Big East split is official
Commisioner announces agreement effective July 1
Mar. 8, 2013 12:26 PM


“I am pleased that this agreement has been reached,” said Big East Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco. / The Associated Press

Written by
USA Today and Enquirer reports

The Big East is dead. Long live the Big East.

Thirty-four years after its establishment as a premier basketball conference anchored around major East coast cities, the Big East name will live on in what officials expect to be another premier basketball conference anchored in major East coast cities.

Big East commissioner Michael Aresco announced Friday a split of the Big East effective July 1 with seven of the league's Catholic schools leaving to form their own basketball-dominated league that will take the Big East name and stage its postseason tournament at Madison Square Garden.

"I am pleased that this agreement has been reached," Aresco said in a statement. "With the long-term well-being of our outstanding institutions and their student-athletes of paramount importance, each group worked through a number of complex issues in an orderly, comprehensive and amicable manner marked by mutual respect. We part ways as friends and colleagues and look forward to the success of both conferences."

In a joint statement released through the Big East, the presidents of the seven Catholic institutions that will form their own league said: "We are grateful to Commissioner Michael Aresco for spearheading an agreement that truly represents the best path forward for each of our great institutions and the thousands of student-athletes who compete for our schools annually. It is a great credit to Mike, our colleagues, and all involved that we were able to work through a host of highly complex and time-sensitive issues in such a short period of time. We are pleased that we reached this amicable and mutually-beneficial separation by approaching each issue with a spirit of cooperation and shared respect."

As part of the breakup agreement, football-playing members remaining are expected to split approximately $100 million of a $110 million Big East reserve fund. The departing Catholic 7 will split the remainder.

The seven charter members of the new Big East will be DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova. It is expected to be an all-sports league with up to 12 members, with possible additions including Butler, Creighton, Dayton, St. Louis and Xavier.

That will leave what has been known as the Big East with a new name and the following members: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville,

University of Cincinnati football coach Tommy Tuberville, upon hearing the news today, said, "We want to be in position to end up in a strong place. Everything will end up the way it should ... We're looking for a way to keep our conference together. You'll probably see more changes over the next 12 months."

Tuberville knew UC’s Big East situation when he left Texas Tech and took the Bearcats job on Dec. 8.

“Obviously there are big changes in college sports right now,” Tuberville said. “It doesn’t affect us in football, right now. We really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Memphis, South Florida, Southern Methodist and Temple. Current members Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are headed to the ACC, and Rutgers is headed to the Big Ten. Meanwhile, East Carolina, Navy and Tulane are scheduled to join the reconstituted and renamed Big East in 2014.

Aresco said in a separate statement that the name of the new all-sports league is undetermined, "We have not chosen a new conference name at this time and there are no favorites," Aresco said. "We are going through a thoughtful evaluation of potential names for our conference, and will select a name in a timely manner through a comprehensive and deliberate process that involves our presidents and athletic directors as well as constituents from inside and outside the conference. We are excited about the prospect of re-branding and look forward to working with our institutions and our fans as we engage in this process."

The seeds of the massive overhaul were planted in the 1990s, when charter members bristled at the increasing dominance of football within the league and throughout college sports. One of the final events that precipitated the breakup occurred in 2011 when presidents of the conference's schools turned down a television contract renewal with ESPN that would have paid $130 million per year to go on the open market. The league announced its new TV deal last week, one that will still pay $130 million -- but over a period of seven years.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...eakingnews

(03-08-2013 01:30 PM)ctipton Wrote:  Big East split is official
Commisioner announces agreement effective July 1
Mar. 8, 2013 12:26 PM


“I am pleased that this agreement has been reached,” said Big East Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco. / The Associated Press

Written by
USA Today and Enquirer reports

The Big East is dead. Long live the Big East.

Thirty-four years after its establishment as a premier basketball conference anchored around major East coast cities, the Big East name will live on in what officials expect to be another premier basketball conference anchored in major East coast cities.

Big East commissioner Michael Aresco announced Friday a split of the Big East effective July 1 with seven of the league's Catholic schools leaving to form their own basketball-dominated league that will take the Big East name and stage its postseason tournament at Madison Square Garden.

"I am pleased that this agreement has been reached," Aresco said in a statement. "With the long-term well-being of our outstanding institutions and their student-athletes of paramount importance, each group worked through a number of complex issues in an orderly, comprehensive and amicable manner marked by mutual respect. We part ways as friends and colleagues and look forward to the success of both conferences."

In a joint statement released through the Big East, the presidents of the seven Catholic institutions that will form their own league said: "We are grateful to Commissioner Michael Aresco for spearheading an agreement that truly represents the best path forward for each of our great institutions and the thousands of student-athletes who compete for our schools annually. It is a great credit to Mike, our colleagues, and all involved that we were able to work through a host of highly complex and time-sensitive issues in such a short period of time. We are pleased that we reached this amicable and mutually-beneficial separation by approaching each issue with a spirit of cooperation and shared respect."

As part of the breakup agreement, football-playing members remaining are expected to split approximately $100 million of a $110 million Big East reserve fund. The departing Catholic 7 will split the remainder.

The seven charter members of the new Big East will be DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova. It is expected to be an all-sports league with up to 12 members, with possible additions including Butler, Creighton, Dayton, St. Louis and Xavier.

That will leave what has been known as the Big East with a new name and the following members: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville,

University of Cincinnati football coach Tommy Tuberville, upon hearing the news today, said, "We want to be in position to end up in a strong place. Everything will end up the way it should ... We're looking for a way to keep our conference together. You'll probably see more changes over the next 12 months."

Tuberville knew UC’s Big East situation when he left Texas Tech and took the Bearcats job on Dec. 8.

“Obviously there are big changes in college sports right now,” Tuberville said. “It doesn’t affect us in football, right now. We really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Memphis, South Florida, Southern Methodist and Temple. Current members Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse are headed to the ACC, and Rutgers is headed to the Big Ten. Meanwhile, East Carolina, Navy and Tulane are scheduled to join the reconstituted and renamed Big East in 2014.

Aresco said in a separate statement that the name of the new all-sports league is undetermined, "We have not chosen a new conference name at this time and there are no favorites," Aresco said. "We are going through a thoughtful evaluation of potential names for our conference, and will select a name in a timely manner through a comprehensive and deliberate process that involves our presidents and athletic directors as well as constituents from inside and outside the conference. We are excited about the prospect of re-branding and look forward to working with our institutions and our fans as we engage in this process."

The seeds of the massive overhaul were planted in the 1990s, when charter members bristled at the increasing dominance of football within the league and throughout college sports. One of the final events that precipitated the breakup occurred in 2011 when presidents of the conference's schools turned down a television contract renewal with ESPN that would have paid $130 million per year to go on the open market. The league announced its new TV deal last week, one that will still pay $130 million -- but over a period of seven years.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...eakingnews

I like this statement

Jeez. If he does't look like Gruhls he could be a long lost brother.

mark blaudschun ‏@blauds

Big East-Catholic 7 break up was costly. Would you believe $15 million in legal fees?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nca...s/1974197/

Key points:

"What has been overlooked in this whole deal is that a league led by UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis and Temple will be one of the better basketball conferences year in and year out, and perhaps on par with the new Big East."

and this

"[T]he football/basketball lineup for next season is: Louisville, Rutgers, Cincinnati, UConn, South Florida, Central Florida, Memphis, Temple, Houston and SMU"

So, as has been noted by others, we still have at least one year left in a reasonably good football conference.