Big East, Big 12 close to adding Yankee Bowl in 2010

The Big East and Big 12 conferences are near finalizing an agreement to play in the new Yankee Bowl beginning in 2010.

The Big East would send its third or fourth selection to New York against likely the seventh selection from the Big 12. The bowl game would be played at the new Yankee Stadium with a seating capacity of about 47,000.

The Big 12's Board of Directors is expected to approve adding the Yankee Bowl to the conference's lineup in 2010-13, Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said.

"That's our intent," Burda said. "All indications are we would add the Yankee Bowl to our lineup."

Burda said it hasn't been decided which selection the Yankee Bowl would get from the Big 12, but it "would be toward the bottom."

The Big 12 has eight bowl affiliations in its current lineup and is expected to maintain at least that many in the new cycle running from 2010-13.

Last month, the Big East officially announced the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando would get the league's second selection or Notre Dame once every four years if eligible beginning in 2010, taking the place of the current hybrid agreement with the Gator and Sun bowls.

The Sun Bowl had an offer from the Big East to take the league's third selection, but opted to take the fifth selection from the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Tampa Tribune reported.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl currently has the third selection from the Big East, but that could move down to fourth in the new lineup, or the Yankee and Meineke Car Care bowls could alternate between the third- and fourth-selections from 2010-13.

If the Big East adds the Yankee Bowl, the league's new six-bowl lineup likely would consist of BCS, Champs (Orlando), Yankee (New York), Meineke Car Care (Charlotte, N.C.), Papajohns.com (Birmingham, Ala.) and St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, Fla.).

Yankee Stadium officials have been seeking to add college football games at the new stadium and recently announced several future regular-season games, including Notre Dame-Army in 2010, Army-Rutgers in 2011, Army-Air Force in 2012 and Army-Boston College in 2014.