PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Is Notre Dame thinking about leaving the Big East Conference for the Big 12?

While Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds told CBSSports.com Tuesday he’s fine with a 10-member Big 12, he added the league talked to Notre Dame about joining the conference. Dodds said the discussions date as far back as August 2010.

Notre Dame currently competes as a member of the Big East in all sports except football. The football program remains an independent.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick talked about Dodds' comment here Wednesday at the Big East spring meetings.

On the Big 12 discussions:

“I think a little bit more was made out of DeLoss’ comment than might be warranted. But it’s represented. I talked to my peers a lot. It’s not that it’s conferences. It’s fellow ADs. And it’s the nature of the business. I have extraordinary admiration from him. [I] learned an awful lot from him talking to him over the years, so it’s fairly routine. And the focus tends to be discussions with other ADs not conferences.

On his confidence in the Big East’s stability given it lost four teams and a commissioner in a year's time:

“I have great confidence in it. I think the atmosphere reflected here, the focus on the future leadership of the conference are all steps towards that, the work that was done to replace the departing members. So that’s all good stuff. You know I don’t think there’s any reason to not be optimistic about their future.”

On Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Mike Brey saying the university has a contingency plan just case the landscape changes:

“One of the resolutions for us is postseason football and what will it look like. That process is coming near to closure. And that’s an important thing for all us, but Notre Dame in particular, getting a better handle on that. We will see where that goes.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Big East basketball coaches want to make sure no team gets excluded from the conference tournament.

They expressed their desire Tuesday here at the conference’s spring meetings to continue to have all league teams compete in the Big East tourney when the conference expands to 18 teams in 2013-14.

There would be two play-in games just to get the 16-team tourney format the conference currently has.

 “To me the impression was they wanted to give all of the student athletes the opportunity to play,” Big East interim commissioner Joe Bailey said. “ And when you eliminate two right from the beginning, that’s not a healthy situation. You have two schools from two teams that are watching it  on Television.”

The conference presidents will make a decision on any recommendations made at the spring meetings.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rutgers women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer is elated that Temple is set to become one of the newest members of the Big East Conference.

The Owls will become a football member next season. Temple will join for all other sports in 2013-14.

“They should have been in the Big East,” she said at the Big East’s spring meetings. “John Chaney, that’s where he deserved to be playing.”

Chaney guided  the Temple men’s basketball program to 17 NCAA tournament appearances – including five NCAA regional finals – during his 24-season career on North Broad Street.  A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of the Fame, Chaney compiled 741 wins as a college coach before retiring in 2006. The coach was 516-252 at Temple, where he won seven Atlantic 10 titles.

“The thing I most regret is I wish they would have been in the Big East when he was there,” said Stringer, who along with Chaney coached at Cheyney State in the 1970s. “ I got to believe that probably one of the biggest reasons [Temple wasn’t an all-sports Big East member] was because of him.  

“You know, because the man was just brilliant.”

While she wouldn’t name specific member institutions, Stringer believes Temple was previously blocked from joining the Big East.

“Whatever reason that happened,” she said. “It was the politics of it or whatever. But I think throughout the country, we’ve seen a number of programs who have made it their business to make sure other programs don’t get in.  And I’m not talking about just the Big East, I’m talking about everywhere.”

Former North Carolina State small forward Tyler Harris plans to take an official visit to South Florida, reports Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times.

The 6-foot-8, 200-pounder has already visited Temple, Providence and Alabama at Birmingham. He will pick a school to transfer to early next month, his father Torrel Harris told Auman.

"We're interested in South Florida. I can tell you we're going to visit South Florida," Torrel Harris told the Tampa Bay Times. "They have a great interest in Tyler, and they just had a heck of a year. We're trying to go to a school that gives him a chance to get back to the NCAAs."

South Florida defeated Temple, 58-44, in the second round of the NCAA tournament in March.

Harris averaged just 1.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 6.9 minutes this past season as a freshman. He left N.C. State after the season due to lack of playing time.

As a high school senior at St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.), Harris was the nation’s 135^th-ranked recruit in the Class of 2011, according to Rivals.com.

Let the preseason honors begin for Temple.

Five Owls were named to Phil Steele’s preseason all-Big East Conference teams.

The versatile Matt Brown was selected in three different positions.

As a punt returner, the senior joins junior defensive tackle Levi Brown on the all-conference second team.  Matt Brown was a third-team pick at running back and fourth-team kickoff returner.

Three other seniors -- offensive tackle Martin Wallace, safety Justin Gildea and punter Brandon McManus  --- also made the fourth-team.

Temple opens the season against Villanova on Aug. 31 in the Mayor’s Cup at Lincoln Financial Field.

Former Temple quarterback Chester Stewart signed a rookie free-agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder, who started six games last season, completed 54 of 83 passes for a team-best 743 yards and two touchdown passes. Stewart also had two interceptions.

He completed all nine of his pass attempts for 140 yards in a 38-7 victory at Maryland.

Stewart joins former Owls tailback Bernard Pierce (third-round pick) and tight end Matt Balasavage (free agent) as Ravens' rookies.

Aaron Brown is taking his game to the 'Dirty South.'

The former Temple shooting guard is transferring to play basketball at Southern Mississippi.

Brown made his decision Wednesday afternoon after returning from a visit to the Hattiesburg, Miss. campus. He signed his scholarship papers Wednesday night.

“I feel like it’s the best place for me,” the sophomore said. “I love the coaching staff. [Conference USA] is a good conference and Southern Miss is a winning program.”

Brown will sit out next season due to NCAA transfer rules. Afterward, the 6-foot-5 Hackensack, N.J. resident will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Brown, who will enroll at Southern Miss in July, chose the Golden Eagles over Boston University and Wagner.

The St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) product asked for and was granted his release from Temple on April 14.

"I felt like I haven't been given the opportunity," Brown said at the time. "And I think that it is just time to move on. You know I worked hard. . . . I did everything they asked, a hard worker."

He ranked second on the team in three-point shooting at 41.5 percent this past season. However, he averaged just 6.4 points and 14.6 minutes.

During back-to-back games against Central Michigan and Toledo in December, Brown made nine of 15 three-point attempts. He played in every game this season and started in the season opener at Penn. However, his role and minutes diminished as the season wore on.

Talk about a rough week for the Big East Conference.

On Monday, John Marinatto resigned – or as CBSSports.com reported – was forced to resign as the conference's commissioner. Then, word came out that Boise State might consider backing out of a commitment to join the league as football member in 2013. And on Friday, Pittsburgh filed a lawsuit against the Big East for permitting Texas Christian and West Virginia to withdraw early from the league without much notice.

When Pitt and Syracuse announced their plans to leave for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East required a 27-month exit window.

In a lawsuit reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pitt says the Big East’s decision to allow West Virginia and TCU to leave early cost the school money.

CBSSports.com is reporting that Mountain West officials are trying to persuade Boise State to remain in the conference.  The Broncos are scheduled to join the Big East as a football-only member in 2013.

The crazy thing is the Broncos have yet to formally notify the MWC that they are leaving. And one can only assume Boise State is having second thoughts about joining the Big East.

Click here to read the CBSSports.com article.