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.