BRISTOL, CT — The Big East will be exploring it’s options to add two football teams to it’s conference next year, according to a press release sent out by Big East officials.

Big East presidents and athletic directors met in Philadelphia on Tuesday to discuss expanding the conference. The vote for expansion was unanimous among the conference presidents.

“Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value,” Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said in the statement (below).

Currently, the Big East is a 16-team conference, but only eight of those schools are in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Expansion would mean adding two more schools to their conference for football.

According to numerous reports, the front runners for invitations are the Mountain West Conference’s TCU and Conference USA’s UCF. Temple, Houston and Memphis have also been rumored to be teams seriously interested in joining the Big East.

Villanova, who is currently in the FCS for football, has also expressed intrest in being added to the conference for football in the FBS.

There has not been an announced timetable for any invitations handed out, but many reports say it could happen as early as the conclusion of the 2010 football season.

Some experts have shared their opinions on who should be invited to move to the Big East. ESPN’s Joe Schad says that “UCF still strong viable option for Big East as 9th or 10th team b/c of location, TV market, USF” while Fox 13’s Greg Gaston says “TCU makes no sense. This is no brainer for Big East. Villanova to 1-A football (hoops already in) plus UCF (Orlando Market).”

Here is a copy of the press release just sent to the media:

PHILADELPHIA — The BIG EAST Conference submitted the results of its extensive self-analysis and evaluation of the college athletics environment today at its annual Conference Board of Directors meeting.  Based on those results, the BIG EAST presidents agreed that the interests of each of the conference’s 16 member institutions would be served by increasing the number of Bowl Subdivision football-playing members to 10.  They unanimously approved the process to evaluate the terms and conditions for potential expansion candidates.

“Today, our Board of Directors affirmed a set of key strategic initiatives, including expansion, designed to enhance membership stability and maximize our value,” stated Commissioner John Marinatto.

Marinatto said the conference will refrain from commenting further on the expansion process.

More details to come soon.

Ryan Bass is a columnist for Knightnews.com. Check out his website here.