The Big East released its completed bowl lineup for 2010-13 on Tuesday with an unexpected twist.

The league has signed a new agreement that could place a team in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.

The Big East also extended agreements with the Papajohns.com and Beef 'O' Brady's bowls. The latter is the former St. Petersburg Bowl.

"By all accounts the Big East bowl lineup is stronger than it's ever been," said league commissioner John Marinatto.  "We have aligned ourselves with great bowl games in first-class destinations."

Gone, however, is the league's anchor, the Gator Bowl, which had been part of a sliced deal with the Sun Bowl in recent years.

Now, after the Big East's spot or spots are filled in the Bowl Championship Series, the league will send a team to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., to take on an Atlantic Coast Conference team.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Charlotte, N.C., will have the next Big East pick, again versus an ACC team.

The newly formed and certified New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York will follow by pitting a Big East team versus a Big 12 team.

Then comes the twist.

According to Big East communications director Chuck Sullivan, a Big East team will participate in either the Papajohns.com Bowl or the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

The Liberty Bowl, which annually plays host to the Conference USA champ, also has an agreement with the Southeastern Conference.

"The two bowls will work together to create the best matchups,'' Sullivan said.

A published report Tuesday night said the Big East must play in the Liberty Bowl once during the four-year contract, but a Liberty Bowl executive said that was not accurate.

The Papajohns.com Bowl, which also has an agreement with the SEC, is scheduled for noon on Jan. 8 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. The Liberty Bowl is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

The Big East will send its last team (if there are enough available) to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl in St. Pete. Kickoff for that one is set for 8 p.m. on Dec. 21.

The Papajohns.com Bowl does carry a "contingency" agreement with Conference USA, but fans of those schools should only keep it in the back of their minds.

Alfred White, a C-USA assistant commissioner, said Tuesday that if the SEC did not fill the Liberty Bowl, C-USA could opt out and shop its champion elsewhere for a better matchup, and be able to move that team or another one into the Birmingham game.

That would take an unusual situation. Both Steve Erhardt, the Liberty Bowl's director, and White reiterated that the relationship between the bowl and C-USA is rock-solid.

That relationship not only stretches back to the founding of Conference USA in 1995, but even before that, when the bowl chose from a loosely affiliated group consisting of eventual C-USA charter members.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle. Doug Smock also contributed to this report.