Jim O’Connor-US Presswire
Breaking away from the Big East is the popular thing to do right now, in fact its been popular since 2003 when Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech bailed to join the ACC. Most recently the self appointed Catholic 7 , DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Villanova, have declared their independence from the Big East. The main, if not only, reason schools leave conferences is for the money involved in television deals. Representatives from the Catholic 7 had meetings in New York on Wednesday that included conversations about potential future commissioners of the league as well as its television deal opportunities. At the meeting, Fox officials reaffirmed a $500 million rights fee offer that would be predicated on a 12-year deal with the Catholic schools adding five additional teams to a newly formed league.
According to ESPN.com, due to what would likely be a lower fees split with the new teams in the conference, the Catholic 7 could more than double their annual money on TV revenue compared to what they were pulling in with the Big East. But, who are they going to add to split their money with? They need five more schools to join them in their new conference in order to cash in on this sweet deal from Fox. Let’s hope they try to be original and keep it a Catholic only league and pursue schools like Notre Dame, Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis and Creighton. All of these schools have Catholic roots, are geographically relevant to one another and provide legit basketball programs. This formation could be a renewal of what the Big East used to be in the glory days of basketball.
Putting together a new conference has become necessary for these schools, I just hope they put together a conference fans can appreciate. Unlike what most conferences are doing these days, the Catholic 7 have a chance to be a league that represents its members properly.
