As we stand today, it looks like Marquette and friends will have one more season in the Big East along with Notre Dame, Rutgers & Louisville. This, according to ESPN's Andy Katz.
There was some hope the so-called "Catholic 7" could be out by as early as this summer but it doesn't seem logistcally realistic. The new conference still needs a commissioner, bylaws and members. Those are sort of big issues.
Butler & Xavier still are the front runners for invites. It's a little murky after that. The usual suspects of Creighton, St. Louis & Dayton are being mentioned. I noted originally Richmond might get a look and some reports this week from ESPN indicate that is the case. Richmond is rpeorted to have the support of Georgetown. While fans might cringe at taking Richmond over a Creighton, both have made the NCAA tournmanet 3 times since 2004 and Richmond has 2 wins to Creighton's 1. Creighton has better attendance figures and a more loyal fanbase. There isn't a lot to do in Omaha sports wise. Overall demographics would favor Richmond based on TV and population. In the end, both could get invites anyway.
Some message boards say Gonzaga has been invited but they're trying to find a partner for their non-basketball sports. Allegedly, they might bring BYU along but that seems far-fetched.
One last note, the TV money is better than originally anticipated thanks to the launch of a real national Fox Sports channel along with CBSSports and NBCSports looking to fill inventory. Anyone that takes the new league on will likely want 12 teams to fill inventory. Hey, NBCSports had 2-20 ODU playing George Mason Thursday night.
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