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Monday, April 1, 2013
The current Big East Conference for basketball is made up of 15 teams: Louisville, Georgetown, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Villanova, Cincinnati, St. John's, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Florida, and DePaul.
What are the new alignments of the Big East? Where are they going? Who will keep the Big East name? To start, the 7 Catholic Universities of the Big East will be leaving to form their own conference: St. John's, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul, Georgetown, Villanova, and Providence. This new conference recently received the rights to retain the Big East name and continue to play the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. Butler and Xavier may join the new Big East as well as Creighton, Dayton, and St. Louis in 2014-15.
The cost of the Catholic 7 breaking away is very pricey, however they have the chance to make more money by leaving. By leaving now they are able to sign a deal with Fox Sports which will give $3-4 million to each school just for basketball. This new conference does not have football, which in turn keep them free of a lot of lawsuits that football brings on.
Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame will head to the ACC. A new 10-team conference (name yet to be decided) will be formed for 2013 with only one of the remaining Big East founders. This conference will be composed of Connecticut, Memphis, Louisville, Rutgers, UCF, USF, Houston, Cincinnati, SMU, and Temple. In 2014, Louisville and Rutgers will leave the 10-team conference and head to the ACC and Big Ten, while Tulane and ECU will be the new replacements, with Navy coming in for football in 2015.
Growing up, and being from Pittsburgh, I was a Big East junkie. All of this change in the Big East has given me mixed opinions. I do not think there will ever be anything like the Big East Tournament again. I always used to say that the Big East Tournament was just as good as the NCAA Tournament. Usually the winner of the Big East didn't win the NCAA Tournament, (my reasoning was because the Big East Tourney would wear you down being that it was so intense). Change can also be good. The break will help the Catholic 7 keep their schools going. Since these are non-football schools they struggled to stay alive in the Big East. It will help them recruiting in being a basketball focused school.
Change is inevitable. It is the only thing that stays constant in life. It can be very exciting as well. I look forward to see how this conference realignment plays out during the best time of the year... #MarchMadness
Michelle Manfredi
Girls Director
Elite Hoops Basketball
#ReleaseYourPotential
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The Big East was founded with a vision of a basketball-centric conference. When the conference began, Dave Gavitt noticed many recruits from the Northeast were leaving for schools in the mid-Atlantic and South. In recent years, the conference has not been true to the original vision, with football interfering. This is why the new Big East is so important to college basketball. It is going to continue to be an awesome conference with Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, Marquette, and DePaul revolutionizing college hoop by going back to their tradition!!!