This is a big surprise isn't it. A day after TCU was invited to the Big XII, Pete Thamel at the New York Times is reporting that the Big East will be holding a conference call today to discuss possible expansion candidates and could even extend an invitations to join the conference as well.
Thamel and Bill Koch at the Cincinnati Enquirer are each saying that UCF, ECU, and Temple are the main targets at this point, with Koch going on to say that the Big East will extend invitations to UCF and ECU.
With Navy currently in a holding pattern to see what happens with the Big East, UCF and ECU are the two best possible non-AQ schools out there. They've won the last four Conference USA championships, and UCF ended up in the BCS Top 25 last season. And while Navy can wait it out, both UCF and ECU have been wanting to join a BCS conference, and they both would jump at the chance to leave Conference USA for the possibility that the Big East would keep its BCS bid.
We will keep you updated if anything happens from the conference call today.