Big East commissioner Mike Aresco announced that football will go to a two-division format beginning next year with the divisional winners playing in the Big East championship game.

UConn will be in the East division with holdovers Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and South Florida while newcomer Central Florida will also play in the East.

Temple is the only current Big East team in the West Division and the Owls will be joined by Boise State, Memphis, Houston, San Diego State and Southern Methodist.

Under this format, teams will play eight conference games. Each team will play the teams in their division once and will play three crossover games against teams in the other division.

The home and away opponents will be announced early next month after annual athletic directors' meeting in New York on Dec. 3.

The divisional format could be revisited after the 2014 season with Navy and according to the official release "possibly other schools" joining the conference.

It was also announced that the Big East championship will be hosted by one of the participating teams rather than at a neutral site.