Big East Basketball Schools to Split From Football Schools
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By
Matt Peloquin
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The decision has been made to leave. Now it is just a matter of seeing how they can leave.
The group of non-football school comprised of Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette and Depaul are ending their association with the 13 member football schools, but the path will be a rocky one.
At stake are millions of dollars in NCAA tournament shares, with over $28 million for this year alone. There is also the matter of the exit fees to be collected from departing schools such as WVU, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville, Rutgers and Notre Dame. But it’s the Big East name that will be the biggest issue, as well as the MSG contract for the conference tournament.
This is a process that will likely be decided in the courts as there are too many issues at hand. You have 9 schools set to join, most of whom had to pay exit fees to join the Big East in the first place. They joined based on the assumption that the conference would exist…since the basketball schools voted in favor of bringing in the 6 all-sports members of Temple, Houston, SMU, Memphis, UCF, and Tulane. Since their previous conferences (5 from CUSA) have brought in replacements, there is no place for them to go should the Big East dissolve. While they will likely simply regroup and form a new all-sports conference with the same 14 members with at least the 10 for all-sports, the issue is more about collecting the damages each school feels they will incur.
The football programs, regardless of if they keep the name or not, will have ample options. The conference could exist as a 10 school all-sports conference covering major markets throughout the east. They also have the option to bring in SDSU, Boise St. and other western schools such as BYU, New Mexico and UNLV and create a 16 school conference for all-sports with 8 western members in a division (such as Houston, SMU, New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, Boise St., San Diego St., Nevada) with the remaining 8 Big East football members in an eastern division. With a home-and-home schedule within each division for non-football sports, travel would be limited.
On the basketball side, the 7 current non-football Big East members will likely look to target candidates from a pool of Catholic schools such as Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis, Butler and Creighton. Gonzaga is another strong possibility if paired with another western member such as St. Mary’s.
This is a story that will likely have new developments everyday.
To get a feel for how this came to be and a look at the economic impact, take a look at the most recent Big East Split article “History of the Big East Split Concept“.
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