Headlinin’: Navy ships out for the Big East

Making the morning rounds. • Anchors away. After a few months of hemming and hawing, Navy is set to announce its plans to join the Big East in 2015, ending 132 years of independence since the academy fielded its first football team in 1891. With its targeted westward expansion last December, the Big East now boasts 11 prospective members beyond the next two years, and will likely be looking to add one more to get to 12 by the time the Midshipmen come aboard. I should emphasize the term prospective: As of right now, the conference roster will consist of either seven or eight teams this fall — depending on whether West Virginia's lawyers can spring the Mountaineers in time to join the Big 12 — before bringing on five new members (Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State and SMU) in 2013. By then, West Virginia should be free of the league's legal tentacles, with ACC-bound Pittsburgh and Syracuse following close behind. By 2014, the only charter member remaining ...