Full Court Press: Big East Makin' Big Moves

The update on the Big East Conference situation stands as follows:

• The Catholic 7 are expected to announce at any second that they will be seceding from the Big East, but retaining the “Big East” name. They have also been permitted to continue the post-season conference tournament relationship with Madison Square Garden.
•  Those schools consist of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Villanova. Butler, Xavier, and Creighton are possible additions to round out the 10-team conference. 
• The move is to become official on June 30^th. The new conference will be formed on July 1^st. 
• Before they form a new conference, the schools must search for a commissioner, establish policies and procedures, and begin planning for fall semester competition.
• Connecticut, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane, and UCF remain.  Navy and Tulsa are expected to join within the next two years. 
• The current Big East schools must come up with a new name by July 1^st. According to a source from Yahoo!, “America 12” is the front running choice.
• Exit fee revenue-sharing negotiations are still taking place to accommodate for the Big East schools who have already opted to leave the conference. This seems to be delaying the official announcement as they hammer out the details.

It is an interesting process to witness the creation of a brand new conference in collegiate athletics. Both the current and future Big East conferences are basically starting from scratch. Piece-by-piece they’re working to hold together this major conference by a thread, and build it back up to a powerhouse. 

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Hayley Zedeck is a pre-junior Sport Management major at Drexel University from Nashua, NH.  Hayley has past experience as the Director of Marketing & Outreach at the SMTSU and as an intern at Turnkey Sports and Entertainment in Haddonfield, NJ.  Currently, Hayley serves as President for Alpha Sigma Alpha and intern at 97.5 The Fanatic.  Follow Hayley on Twitter @hzedeck.

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