Navy won't join Big East — for now

By BILL WAGNER, Staff Writer

Athletic director Chet Gladchuk told The Capital this morning that Navy will not join the Big East Conference as a football-only member until at least 2015.

The Big East Conference is set to announce today or tomorrow that Central Florida, Houston and Southern Methodist are joining for all sports while Boise State and San Diego State will become football-only members. Those five schools are slated to begin competition in the Big East is 2013.

Navy is still expected to eventually join the Big East Conference, but could not overcome a variety of obstacles in time to be announced as a member during this cycle. "The timing is just not right for us now. We still have a number of hurdles to cross," Gladchuk said. "The Big East needs to move forward with expansion, but at this particular time we cannot move forward with them."

Gladchuk said problems surrounding scheduling, bowl affiliations and television contracts make it impossible for Navy to join the Big East in 2013. Gladchuk was hopeful those issues could be resolved in time for the Midshipmen to join the league in 2015.

"That is the target date. We need at least that amount of time to sort out these various issues," Gladchuk said. "We're hopeful the Big East will work with us to solve some things."

Perhaps the most critical element involves television, and the substantial revenue it provides. Navy has a contract with CBS College Sports through 2018 to televise all home games and with CBS Sports to televise the Army-Navy game.

The Big East Conference currently has a television contract with ESPN, but that expires after the 2012 season. League officials have already been negotiations on a new TV contract. If the Big East resigned with ESPN, Gladchuk said there would need to be negotiations between that network, the Big East, Navy and CBS to resolve the potential conflicts.

Second on the list of obstacles is the fact Navy has contracts with various schools to play 10 independent games every season through 2018. Army and Air Force would remain on Navy's schedule regardless of whether either service academy chooses to join the Big East, he said.

"In terms of scheduling, it is very easy to transition from one conference to another. You simply replace eight games from the old conference with eight games from the new one," Gladchuk explained. "It's not so easy to just walk away from an independent schedule. We either need to honor those existing contracts or find a way to replace those games."

Gladchuk said the Big East Conference could help with that situation by having fellow conference opponents pick up games with some of the schools Navy has scheduled.

Easier to resolve is the fact Navy has bowl commitments through 2017. Postseason games that have contracts with Navy, such as the Poinsettia Bowl and Military Bowl, would become automatically affiliated with the Big East Conference.

"We would just bring those bowls with us," Gladchuk said. 

Gladchuk said the Naval Academy was waiting for the Big East Conference to show some stability before making any sort of decisions with regard to potential membership. Now that the conference is guaranteed to have 10 members by 2013, he is much more comfortable with moving forward with negotiations for an eventual marriage.

"I believe the Big East Conference has solidified itself and will be a viable league for many, many years to come," Gladchuk said. "By holding off our membership until 2015 or so, it gives the Navy football program time to get its ducks in a row and be comfortable with the situation. We have a direction, we have a plan and now the coaching staff can prepare to play in and recruit toward a particular conference."

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