The Big East Conference is expected to announce Tuesday that Navy football will join the league in the 2015 season. The move would help the conference replace departing Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia and move the league closer to its goal of creating a 12-team league in football. The conference would then be divided into an East and West divisions.
"The Big East has been courting Navy, a football independent, for months and service academy officials had made it known they liked the idea of joining."
More on Navy joining after the jump...
Navy, which will play Army at Lincoln Financial Field in 2012, currently plays an Independent at the Football Bowl Subdivision level and would be one of four other football programs -- Boise State, San Diego State, SMU -- that are planned to be added to the conference over the next few years.
Of course, this move all but eliminates any chance of the Villanova Wildcats football program, which already had slim chances, of being added as a Big East football-playing member.