Before the sudden news broke last weekend that Pittsburgh and Syracuse were leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East was in the final stages of acquiring Navy as a football-only member.

No official invitation was extended by the league, but both parties had extensive discussions about Navy joining the league in football only and it very well could have happened in the next couple of weeks, college football industry sources told CBSSports.com.

Besides Navy, the Big East also was targeting Air Force and league sources felt confident both schools would have been Big East members, perhaps within the next year – that is until Pitt and Syracuse announced they were leaving for the ACC.

“Navy is one of the most special things out there, prestige,” said an administrator who would benefit from Navy being in a BCS league. 

“I don't see why Air Force doesn’t fit in a BCS league,” said the same person. “Class, class, class.”

However, with the Big East’s future now in limbo, it’s uncertain if Navy and/or Air Force will remain interested in joining either a Big East without Pitt and Syracuse or a merger of leftover teams from the Big East and Big 12 conferences. That is, in fact, if the Big 12 loses Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech to the Pac-12.

Navy is one of four independents with Army, Notre Dame and BYU, but doesn’t enjoy the automatic qualifying BCS access that Notre Dame does. Navy is in solid shape now with its own television deal, but with the division growing by the second between the automatic qualifying BCS leagues and non-AQ BCS leagues, Navy might feel it has better long-term security in an AQ BCS league.

“There were discussions and dialogues on a number of issues,” said an individual with knowledge of the talks between Navy and the Big East. “The question now is: what is the Big East going to look like in the future? How do they right the ship? I don’t think they even know that.”

Meanwhile, Tuesday night in New York, the league’s presidents and athletic directors from Cincinnati, UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida, TCU and West Virginia will meet with Big East commissioner John Marinatto to discuss the league’s future.

The meeting is for the league’s decision makers to gather face-to-face and see who wants to be a part of the Big East’s future.

“If they don’t want to be in the league, then they should make their intentions known and leave,” said one league official.

Also on Monday officials from Big East schools and the Big 12 schools proposed meeting Wednesday in Chicago to discuss the possible merger between the conferences. However, it was decided that meeting would that not be held because of legal issues involving both leagues.

UConn and Rutgers have been reported as possible candidates to the ACC, while West Virginia targeted the ACC or SEC, but was notified that neither league was interested.

If the Big 12 implodes next season by Texas A&M leaving for the SEC and more Big 12 teams leaving for other leagues, it would open up a BCSbowl spot for an at-large team but also would have an even greater impact on the bowl system.

"If the Big 12 isn't around next year, I can sum up the bowl system in one word: chaos," a college football industry source told CBSSports.com.

The Fiesta Bowl gets the Big 12 champion, if it doesn’t finish among the top two in the final BCS standings, as its "anchor" team. However without a Big 12 Conference, the Fiesta would be left to choose two at-large teams.

But it wouldn't be that simple. A major question would be when would the Fiesta Bowl get its first pick of at-large teams? The BCS by-laws are currently set up so that the five bowls – BCS, Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar – have a set rotation each year to fill their bowls. Without a Big 12 champion would the Fiesta Bowl get the first at-large pick overall or have to wait until the last pick?

Bowl sources said that could be a major issue since the BCS certainly couldn’t have predicted the Big 12 might not be around when the current BCS contract expires after the January 2014 games.

“We’re in close contact with our partners and are monitoring developments,” a Fiesta Bowl spokesperson said Wednesday. “We are not going to speculate on rumors related to the Big 12 Conference or anyone else for that matter.”

BCS executive director Bill Hancock also said Wednesday he does not discuss hypothetical situations.

Also, the BCS bowls can only take two teams from a conference, so that would increase the chances for non-AQ conference teams, such as Boise State, to secure an at-large BCS bowl bid.

A bigger – and more complex – issue that would impact one-fifth of the bowls would be what does the bowls with Big 12 tie-ins do for teams if there is no Big 12?

Besides the Fiesta, the Big 12 bowl lineup is Cotton, Alamo, Insight, Holiday, Texas and Pinstripe.

So the Cotton, instead of pairing the No. 2 team from the Big 12 against the No. 3 pick from the SEC, would have to wait until all of the other remaining bowls with existing contracts with the other 10 conferences choose their teams before it could fill that spot.

“What do you think will happen when [SEC commissioner] Mike Slive’s third-place team doesn’t have a quality opponent,” a source said.

The bowls all have specific contracts indicating a specific pick from a conference to play another specific pick from another conference.

But if that conference is the Big 12 and it doesn’t exist anymore, it would be nullify the bowl agreement and nullify the television contract, a source said.

“You’d be starting over," a source said. "It involves everyone. What are we going to do? Have a draft of teams? ESPN doesn’t want to broadcast Michigan vs. Fresno State, it wants to televise Michigan against a comparable BCS program.”

“If the Big 12 doesn't survive," said a college football industry source, “the bowl system will be a gigantic mess.”

As our series on college football’s cheaters continues today, I looked at the most frequent cheaters – at least in terms of major infractions – since SMU received the Death Penalty in 1987.

It’s a neck-and-neck race between Alabama and Texas Tech, with three major infractions each.

There are also a dozen teams – Cal, Colorado, Florida International, Florida State, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, SMU, Texas A&M, USC and Washington – with two infractions each

Here are the remaining 42 teams with one major infraction each: Arkansas, Arkansas State, Arizona State, Auburn, Ball State, Baylor, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisiana Lafayette, Marshall, Maryland, Memphis, Miami, Michigan, Michigan State, Mississippi, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, San Diego State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, UTEP, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington State and Wisconsin.

In all 56 of the 120 FBS programs have committed a major infraction in the past 25 years, including nearly two-thirds of the automatic qualifying BCS programs.

By the way, I loved a response on Twitter from @FGrimes1 – listed as Forrest Grimes – defending Texas Tech’s three major infractions. He wrote: “Most of Techs major infractions came around the same time, way to make Tech look like a contuinously dirty program a--hole."

For Mr. Grimes’ information, Tech’s violations were not at the same time – but spaced more than 10 years apart in 1987, 1998 and on Jan. 7, 2011 – during Grimes’ current semester as a journalism major at Tech

While our two-week series is looking at whether schools can win without cheating, I think it’s important to recognize the 23 AQ BCS programs that have not committed a major infraction since 1987 … so far.

ACC–Boston College, Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest.
Big East–UConn, Louisville, South Florida, West Virginia.
Big Ten–Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue.
Big 12–Iowa State, Missouri.
Pac-12–Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA.
SEC–LSU, Vanderbilt

High Point Solution Stadium. Not exactly the most tradition rich name in college sports, but, hey, it is the newest. Tuesday, Rutgers announced a 10-year naming rights deal with High Points Solution worth $6.5 million.

The initial reaction on my Twitter feed to a corporation naming a college stadium was "Ugh." But if you haven't figured out by now how vital big bucks are in college football these days, then it's time for you to take off your leather helmet and put it in storage.

Remember a time when bowl games were actually named after fruits and not dot.com businesses or car muffler stores? Yeah, me neither. Now it's a rarity if a bowl game isn't named after a corporation. Years from now, the same - unfortunately - will be said about college football stadiums.

Anyway, Rutgers' deal is the fifth-highest per year amount for a college stadium named after a corporation/business. This list does not include stadiums named after individuals who may have contributed several gazillion dollars (i.e. Oklahoma State's Boone Pickens Stadium). This list also does not include college teams that play in NFL stadiums, such as Pittsburgh's Heinz Field or South Florida's Raymond James Stadium.

Here are the 11 college stadiums named after corporations and I'm sure this list will double within the next five years. For what it's worth the breakdown of corporation named college stadiums by conference: Big East (3), ACC (2), Sun Belt (2), Big Ten (1), Big 12 (1), C-USA (1) and MAC (1). (1).

School (Year) Stadium Name; Terms

Minnesota (2005) TCF Bank Stadium; 25 years, $35 million
Per year average: $1.4 million

UCF (2006) Bright House Networks Stadium; 15 yrs, $15 million
Per year average: $1 million

Maryland (2006) Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium; 25 years, $20 million
Per year average: $800,000

Texas Tech (2006) Jones AT&T Stadium; 25 years, $20 million
Per year average: $800,000

Rutgers (2011) High Point Solutions Stadium; 10 years, $6.5 million
Per year average: $650,000

Louisville (1998) Papa John's Cardinal Stadium; 10 years, $5 million
Per year average: $500,000

Louisville (2004) Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium; 33 years, $15 million
Per year average: $454,000

Akron (2009) InfoCision Stadium; 20 years, $10 million
Per year average: $500,000

Troy (2003) Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium; 20 yrs, $5 million
Per year average: $250,000

Syracuse (1980) Carrier Dome; Indefinite, $2.75 million
Per year average: n/a

Wake Forest (2007) BB&T Field; 10 years, undisclosed
Per year average: n/a

Western Kentucky (2007) Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium; unknown, $5 million
Per year average: n/a