Big East officials have discussed the possibility of adding Boise State for football-only, a move that would help the league retain its automatic qualifying status for a BCS bowl bid after the current contract runs out following the 2013 regular season, according to a college official.

The official requested anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss league matters.

Adding Boise would be another major boost to the rebuilding process on the football side, with Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh telling the Denver Post in today's editions that the academy is hoping to join the Big East for football-only as well.

"Our interest is high in the Big East. That's fair to say," Mueh told the Post. "This stuff is moving fast."

One major stumbling block for both schools is finding a conference for their other sports, with the Post reporting that Air Force would try to move its sports from the Mountain West, where Boise is also a member, to the Missouri Valley. Boise would need a similar landing spot for its other sports before it could join the Big East.

The Western Athletic Conference could be a possibility for the other sports for Air Force and Boise State as well.

"We've had discussions with Air Force about joining in all sports but football,'' WAC commissioner Karl Benson told Boston.com, the Boston Globe's on line home. "And we would certainly be willing to talk to Boise State about the same arrangement."

With Navy also on the Big East's expansion radar for football-only, that could get the league back to nine football schools after Pittsburgh and Syracuse leave for the ACC.

One follow-up scenario being considered if Air Force, Boise and Navy do join is for the Big East to then add two schools for all-sports (from a group that includes Central Florida, Temple and East Carolina) and then push Villanova to eventually make the move to the FBS level.

That would get the Big East to 12 schools in football and 16 in basketball.

The Big East currently has an automatic BCS bowl bid as long as it has a minimum of seven teams through the 2013 regular season.

The next BCS conference evaluation — for automatic BCS bowl bids for the 2014-17 regular seasons — will be based on a league's performance from 2010 through 2013 and is calculated on the conference membership as of Dec. 4 of this year.

More coverage:

• Star-Ledger coverage of conference realignment

The addition of Boise would help the Big East during that next evaluation, since the Broncos' successful 2010 and 2011 seasons would then be counted for the Big East.



Before the Big East formally begins the expansion process league officials are seeking to substantially raise the current $5 million exit penalty as a show of unity among the remaining schools. But with Louisville and possibly West Virginia being eyed by other conferences, and with Rutgers and Connecticut still not fully committed to the league for the long term, hopes of pushing that through have not happened as quickly as had been anticipated.



Tom Luicci: tluicci@starledger.com