According to multiple sources, it appears Villanova is on the verge of moving it’s football program up to the Football Bowl Subdivision and joining the Big East conference in football.
That leaves UCF out of the picture.
Multiple sources close to ESPN.com and Sportingnews.com are indicating that the Wildcats are the leading program to jump up to the Big East as the 10th member in football, seeing as they are already a member of the 16-team basketball conference.
The biggest hurdle for the Wildcats is money, as they are putting together a package of $25-30 million in start-up revenue. If major donors to the program can produce that amount of money, the vote will be “yes” from Villanova to move up.
The announced time frame for a decision was Mar. 1, but people close to the athletics department for Villanova have said that April was a deadline for a decision.
The Big East is looking for a school that can immediately add television revenue as well as not upset the balance of power that rests among the coaches of Big East basketball.
At this point, it seems all UCF can do it wait and hope the Wildcats cannot come up with the money. If the Big East wanted UCF, they would have pulled the trigger on the up-and-coming program a long time ago. It’s not about the potential anymore, it’s about what will make the basketball coaches happy and what will bring the most revenue to the Big East.
