The Pinstripe Bowl and the Big Ten have agreed to an eight-year partnership, it was announced Monday.
Commissioner Jim Delany was at Yankee Stadium for the announcement of the deal with the three-year-old bowl game that will begin in 2014. He appeared at a news conference with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine.
"When we began planning we had an objective to end up in New York at the New Era Pinstripe Bowl," Delany said. "We're in the east now with Maryland and Rutgers. Not only is New York the financial capital, sports capital of the country, but it is the place you need to be if you truly want to present a national slate of bowl games."
The Big Ten will send one of its teams to the Pinstripe Bowl from 2014-21. The partnership will provide the Big Ten signage inside Yankee Stadium for all Yankees home regular season games starting in 2014, a source said.
"No doubt having the Big Ten is going to take (the Pinstripe Bowl) to new heights," Steinbrenner said. "My family can definitely be considered a Big Ten family. My mother went to Ohio State. Dad (the late George Steinbrenner) coached football at Northwestern and Purdue. So from a family standpoint we're very excited."
Starting in 2014, a team from the Big Ten annually will play an ACC team in the Pinstripe Bowl, sources said. However, the ACC partnership was not part of Monday afternoon's news conference.
The deal between the Big Ten and Yankee Stadium also will include additional future conference events held at the ballpark, a source said.
Delany said the Big Ten will not be locked into sending a team from a specific slot in the standings to the Pinstripe Bowl -- or to any of its bowls outside the College Football Playoff system.
"All of us in college football are making an effort to sort of change from a system of pure selection to a system of working with the bowl and the conference to place a team that makes sense," he said. "That means for us we're going to try to get over an 8-year period, a minimum of six and a maximum of eight different teams here."
Starting in 2014, the Pinstripe Bowl is expected to be in a Big Ten three-bowl pool with the Kraft Fight Hunger and Gator/Music City to get the fifth through seventh selections from the conference.
The Pinstripe also is expected to be in an ACC four-bowl pool with the Belk, Sun and Gator/Music City to get the third through sixth selections from the league.
This year, the last of the current bowl cycle, will match teams from the Big 12 and American Athletic (formerly the Big East) conferences.
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.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.