Charleston, WV (Sports Network) - West Virginia and the Big East have
reportedly agreed to end their legal issues in a move that will enable the
university to leave the conference and join the Big 12 in July.
According to the Charleston Daily Mail, an official announcement could come as
early as Friday.
The paper indicated that the Big East will receive about $20 million in
exchange for allowing West Virginia to leave without giving 27 months notice,
as is required in the league's by-laws. West Virginia, according to the
report, will pay $11 million with the Big 12 set to complete the financial
transaction.
West Virginia announced its decision to defect from the Big East and join the
Big 12 in October, making the move about a month after both Syracuse and
Pittsburgh announced its departures to the ACC. The Big East had informed both
Syracuse and Pittsburgh that it would enforce the 27-month notice period, and
now both of those schools could also try to leave sooner.
It could still be a difficult process, though, as the new members the Big East
has recruited are not scheduled to join the league until 2013. If all three
schools were to leave for the 2012-13 academic year, only five members would
remain for the football season.
West Virginia, in filing a lawsuit against the Big East, had argued that it
wanted to leave immediately because no such 27-month period of notification
was needed for TCU, which had agreed to join the Big East for the start of the
2012-13 year and instead decided to join the Big 12.
The Big East said the 27-month rule did not apply to TCU because it had not
yet participated in conference play.
After Syracuse and Pittsburgh are allowed to leave, the Big East will be left
with Rutgers, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville and South Florida from its
current football lineup. The new members slated to join the league -- at
different intervals -- are Memphis, which announced its move earlier this
week, Central Florida, SMU and Houston as full members and Boise State, San
Diego State and Navy for football only.
The Sports Network