to four other pieces on the future of the conference, plus some Navy-themed notes on each.
John Marinatto is out as Big East commissioner. His departure was first reported by CBS Sports’ Brett McMurphy, who also reported that Marinatto may have jumped before he was pushed — league presidents asked for his resignation Sunday, according to McMurphy’s sources. Marinatto extolled the virtues of the academy’s football-only move to the Big East alongside Navy officials shortly after the official announcement was named. The commish since 2009, he was behind the conference’s expansion efforts that have ranged from next-door neighbors to Conference USA refugees to schools on the other side of the country. He’s also been on hand…
Could the college football postseason be closed to the Army Black Knights and, for at least a year or two, the Navy Midshipmen? A CBSSports.com report says an NCAA task force will propose turning over regulation of the 35-game holiday TV filler known as bowl season to football conferences, leaving the governing body out of everything except sponsorship approval. That means conference would decide how many bowls are played and who plays in them — leaving independent teams such as Army and Navy on the outside looking in. The Navy folks already have a solution in place come 2015, and…
The Navy’s commitment to join the Big East as a football-only member in 2015 was one in a series of rapid-fire realignment moves by the conference, which recently parted ways with West Virginia and will lose Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the Atlantic Coast Conference in the next year or two (probably not two). Farewell, Mountaineers, Panthers and Orange. Hello, Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, Southern Methodist and, straining the dictionary definition of “East” to the breaking point, San Diego State. And now, according to a New York Times report, Temple. The Owls’ last stay in the Big East ended…