These tensions came to the surface in 2003, when the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced plans to expand from 9 to 12 members, which would allow that conference to hold a potentially lucrative football championship game. Miami in particular had been dissatisfied with the Big East as early as 1999. Once the Big East established a I-A football conference, tensions between the "football" and "non-football" schools were a constant issue, though mostly under the surface. In the meantime, UConn announced in 1999 that it would upgrade its I-AA football program to I-A its transition was completed in 2002, and it joined the Big East football conference in 2004. Temple remained a football-only member until 2004, when it was voted out of the conference due to poor attendance figures, lack of playing success, and inadequate facilities. Another of the 1991 football-only members, Virginia Tech, became a full member in 2000. These moves in the first half of the 1990s led to an unusual conference structure, in which only some of the full conference members played football in the Big East. In 1995, West Virginia and Rutgers became full members of the conference, and Notre Dame, with an independent football program, joined as a full but non-football member. To that end, the Big East added five schools with I-A programs- Miami as a full member, and Rutgers (which had turned down an invitation to become a charter member of the conference), Temple, Virginia Tech and West Virginia as football-only members. Ībout a decade after the conference's founding, the members decided to launch a I-A football conference. At the time of their respective arrivals in the Big East, both Villanova and Pitt had I-A football programs, but Villanova dropped football after the 1980 season, only reinstating the sport in 1985 at the Division III level and upgrading to Division I-AA (now Division I FCS) in 1987. Another Catholic school, Villanova, joined the following year, and Pittsburgh (Pitt), a quasi-public institution, joined in 1982. More significantly, only two of these schools-BC and Syracuse-then played football in the top-level Division I-A (now Division I FBS). The seven founders consisted of five Catholic institutions, one private but secular university (Syracuse) and one public school (UConn). The Big East was founded in 1979 by seven universities in the Northeastern United States- Boston College (BC), Connecticut (UConn), Georgetown, Providence, St. The FBS schools retained the charter of the original 1979–2012 Big East Conference, starting the 2013 academic year under the new name of American Athletic Conference. In the end, the "Big East" name, history, and contract to the Big East Tournament location rights at Madison Square Garden were exchanged for almost the entire balance of over $110 million left in the NCAA National Tournament prize pool accumulated by the Big East in prior years. Most notably, the seven schools that did not sponsor football in Division I FBS announced in December 2012 that they would leave as a group, which led to a formal split of the conference effective in July 2013. Beginning in the 2010–11 academic year and continuing into 2013, 13 Big East schools announced their departure for other conferences and 13 other schools announced plans to join the conference (eight as all-sports members, and five for football only), but three of the latter group later backed out of their plans to join (one for all sports, and the other two for football only). Following on the 2005 NCAA conference realignment, resulting in the move of 23 teams across various conferences after an initial raid of three Big East teams, the Big East was severely impacted in the follow-up 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment. The 2010–13 Big East Conference realignment refers to the Big East Conference dealing with several proposed and actual conference expansion and reduction plans among various NCAA conferences and institutions.
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