It was revealed on Thursday afternoon that the departing catholic Big East schools will bolt as early as next season and they’ll take the naming rights to the league with them. ESPN first reported that DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova will be in the new “Big East” this fall.
The current Big east football schools will sell the name “Big East” to the departing basketball schools, who collectively have more original Big East members than any other conference. Sports Illustrated is reporting that the Big East tournament is likely to remain at Madison Square Garden. SI is also reporting that a television contract with Fox could be announced as early as Tuesday when Fox will be holding a meeting for advertisers for the upcoming launch of its new cable sports network. The new TV contract is expected to pay each member $3-4 million per year, which is over twice the amount the basketball schools currently receive from the TV contract with ESPN. Butler, Xavier and Dayton are just a few of the teams rumored to join the new Big East.
The most popular question right now is what will this mean for a school like Louisville, who still has one more year before they can join the ACC. Brett McMurphy of ESPN is reporting that this move may lead to Notre Dame joining the ACC as early as 2013. I seriously doubt that will be a possible for Louisville, but only time will tell.
This now means that Louisville will basically have a one year layover in a conference that at this point doesn’t actually exist yet. The next 12 months are going to be very interesting.
February 28, 2013 at 10:32 pm
Wow I say Louisville should join in 2013 if possible!
February 28, 2013 at 11:09 pm
I thought we were already locked into next years football schedule, but if we are no longer in the “Big East,” can we go ahead and join the ACC or at least schedule some tougher opponents now?
February 28, 2013 at 11:47 pm
Will the old big east remaining football schools still get an automatic BCS bid?
March 1, 2013 at 5:59 am
Basketball playing only members are leaving and I say good for them because this football thing is nuts!
March 1, 2013 at 7:58 am
No we cannot join the ACC early. Not unless Maryland leaves it early which probably isn’t going to happen.
March 1, 2013 at 9:32 am
I don’t know if this is possible but could we leave the big east and become an independent like Notre dame?
March 1, 2013 at 10:20 am
i thought if the catholic 7 were able to leave we would also be able to leave and join the ACC. because what conference are we in big east which is basketball only or whatever conference the rest reason them teams are gonna make up? Who we gonna play in football?
March 1, 2013 at 11:00 pm
Uhm, I’m real confused. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing for football. I guess only time will tell. Maybe this means we can schedule some tougher opponents now. This football realignment crap for money has really screwed things up…that being said I’m glad it gave us an opportunity to get into the ACC..just not in this mixed up manner.