The Catholic Seven Officially Leave Whatever That Thing Is Using The Big East's Name

It's official. Very soon, the Big East will not include the Syracuse Orange, Georgetown Hoyas, St. John's Red Storm or Villanova Wildcats. It will, however, include the San Diego St. Aztecs, Houston Cougars and UCF Knights.

The Catholic 7 issued a released today annoucing that they will be leaving the conference to form another one:

"Earlier today we voted unanimously to pursue an orderly evolution to a foundation of basketball schools that honors the history and tradition on which the Big East was established. Under the current context of conference realignment, we believe pursuing a new basketball framework that builds on this tradition of excellence and competition is the best way forward.

We are grateful to our Commissioner, Michael Aresco, for his exceptional leadership of the Big East Conference. We have been honored to be associated with the outstanding group of institutions that have made up the Big East. While we pursue this opportunity for our institutions, we believe the efforts of the past two years have established the foundation for an enduring national football conference.

We look forward to building this new foundation with an emphasis on elite competition and a commitment to the development of our students engaged in intercollegiate athletics. That is where we will now spend our energy as we move forward."

Couple thoughts:

1. History and tradition referenced multiple times there. Makes sense, that's the bulk of what they bring to the table and the bulk of what we were fed all those years by Marinatto et. al. Blah blah blah history, tradition, 1985, blah blah blah. It's basically the most Big East way to leave the Big East.

2. "...we voted unanimously to pursue an orderly evolution..." David asks, "I thought Catholics didn't believe in evolution?" To which I reply, it's actually called "intelligent conference redesign."

3. The biggest concern that these seven schools should have? That when you get rid of the "history and tradition" nonsense, it's actually not that exciting of a group. Georgetown has cache, Marquette is nouveau riche and Villanova was pretty good until recently but as for the rest (Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's & DePaul), this really ain't the 80's, guys. Don't give me "St. John's brings NY." That's nonsense. There are A-10 schools that measure up better.

4. Which is why they better grab those A-10 schools for their new conference. They're gonna need depth.

5. The Big East, or whatever that thing is called The Big East. So sad. Oh well.