Big Ten coming to Yankee Stadium

[June 03, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The Pinstripe Bowl and Big Ten will announce at Yankee Stadium on Monday a multiyear agreement between the conference and the 3-year-old postseason game, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Big Ten will replace the Big 12 in the Pinstripe Bowl, starting in 2014.

The person was not authorized to speak for the conference or the bowl and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Yankees on Sunday in a release said owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine will attend the news conference, but did mention which conference representative would be attending.

The move is not unexpected. Athletic directors at the Big Ten meetings in Chicago two weeks ago said the league was working to add the Pinstripe Bowl to its new postseason lineup.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is the front-runner to land the spot opposite the Big Ten and replace the Big East. The Big East helped the Yankees get the Pinstripe Bowl off the ground, and between Syracuse and Rutgers the conference has won all three of the games.

But Big East football is in its last season. The conference will be renamed the American Athletic Conference next season and by 2014 both Syracuse and Rutgers, along with Pittsburgh and Louisville, will be gone. Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Louisville are joining the ACC.

The American, which will still have Connecticut and Temple to give it a Northeast presence, is still hoping to maintain an affiliation with Pinstripe Bowl.

Monday's news conference will only be about the Big Ten.

The Big Ten's addition of Rutgers made the Pinstripe Bowl, which is sponsored by New Era, a perfect fit for a league trying to lay claim to largest media market in the country, the New York metropolitan area.

The Big Ten is also trying to increase its bowl presence in California and is expected to add the Holiday Bowl in San Diego and the Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco to its postseason roster.

ESPN.com has reported that the Big Ten and the ACC will also share a spot in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., and the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., with each conference sending a team to each game three times during a six-year agreement.

[Associated Press; By RALPH D. RUSSO]

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