When Navy joins the conference in 2015, the Big East will have 13 football-playing members. The conference wants to add a 14th team from the West to balance their divisions.
Another option the Big East has reportedly considered is adding Air Force, Army, and BYU to create a 16-team league with eight division members.
To accomplish this, the Big East would have to pacify three teams with separate issues. Air Force is currently loyal to the Mountain West Conference, Army hasn’t been interested in joining a conference since leaving C-USA, and BYU wants to keep their home television rights, among other TV issues.
ESPN also reports that the 14-team Big East will play an 8-game conference football schedule. The schedule will consist of six division games and two cross-division games. One of the cross-division games will be permanent, with the match-ups set as follows: Louisville-Cincinnati, USF-UCF, UConn-Rutgers, San Diego State-Boise State, SMU-Houston, Navy-Temple and Memphis versus the 14th team.
Regarding the divisions, ESPN reports that they will be named the Red Division and Blue Division. The most likely setup, which is not geographically oriented, is listed below:
Red Division
Connecticut, Louisville, Memphis, Navy, San Diego State, SMU, USF
Blue Division
Boise State, Cincinnati, Houston, Rutgers, Temple, UCF, plus 14th team TBD