But moving past the financial matters, the reality of life apart for both groups now looms.
Here’s the way it could unfold.
Let’s start with the Catholic 7 Seton Hall, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova, Providence and St. John’s. They will move quickly–perhaps as soon as next week in New York– to invite Butler, and Xavier and Creighton, which will make 10 teams for the 2013-2014 season.
Discussions will be held on expanding to 12 teams within a year, with Saint Louis, Dayton and Richmond the primary schools of interest.
The key “inside the ropes” element will be to find a commissioner to put all of this together. And where will the conference offices be located. Right now the debate is between Providence–cheaper and easier to staff with people who know what they are doing, especially in regards to the Big East.-or Washington D.C.
If the Catholic 7 were wise they would focus their attention on former Big East Associate Commissioner Dan Gavitt, who is now running the NCAA basketball tournament.
Gavitt loves his job with the NCAA. But he also loves Providence, and the Big East–since his father Dave Gavitt created the conference. A move to call Gavitt home, with a huge bump in salary, might be a deal maker. Although Gavitt has only been with the NCAA for one season, the Catholic 7 group could make him a “Godfather” offer.
If they want to go into another direction, the next two names which jump out are West Coast Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich, who has Princeton and Georgetown connections and current George Mason athletic director Tom O’Connor. Both men could do good jobs. in either of those cases, the offices would probably be shifted to Washington D.C.
After that, the search turns murkier. There are qualified candidates, but finding them and matching them to the job, becomes more problematical.
Next, the football side. More complicated in many ways, less in others.
The first task will be to find a name for the conference since after July 1, the Big East name will no longer be available. The America 12 conference name was floated as a possibility and may be taken down because of so many shots against it which came from various places inside the league and outside the league.
I still like using the word “Metro”, which would fit all of the schools in the conference other than East Carolina. And I’m still offering Big Metro Athletic Conference (Big Mac) free of charge with the idea of teaming up with McDonald’s on promotional and sponsoring deals as a way to entice more of the twitter generation to games.
Whatever it is named the league will consist of 10 teams in football next season: Temple, Connecticut, South Florida, Cincinnati, SMU, Memphis, Houston, Central Florida, Rutgers and Louisville. Rutgers and Louisville will leave for the Big Ten and ACC in 2014 and be replaced by Tulane and East Carolina. Navy is expected to join the league in 2015, which would make 11 teams and a 12th team will be added, with Tulsa regarded as the main target.
Watch out for Navy though, which made its deal with the Big East as a BCS school with BCS guaranteed bowl money. Without that money, how attractive is this new league for Navy in football only since finding opponents is not a Navy problem.
In the aftermath of all of this, both sides came out on Friday with tentative statements, indicating that much work still had to be done.
The Catholic 7 issued a group statement, thanking Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco for his hard work and support during the talks.
Aresco, after congratulating the Catholic 7 schools and wishing them luck, talked about the name of his old, new conference. “”We have not chosen a new conference name at this time,” said Aresco in a statement and there are no favorites. “”We are going through a thoughtful evaluation of potential names in a timely manner through a comprehensive and deliberate process that involves our presidents and athletic directors as well as consultants from inside and outside the conference. We are excited about the prospects of re-branding and look forward to working with our institutions and our fans as we engage in this process.”
Aresco must also find a new home for his newly named conference, with a rotating series of sites the most likely scenario, with Hartford, Ct. or Memphis the most likely first stop.
The issue of distributing the nearly 100 million dollars in funds from exit fees and other sources of revenue will continue to be negotiated among the football schools.
“@blauds: Big East-Catholic 7 break up was costly. Would you believe $15 million in legal fees?
http://ajerseyguy.com”