Aresco says Big East looking to keep name, add 12th school

According to an AP report, Aresco said the school may sign a TV deal with multiple networks

By Paul Tenorio | Orlando Sentinel UCF Writer

January 28, 2013, 9:53 a.m.

According to a report in the Associated Press, the Big East is looking to keep its name and add a 12th school in all sports.

Big East commissioner Mike Aresco spoke with reporters after a local chamber of commerce meeting in Connecticut and said the conference may sign a TV deal with multiple networks. The report also said Aresco hopes to add another school so that it has 12 playing both football and basketball when Navy joins in 2015.

There have been other reports and speculation that the Big East is targeting Tulsa to join the conference. According to this report in the Tulsa World, the chances of Tulsa leaving Conference USA to join the Big East has gone "from a possiblility to a likelihood."

The possibility of Tulsa joining the Big East opened after the decision of both Boise State and San Diego State to return to the Mountain West conference. That stopped the Big East's expansion westward, and Aresco told reporters that the conference would not move west of Texas.

UCF is set to formally join the Big East on July 1, 2013.

E-mail Paul Tenorio at ptenorio@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @OSKnights.