New Big East to add Butler, Creighton, Xavier
Officially official.
Seven Catholic schools that split have added Butler, Creighton, and Xavier to the mix. Effective July 1st of this year. The next step would be 12, and while nothing is official, St. Louis and Dayton are names being tossed around.
Link
worst kept secret of the year ends thusly.
Though, and obviously, it won't necessarily be their choice. The new Big East will most likely expand to 12 (and I wouldn't be shocked if they went to 14 or more considering the lack of football), but early predictions have Dayton and Saint Louis, with VCU and Richmond also hoping to get in.
I hope they are lobbying, or someone is out lobbying for them. Would love to see their program elevated.
were in the same conference 20 years ago. I think it was the MCC. Don't remember the full name, but Dayton used to kill UDM. If they moved to that conference, they could recruit just as well at those new additions, probably better. I'm still holding out hope.
in the late 80s, besides Dayton and Saint Louis, it ALSO had Marquette and Xavier. And Loyola Chicago, Evansville and Butler (although they weren't good then).
That was a solid basketball conference.
Unfortunately, all but Detroit and Loyola have moved on. MCC and Horizon are technically the same conference. I too hope for better days for the Titans.
Agreed. Think they could make a case for A-10 membership. They just don't have the name or cachet for the Big East.
Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova, Marquette, DePaul, Butler, Creighton, and Xavier? That's going to be a good league. That's 5 teams in the tournament this year and two that have made it in within the last 2 years. Hopefully, they get some OOC games going and don't beat up on each other too much so they can continue to get that many teams in.
An article which I read mentioned potential further expansion, referring to Creighton being a geographical outlier for now
The ESPN article mentions the TV deal with the fledgling Fox Sports 1 channel (launching in the fall), but USA Today hints that several reports put this deal in the $500 million range over the course of the 12 years, which would definitely get them more money than they were receiving from TV revenue in the soon-to-be former Big East.
I believe the Big East is #2 in conference RPI this year as it is, thanks in large part to these departing teams. This will be a pretty competitive conference, I would think, and now, it has a new network where it will be, in the beginning phases, the main event in some respects.
They seem like an obvious choice.
The SEC should've tried to add those schools to the mix, then they'd improve their conference's basketball profile.
March 21st, 2013 at 11:11 AM ^
If this had happened 3-4 years ago... would Notre Dame be joining this conference?
The conference has no football profile -- so ND's independence would fit perfectly.
ND is exactly like 9 of the 10 schools, meaning, Catholic.
Geographic footprint is great for ND, just as it is for Butler.
Sorry, it would have made too much sense. BUT... if B1G pilfers UNC and UVa (or GT) from ACC, and then if SEC then pilfers VTech and FSU, and the ACC falls apart -- and perhaps ND thus joins this New Big East -- along with Duke and BC!