Big East AD’s vote to host football championship game on campus

By Kevin Kelley -

Big EastThe Big East athletic directors voted unanimously yesterday to host the conference Football Championship Game on campus.

The conference hopes to begin staging a championship game in 2013 after Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, SMU and UCF join.

The team with the best record in conference play will host the championship game at it’s stadium. Currently, Conference USA and the Pac-12 also use this format.

After researching the various options, the Big East settled on the on-campus model to increase attendance at the game and to make having the best record in conference play more valuable.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto at one point suggested the game be played in New York, but thought that might lessen attendance due to the new geography of the conference.

“It was unanimous to go with an on-campus conference championship,” associate commissioner Nick Carparelli. “We did a lot of research prior to this discussion, spoke to the Pac-12 about the experience they had, and they felt very comfortable with their decision. They felt in the first year of their championship game, the proof was in the pudding.”

The Big East also discussed their new division alignment. Dozens of models have been discussed, including east-west and north-south splits. But USF coach Skip Holtz said he prefers a split that includes a Florida, Texas and West coast team in each division to aid in recruiting.

One thing that is for certain is that the Big East will play an 8-game conference football schedule. Each Big East team will have four non-conference games, which is down by one from previous years.

Comments (14)

I’m not sure the Big East should look to the Pac-12 for advice on holding a championship game. The only Pac-12 Championship we’ve seen so far has been a disappointment.

Unless Boise or Louisville host the game I am sure many seat will be empty. Can you imagine if Temple hosted the game?

average temple attendance versus a bunch of mac teams that nobody in philly cared about was 28k last season. if they ever make a conference title game that building will have 50k+ in it. dont worry pnb, temple is going to draw.

we will see bcspete
I will have to see if to believe it but I hope you are right
I like Temple

This is the smart way to go. Yankee Stadium hosting a Big East Championship between Central Florida and San Diego State would’ve been a poor sell.

I still think it’s a little screwy to have Navy as a random 13th team. Any plans to add a 14th? Air Force, perhaps?

A few reports came out today stating that its between BYU and Air Force for the 14th membe spot.

Being a college football fan that lives in California and prefer Big Ten and SEC games I see no match-up for a championship game in the new Big East that I have any interest in. The conference truly appears to be a joke that’s trying to find a place.

Chuck. You cared enough to read an article about the Big East and then comment on it, so practice what you preach and stay out of BE articles since you have “no interest”. A Boise/Louisville or Boise/Cincinnati championship game would be pretty interesting to quite a few people.

The Big East is such a disaster – does Boise hates themselves?
Is this what they worked so hard for?