Catholic 7 will keep Big East name
by Mark Blaudschun, Special for USA TODAY Sports
After a weekend of talks and negotiations, the Big East Conference has put together a framework of an agreement allowing member schools known as the Catholic 7 to break away from the Big East by July and take the “Big East” name, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter was not to be discussed publicly.
The person said and agreement on the split could be announced Thursday and added that the Big East football schools expect to have a new conference name as well as a new site for the conference basketball tournament, which has been anchored in New York’s Madison Square Garden since 1983.
According to the person, the main negotiations have involved how to split a Big East cash reserve which is in excess of $100 million and comes from exit fees paid by Big East schools that have left or are leaving the conference, as well as the lucrative basketball shares earned in the NCAA tournament by conference schools and a pair of conference reserve funds.
The three Big East football schools that are part of the full revenue sharing plan — Cincinnati, South Florida and Connecticut — will be the primary beneficiaries, with each school expected to be paid between $15 million to $20 million each.
The Catholic 7 schools — DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Providence, Villanova, Marquette and Georgetown — are still negotiating their share, which could be as much as $5 million per school, but is likely to be somewhere between $3 million and $5 million per school. They also are expected to announce a TV deal today in New York with the new Fox cable channel.
The other Big East football schools — Temple, SMU, Central Florida, Memphis and Houston as well as Tulane and East Carolina, who will join the conference in 2014 — are also expected to split another $10 million.
Notre Dame, which is taking its teams (other than football, which remains an independent) to the ACC, is expected to join that league in the fall.
Aside from the financial considerations involving both conferences, … [For more on Catholic 7 will keep Big East name, MSG tournament site, click here.]
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