You knew the denial was coming, yes? Oh, and if you were wondering why ECU wasn’t mentioned in all these rumors …

Even East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland, on the school’s official website, gave his spin on what he believes the Big East will do regarding expansion. The Pirates have made it no secret they covet a Big East invitation.

“The Big East has been in a bunker mentality, hoping to keep enough of its eight current members to remain a viable FBS (formerly Division I-A) conference with automatic qualification for BCS bowl games,” Holland wrote last Friday in “A Message To The Pirate Nation”.

“Now that there is a possibility the Big East will not lose any current members, the Big East dilemma remains how to add football members when there is ‘no room at the Inn’ for other sports,” Holland wrote. “The eight Big East FBS institutions are locked into a successful consortium with eight other institutions who do not play FBS football in the Big East.

“The Big East is wisely going to exhaust every possibility to solve their dilemma internally before addressing the complications created by adding ‘football only’ members or leaving their 16-team consortium to create a new conference. The ‘internal’ solution of choice is for Notre Dame to agree to move their football program into the Big East. As long as there is the slightest possibility this could happen, the Big East will not close the door on that possibility by adding someone else as the ninth member.”