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....

The Big East is nearing its Death

((ht:espn.com))

Have we ever had to mourn the passing of a once mighty college football conference? Because we may very well be doing that within the next month or so.

The Big East is slowly coming to an end. An end that may be sped up by the possible departure of 7 non-football playing schools from the conference.

Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com reports that: DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova are expected to make a decision about their athletic futures in the next couple of days. And it appears the emboldened Atlantic 10 would be a likely home for them.

It would make the A-10 a REALLY big conference, but also one with some amazing names in it.

Read the ESPN.com story RIGHT HERE

If this happens, the once "Power" basketball conference will be no longer. Heck, the 4-letter themselves grew their college hoops project on the backbone of these "Power" basketball schools. Combine it with Pitt and Syracuse leaving for the ACC, and basically, you have Cincinnati, UConn and South Florida along with a slew of Conference USA replacements and in Football, Boise State.

Oh, and did we mention that Cincinnati and UConn were falling all over themselves to try and replace Maryland when they announced they were leaving the ACC?

So....realignment is far from dead. The Big East and it's schools have a big decision to make. Yes, they can survive as a football conference with the additions they've made. But those moves have just made it C-USA, nothing more, nothing less.