This is a big sticking point with the 7 schools dissolving the current Big East. NCAA Tourney units. They are worth a lot of dough along with the exit fees. Would the 7 Catholic schools be forfeiting their rights to them? From Thamel's column:
Units
The way the NCAA pays teams for reaching the NCAA tournament is extremely complicated. Teams aren't given a single, fat check for reaching and advancing in the NCAAs. Instead they are given units for making the NCAA tournament and more for advancing. The value of each unit is approximately $245,000, which is paid to the league over six years.
Units are a huge financial piece in the value of a basketball league. In the Big East's 2011-12 fiscal year, it received $27.3 million in NCAA tournament units (113 earned over previous six years at $242,000). In 2012-13, the league will receive even more -- $28.7 million thanks to 117 units over six years.
"The interesting point is that people focus on the TV dollars," said a Big East official. "Currently our unit dollars as a revenue stream exceed our TV revenue for basketball schools. We generate more dollars from NCAA participation."
A key financial issue here is that the units of schools like Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia and Notre Dame are still going to go into the Big East coffers after those schools left for other conferences. (Rutgers never reached an NCAA tournament in its entire Big East tenure.) Those units are a significant amount of money annually. One of the biggest legal issues to be fought out will be what happens to the league's units? And can the breakaway schools take their units with them?
IF the Big East exists in a disparate form with UConn, Cincinnati, USF, UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU, Tulane and others, will it get to keep all the unit money?
There's also a pile of money in exit fees, as there's an estimated $70 million due to the league. Could the unit revenue and exit fee money be enough to keep the Big East together?