Meet The New Big East, Same As The Old Big East

The new Big East Conference officially added Butler, Creighton and Xavier on Wednesday, making the new old league a 10-member one starting in 2013-14. Those three schools will join DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova in the all-Catholic plus Butler league.

Not only is the new league taking the old conference's moniker, they are taking a few other things with them as well.

The league announced that they would assume the lease on New York's Madison Square Garden through 2025-26, effectively ending Pitt and Syracuse fans' dreams of hosting the ACC Tournament at the World's Most Famous Arena. (Here's the Greensboro, N.C. Travel & Tourism website for future reference, boys).

I bet all those New York media members feel a bit silly now after penning hundreds of words eugoogilizing the Big East Tournament at MSG when the Big East Tournament will be played next year at MSG.

Georgetown president John DeGiola also announced that the conference headquarters would move from Providence to New York City, a move roughly 34 years overdue. DeGiola also took one final swipe at the schools he feels ruined the conference (nope!)

So. Many. Jokes. RT @ourand_sbj 6m Georgetown President DeGioia: We are the dominant football program in the new Big East.

— BC Interruption (@bcinterruption) March 20, 2013

In addition to taking the old Big East's name and conference tournament location, the league will also assume the old Big East's league history.

"As part of our separation agreement, we negotiated that the basketball records will remain the property of the basketball schools," Providence president Fr. Brian Shanley said on a teleconference Wednesday. "The Big East will just keep going on, being the inheritor if you will, of the traditions and the records of the conference."

With the new league assuming the old's record book, that places Boston College third on the conference's all-time men's basketball conference title list among active conference members, behind only Georgetown (7) and St. John's (3). I look forward to Providence matching BC's Big East title count by the year 2033.

The heavy lifting isn't done quite yet. The nascent conference still needs to hire a commissioner, determine the list of sponsored varsity sports and work out scheduling. The league has also discussed future expansion candidates with 12 members viewed as the ideal number of programs. Current A-10 members Saint Louis and Dayton are thought to be primary targets if/when the Big East decides to expand again.

The circle of life: ACC > Big East > Atlantic-10 / Missouri Valley