Air Force will not make a decision on the Big East until football season is over

[Rumrunner]

"Air Force officials remained silent Monday about any plans to move from the Mountain West to the Big East Conference in football. Academy spokesman David Cannon said Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Gould probably won't take up the issue until the football season is over. A person close to the discussions at the Big East said the expansion focus for teams in the West may have shifted to Brigham Young and Boise State and that Air Force might not be involved in the initial phase of adding new conference members."

http://www.denverpost.com/afa/ci_19345046

Coincidentally this is the same timeframe as Notre Dame. Next week invites go out..until they don't.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Holding off is the right move for Air Force and Navy and the right move for the Big East. Air Force is fine in the MWC and Navy should stay independent. I like to see them and glad that they are competitive now, but it doesn't make sense for them to be in a BCS league with their mission.

A western division of Nevada, Boise, SMU, Houston, BYU and SDSU or Fresno would be very good, particularly with the boost those schools would get from recruiting for a BCS conference. The East would be UCF plus the current Big East.

 

[epark88]

Taking a slight tangent here: I've always wondered why Nevada is universally favored over UNLV.

Despite their recent on-field success and being a state flagship, the Wolf Pack don't really seem to move the needle market-wise or popularity-wise. Why take them over a school in a major market that still has some national cache (albeit in basketball)?

Legendary FB coach notwithstanding (Chris Ault invented the Pistol offense!), imo Nevada doesn't have the same upside as the Runnin' Rebels. Am I missing something?...

 

[BarkingDog]

An associated press source says that because air force is non-committal at this point, the push is on to add BYU to give Boise a western partner. What was news, I thought, is he said Navy is leaning heavily to joining the BE.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Taking a slight tangent here: I've always wondered why Nevada is universally favored over UNLV.

UNLV lost more money playing football than any other school in the FBS over the last 5 seasons. I don't know why it is, but they bleed more money than a drunken sailor in a bar in Thailand.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

Taking a slight tangent here: I've always wondered why Nevada is universally favored over UNLV.

Despite their recent on-field success and being a state flagship, the Wolf Pack don't really seem to move the needle market-wise or popularity-wise. Why take them over a school in a major market that still has some national cache (albeit in basketball)?

Legendary FB coach notwithstanding (Chris Ault invented the Pistol offense!), imo Nevada doesn't have the same upside as the Runnin' Rebels. Am I missing something?...

For me the state flagship thing definitely is a big reason why I favor them in addition to their football team being generally pretty good based on my observations. UNLV's football program seems pretty lame by comparison but they are definitely the bigger name and better road trip by far.

 

[Stinger92860]

UNLV lost more money playing football than any other school in the FBS over the last 5 seasons. I don't know why it is, but they bleed more money than a drunken sailor in a bar in Thailand.

That's a lot of money....

 

[Rumrunner]

Jon Wilner of San Jose Mercury News says tonight that Air Force is leaning against joining.

That most likely means Gladchuk/Navy are still cool.

 

[NutmegState]

Rum, that was Wilner's opinion based on Ralph Drusso's "Big East focusing on BYU" entry. Wilner seems to be under the impression that BYU and AFA are mutually exclusive, which, by most accounts, does not appear to be the case.

 

[Rumrunner]

After looking at the twitter string, you're correct. Still, I wonder if is as cool as everyone hints on joining?

When and Navy were first bandied about a couple of months ago, it appeared was a lot more amenable to joining. Navy on the other hand was much more skeptical. Gladchuk even stated that the commitment of the (at the time) remaining 6 teams was paramount. Since then WVU has left and L'vile's days appear to be numbered. I wonder if Gladchuk has changed his tune?

All of the "Navy is in" sources are from the BE/UCF/Houston/SMU side.