NEW YORK — Just came from the Big East/Fox Sports press conference in midtown Manhattan and here are the highlights.
**As has been widely reported, Butler, Creighton and Xavier will officially join the new 10-team league as of July 1 and begin play next year in men’s and women’s hoops and all Olympic sports. They will join the Catholic 7 of DePaul, Georgetown Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova. Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s and Seton Hall are all founding members of the Big East, which began conference play in 1979. Villanova was added in 1980, while DePaul and Marquette joined in 2006.
**The league announced a 12-year deal with Fox Sports and its new Fox Sports 1 multi-sport channel, which launches Aug. 17. Father Brian J. Shanley of Providence College said the deal — reportedly worth $500 million — offers “stability” to the Big East.
**Madison Square Garden will continue to host the Big East Tournament through the 2025-26 season, which was the original deal the old Big East signed.
“We are thrilled that MSG will continue to serve as the official home of the Big East Tournament,” Father Donald J. Harrington of St. John’s said.
**The ACC is reportedly interested in bringing their postseason tournament to the New York area and ESPN’s Jay Bilas told me last week he thought it would happen at MSG inevitably. Yet MSG is out, at least through 2026. “I don’t want to speculate about that,” Joel Fisher of MSG said, adding that the Garden was the Big East’s home. Maybe the ACC should consider these other locations.
**Father Shanley told me he expects teams will play an 18-game schedule next season, with home and aways against every team. “I’m assuming it’s a round-robin, nine home games, nine away games, which is kind of nice,” he said. “And that’s part of why we went to 10. Ten is a good number, and 12 is workable, too.”
**The league expects to expand, possibly to 12 teams going forward. Both Dayton and St. Louis have been reported as potential additions. “I think we’ll eventually get to 12, pretty much I know we’ll get to 12,” Father Shanley said. “But whether or not it’s next year add two, next year we add one, we keep a slot open. We go two years. It depends on a lot of other things, so I think we’ll reevaluate in the middle of next year and see if we want to do it for the following year or not.”
**Father Shanley said Russell Reynolds Associates was handling the search for a new Commissioner, and he expected a short list “sometime in May” and an announcement by July 1. He did admit Danny Gavitt, son of the late Dave Gavitt and the current head of the NCAA Tournament, would be a good fit. “I’ll certainly throw Danny’s name in there,” he said. “I’ve not talked to Danny, I have no idea but he’s an obvious [candidate]. There’s something that I would love about that. I mean, I love Danny. Danny’s one of the dearest people I know.”
**Father Shanley said he wasn’t certain where the new league office would be headquartered, but added, “I would be surprised if we didn’t have some presence in New York, given the partnership with Fox. Whether the whole office needs to be here or not, and whether there’s a transitional period or not, those are things I have no idea right now. We’re literally kind of making stuff up as we go along.”
