And, to his credit, Big East commissioiner Mike Aresco and all parties involved reached a definitive agreement Friday morning.......nydailynews
The agreement still remains subject to a formal Board approval but that figrues to be just a matter of signatures on a paper.
The separation will allow the seven breakaway schools to begin the process of hiring a commissioner and an office staff and approach potential members to join a league that will grow to 12 teams within the next two years.
St. John's, Villanova, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, Marquette and DePaul are scheduled to begin play this fall, most likely in a nine-team league that includes Butler and Xavier from the Atlantic 10.
There is also a possibility that Creighton from the Missouri Valley will also join this fall. The league eventually would like to add two more teams — St. Louis and Dayton — giving the conference 11 Catholic schools along with Butler, a private school in Indianapolis.
There will be five Eastern schools in the league and seven Midwest schools. The big lure, of course, is a new multi-year TV deal with Fox Sports cable that will pay each school $4 million.
By leaving early, the new breakaway league, which will assume the name “Big East” and retain the Garden contact for the tournament, left most of the $110 million from the league's treasury on the table. Each of the seven schools will split $10 million dollars among themselves.
