It's Official: Hoops Only Schools Leave the Big East

Yes, like most, we reported on this story a couple of days ago.

Now it's official.

DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova have voted unanimously and as a group to "Withdraw" from the Big East. (*Note-Official Date not yet set)

And the days of one of the few remaining "Power Conferences" existing in College Basketball, are officially numbered.

The teams, who again, aren't football schools, felt it in their best interest to leave as the Big East expands to take on several former Conference USA schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF and eventually Tulane) along with Boise St. and San Diego St in football. East Carolina and Navy join for football in 2015. And lest we forget Pitt and Syracuse leave after this year too.

If the league still exists.

Follow all that?

At this point, the only thing that could keep the conference from going away? Football money. Mind you, they turned down a $100+ million a year TV deal just a couple of months ago. With this roster of schools, they won't get it now.

And in the "Name" of better competition, it should be noted the automatic "BCS" berth the Big East once had--it's gone too.

So...what does this all mean?

It means ESPN is stuck with Big Monday's with little schools in the Winter time. It means the conference of Patrick Ewing and Carmelo Anthony will never be the same. It means that college sports continues down its road of ultimate greed and selling out for one thing and one thing only.

The almighty $.

Don't let ANY college president, athletic director, coach or other tell you something different. Maryland  didn't leave the ACC for better academics...or a conference they can ever win in Sports. They left for the money. It's all TV revenue, specifically football. And it is all driven by ESPN. They've been quoted as advising multiple schools. They've been the one's paying obscene amounts of money for the "Super Conferences" (which by the way cable subscriber--comes out of YOUR pocket whether you are a fan or not). They've been the driving force in it all.

And to an extent, we can't totally blame the "Catholic Seven" here either. They are looking out for their only interest and that interest wasn't the Big East's. They'll be fine. They'll form their own conference and might cherry pick a couple other Atlantic 10 schools.

So, college sports has officially jumped the shark. Yes, it's the only way you can pay your head football coach $4 million a year. Which by the way, won't stop him from jumping to another school who will pay him more at any time during the contract. Or you from paying him if he doesn't win the BCS title in year 2.

That's all, we'll get off our horse, you can call this cynical or not being "Up with the Times" and you aren't wrong. But sometimes, someone has to call a "Deal with the Devil" for exactly what it is....