San Diego State staying with Mountain West
by Mark Blaudschun, Special for USA TODAY Sports
San Diego State will be staying in the Mountain West Conference for all sports.
The school and Big East Conference are working on a joint release announcing the dissolution of San Diego State’s agreement to come to the Big East on July 1, according to two people familiar with the Big East’s discussions.
The two people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been finalized.
With the departure of San Diego State, following the decision last month by Boise State not to join (also this July), the Big East’s “western” strategy of adding San Diego State, Boise State and perhaps a few other schools west of the Rockies, has been abandoned.
San Diego State’s original agreement with the Big East stipulated that the school could withdraw without penalty should there be no other members west of the Rockies.
With San Diego State and Boise both out of the mix. the Big East will expand from eight to 10 teams in football in 2013 with the addition of Houston, Southern Methodist, Memphis and Central Florida to offset the loss of Syracuse and Pittsburgh, who will move to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.
The 10 teams for 2013 are expected to be Connecticut, Temple, Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville, Central Florida, SMU and Houston.
In 2014, Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) will leave and be replaced by Tulane and East Carolina.
There has been some talk that Tulane and East Carolina could speed up the process and join a year earlier, but that is not likely to happen. Tulane will join as a member in all sports and East Carolina was admitted for football only.
But with the departures of Louisville and Rutgers, East Carolina is expected to be a full member in all sports.
Navy is scheduled to join the conference in football only in 2015.
In basketball, the Big East is expected to expand to 18 teams for next season with a mixture of old and new members, before the departure of departure in 2014 of the “Catholic 7″ — Seton Hall, Marquette, … [For more on San Diego State staying with Mountain West, click here.]
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