Naval Academy to Join Big East Football in 2015 to Bring Conference to 12
The U.S. Naval Academy is joining the Big East conference in football, the latest move in a nationwide shakeup in which the league lost three members and gained six others in the last six months.
The Big East’s football membership would grow to 12 teams by 2015 with the addition of Navy, which had competed as an independent. The Providence, Rhode Island-based conference is one of six whose champion is granted an automatic berth into a Bowl Championship Series postseason game.
The announcement was made on the conference’s website.
Navy, based in Annapolis, Maryland, finished 5-7 last season, capped by a 27-21 win over Army.
Pittsburgh and Syracuse left the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference in September, followed shortly after by West Virginia, which has announced its intentions to join the Big 12. The conference also lost Texas Christian, which backtracked on an agreement to join the Big East and jumped instead to the Big 12.
The Big East responded to the losses by adding Boise State and San Diego State for football, and Southern Methodist, Central Florida and Houston for all sports.
The conference has had nine football teams ranked in the Associated Press’s season-ending poll since 2007, with five of those coming from schools that are leaving. The Big East’s new members have combined for six Top 25 finishes in that span, including Houston and Boise State this season.
Navy’s Oldest Rival
Navy’s relocation allows it to continue rivalries with Rutgers and SMU. The Midshipmen and Scarlett Knights first met in 1891, making the Piscataway, New Jersey-based school Navy’s oldest football rival. Navy and SMU play for the Gansz Trophy, created in 2009 and named in honor of Frank Gansz, a Navy linebacker who coached at SMU.
Navy produced two Heisman Trophy winners, halfback Joe Bellino in 1960 and quarterback Roger Staubach in 1963. The team has played in eight bowl games since 2002, going 3-5.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
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