Amidst all the new Big East Conference expansion talks, there are rumors swirling about which college football program will or will not get asked to join the league. Now, there are many non-Bowl Championship Series conference schools that would love to join a league that has a automatic berth to a BCS game. But, there's one program, the University of Central Florida, that probably wants an invite more than any other school and reports indicate that it finally might get its chance.
"Sources say big east ready to offer central florida spot this week," tweeted New York Daily News college basketball writer, Dick Weiss, on Monday.
Last year, after the Big East announced that Texas Christian University would be joining the league in 2012 -- the Horned Frogs decided Monday that it would be joining the Big 12 instead -- there were many rumors that UCF was going to be the next program added. However, expansion talks stalled and the Knights were left in the waiting room.
But now, with Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East needing a big-market program to try and fill those two voids, UCF is a great option. (Last November, SB Nation New York predicted that UCF was going to be the 10th football-playing member of the Big East.)
"What UCF has right now is a 45,000-plus on-campus football stadium and a 9,400-plus basketball arena both built in 2007," ," wrote Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinal on Saturday." It also has a student-enrollment of 56,187, making it on par with schools like Ohio State and Texas."
The new news is really good for UCF, but here's the issue -- as SB Nation New York examined on Monday -- the Big East maybe saying good bye to its automatic BCS berth come 2014. Now, the move from the Conference USA to the Big East is an upgrade -- unless, West Virginia University and University of Louisville end up leaving -- but will it be worth it if its new league loses its BCS berth?
The only hope for the UCF faithful is that the addition of the Knights can helps its "new" league keep its AQ status. In my opinion, the Big East will need more than just UCF to make that happen.