Georgetown & St John's pushing to dissolve Big East

[Warner2BruceTD]

Damn. If they end up making a basketball only Catholic Conference, won't that be detrimental? Don't schools like Nova, Providence, and St. John's still get revenue shares from BE football? Also losing MSG will be a major drawback for recruiting. Finally, what happens to the schools who already left, do they still have to buy out?

At least, this will be interesting.

The Catholic 7 are projecting a potential basketball only TV deal won't net them that much less as what the weakened Big East is now projected to get, because those schools only get partial shares anyway and the new deal is expected to be shit. Plus, they think they can use ESPN & NBC Sports Network as leverage against each other.

What happens to MSG is the next big question. They can pull out of the deal with the Big East at any time if it's based on changing membership, and will almost certainly pull out once this is final, because they aren't going to host a tournament with Tulane, Houston, South Florida, SMU, etc that nobody cares about.

The schools that already left are thrilled about this, because now its expected that they won't have to wait and can leave immediately.

The bottom line is they are tired of the football bullshit and it's time to go and get back to the basketball roots, Big East name or not.

"Everybody likes the idea of being in a conference with Connecticut, Cincinnati, Memphis and Temple, but what happens when Connecticut and Cincinnati leave one day?" said a source from a nonfootball-playing school. "It's not like this is over. Eventually, Connecticut and Cincinnati would be gone, too. So I think the opinion from our side is to just move on. And I think we're just tired of it. That's the bottom line. We're just tired of this because none of this is helping us."

[FirstTimer]

The Catholic 7 are projecting a potential basketball only TV deal won't net them that much less as what the weakened Big East is now projected to get, because those schools only get partial shares anyway and the new deal is expected to be shit. Plus, they think they can use ESPN & NBC Sports Network as leverage against each other.

What happens to MSG is the next big question. They can pull out of the deal with the Big East at any time if it's based on changing membership, and will almost certainly pull out once this is final, because they aren't going to host a tournament with Tulane, Houston, South Florida, SMU, etc that nobody cares about.

The schools that already left are thrilled about this, because now its expected that they won't have to wait and can leave immediately.

The bottom line is they are tired of the football bullshit and it's time to go and get back to the basketball roots, Big East name or not.

Plus NBC Sports just merged or whatever with Yahoo Sports

[Rudi]

This sounds pretty set in stone..as long as Georgetown comes around.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/goldeneagles/bigeast14-d7815om-183439151.html?ipad=y

Marquette's new basketball-centric athletic conference will include 10 or 12 teams, have a reasonable television contract and rotating sites for its league tournament, according to university sources.

The Golden Eagles will join six other former members of the Big East: Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, DePaul, Seton Hall and Villanova. Butler and Xavier will leave the Atlantic 10 to join the new unnamed league.

Creighton, Virginia Commonwealth, Dayton or St. Louis could become the 10th team, or the conference could begin play with 12 teams if three schools vying for the 10th spot are all worthy candidates.

The decision to form the new league has already been made, according to MU sources. The only holdup is Georgetown President John J. DeGioia, who is struggling with the idea of his school leaving the Big East.

Once DeGioia signs on, an announcement on the formation of the new league, which would begin play next season, could come as early as Friday.

Marquette's share from a TV contract should be no less than the $1.5 million it currently receives from the Big East, a source said.

With the addition of Butler, which has made two of the last three Final Fours, there is a possibility that the first league tournament could be played at Indianapolis' Bankers Life Fieldhouse (old Conseco Fieldhouse). The site would then most likely rotate, with the possibility of Milwaukee playing host if a new arena is built.

The fact that the league is being formed to feature men's basketball thrills Marquette officials. Since joining the Big East in 2005, Marquette believes it has compromised on its lead sport to accommodate the football wishes of the Big East. But as the Big East struggled to survive by clinging to football, it alienated its seven remaining basketball-first members.

Athletic directors at Marquette and the six seceding schools were prepared to break away at least six months ago as the Big East continued to hemorrhage prestigious members. Recent defectors include Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia.

When Rutgers joined Maryland in the Big Ten Conference and Louisville left for the Atlantic Coast Conference within the last month, the push to leave the Big East gained momentum for Marquette.

Then, when the Big East announced that basketball lightweight Tulane would join the Big East, presidents at the seven schools, with the exception of DeGioia, joined their athletic directors in the movement.

The Marquette president, Rev. Scott Pilarz, joined MU vice president and director of athletics Larry Williams in New York earlier this week to inform the Big East of its plans to withdraw.

Neither Pilarz nor Williams were available for comment Thursday.

Marquette's other 11 sports - women's basketball, track and field, cross country, men's golf, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis and women's volleyball - will compete in the new league.

The Golden Eagles' nationally prominent soccer and volleyball teams will immediately become among the best in the new conference.

But men's basketball, the primary revenue producer for the athletic department, will seriously benefit from affiliation with the new league.

Although the conference cannot immediately compete with the heyday of the Big East, when Georgetown, Syracuse and Connecticut ruled the college basketball landscape, the Golden Eagles will be in a much better place than they were in a Big East that was crumbling while trying to maintain a football foothold.

While the new league will not have a traditional brand name like North Carolina and Duke in the ACC or Indiana in the Big Ten, it will feature new-blood programs such as Butler, Xavier and the Golden Eagles, who have made the Sweet 16 in each of the last two seasons.

Georgetown also will give clout to a league that will have an automatic NCAA berth and should provide a number of at-large teams to the tournament.

The new league will be the fifth since 1988 for Marquette, which had been an independent before joining the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. While the Golden Eagles are accustomed to conference jumping and excited about the move, traditional Big East schools like Georgetown are having trouble leaving.

Terms of a buyout have not been determined for the departing schools.

What happens to the Big East is anyone's guess. It could fold or try to hang on with Connecticut and Cincinnati, Temple and Memphis, as well as Southern Methodist, Houston, Tulane and Central Florida. East Carolina, Navy, San Diego State and Boise State are football-only members.

Meanwhile, there will be many details to sort out before the new league can begin play. As one source noted, no one among the seven breakaway schools has experience in beginning a new league. But that challenge paled in comparison to Marquette's wish to no longer be a part of what the Big East had become.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Xavier & Butler have agreed to join the Catholic 7 in whatever new conference ends up forming, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

[Rudi]

With that, the A10 is on the verge of collapsing...VCU,Dayton and St. Louis are all being considered to join the Catholic 7

[Warner2BruceTD]

It must suck to be a fan or alumni of schools like Memphis, Temple, UCONN, etc where whether they refuse to accept it or not, they will never be football powers, and their traditionally strong basketball programs are constantly being screwed by the lure of football dollars and the obsessive chase for that money.

The Big East really needs to just give up the name and rebrand. It has no value in football anymore. Let the hoops schools you kicked around for the last decade have it, and move on.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Where we're at:

-Catholic 7 can NOT dissolve the league. They would need at least two football votes to dissolve. They can, however, vote to split, and that is the current plan.

-Georgetown got cold feet, but as of 1am eastern, jumped back on board and the split is now considered a formality.

-Since the Catholic 7 are leaving as a group, they do not have to pay exit fees to the Big East. HOWEVER, this would also require a 27 month notice. The Catholic 7 are expected to offer some sort of financial compensation in order to be able to split immediately and begin play in their new league next season.

-The Catholic 7 would retain their auto NCAA tournament bid, and also retain their NCAA tournament payoff units earned as Big East members.

-It is unknown who will get the Big East name & MSG tournament contract. The Catholic 7 includes four founding Big East members (Georgetown, St Johns, Providence, Seton Hall), while the Big East only has one (UCONN). This could be a factor if legal push comes to legal shove.

-Sources say MSG will likely pull out of their deal with the Big East if the basketball teams leave anyway. This would open the door for the new Catholic 7 league or another league to secure the prime MSG deal.

-Butler & Xavier have agreed to join the new league. St Louis, Dayton, Creighton, VCU, George Mason, St Joe's, UMass, LaSalle, Davidson, Gonzaga, St Mary's, and even BYU, San Diego St, New Mexico have all been linked to rumors to varying degrees of likelihood, from very likely (VCU, Dayton, St Louis) to longshots (any school with FBS football).

-Fuck football. It's about time the foot went down on this bullshit. To make this baby a complete sweep, here's hoping the Catholic 7 get the name & tournament, and send the ex-Big East into the football & basketball irrelevance that they deserve.

[A Tasty Burgerr]

I think its really funny that the Journal Sentinel is doing some actual reporting on this since normally their day-to-day Marquette coverage is awful.


Overall though this is pretty much the best possible situation in my eyes for Marquette, forming an all-basketball mini-super league was a pipe dream when the first group left for the ACC and things started to go downhill. It seems like the "Catholic 7" (which is an awesome fucking moniker by the way that is going to help forge some great rivalries) have a ton of chips in their corner and have pulled this off pretty unbelievably cleanly. I feel bad for UConn and Cincy but I'm sure they'll latch on somewhere soon.

And all thanks to fucking Tulane, Marquette's AD was having none of that RPI-ruining Green Wave shit.

[dope]

uconn should just go independent in football and join this basketball conference

[ralaw]

-Butler & Xavier have agreed to join the new league. St Louis, Dayton, Creighton, VCU, George Mason, St Joe's, UMass, LaSalle, Davidson, Gonzaga, St Mary's, and even BYU, San Diego St, New Mexico have all been linked to rumors to varying degrees of likelihood, from very likely (VCU, Dayton, St Louis) to longshots (any school with FBS football).

If the "Catholic 7" wants to keep with their roots the only teams they should allowed in should be teams from the North East. Marquette, Butler, Xavier, Davidson, Gonzaga, St Mary's, BYU, San Diego St, New Mexico? GTFO!! I am obviously East Coast bias.

[SuperKevin]

I'd love for George Mason to join them. I feel like they could be competitive in that conference.

I would also like to see VCU or Richmond get an invite. If Butler joins I feel VCU will follow them in a heartbeat

[Hasselbeck]

If the Lobos wound up in this conference..

[NAHSTE]

If the Lobos wound up in this conference..

That would be just as bad as the new shite Big East that these guys were railing against in the first place.

[Warner2BruceTD]

It's official. The vote is in and they have split from the Big East.

[Warner2BruceTD]

UCONN & Cincinnati want in. They think they can cut football only deals with other leagues. I don't like that idea. If you want to play football, go play football with other football schools. The purpose of this is to get away from football. But these two schools are shitting their pants now because old Big East is now a shitbag hoops league.

Gonzaga wants in and has made calls.