The Big East fired a warning shot Tuesday in the ongoing inter-conference battle for New York City when commissioner John Marinatto said on a conference call that the league will try to hold its football championship game at iconic Yankee Stadium once the league expands to 12 teams.
According to a report from Bloomberg News, Yankees president Randy Levine said the team would be interested in playing host, a move that would strengthen the Big East's foothold in the five boroughs after it lost Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the Atlantic Coast Conference last month.
The new Yankee Stadium is home to the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, which features teams from the Big East and the Big 12. The stadium will also be the site of a game between Army and Big East member Rutgers on Nov. 12.
"We would like to do a championship game here in New York City. How great would that be?" Marinatto said. "We want to quickly resolve this, but we realize there are a number of moving pieces. We're not going to rush ourselves to meet anyone's deadline."
The Big East will have six football members after Syracuse and Pittsburgh leave and would need six more in order to have a conference championship game, as per NCAA rules. Though reports last week linked the Big East to Navy, Central Florida, Boise State and Air Force, Marinatto said the league has yet to send out any invites, a statement that contradicts a Monday report from the Houston Chronicle that said the league had invited the University of Houston. Marinatto did say, however, that the league plans to increase its exit fee to $10 million once it adds another football-playing member.