Big East benefits big time from WVA defection

Last November first, when West Virginia filed suit against the Big East for not being allowed to leave early for the Big 12 Conference, Commissioner John Marinatto stood his ground.

The same guy who was seen as having been asleep at the switch as the Mountaineers, Syracuse and Pitt declared plans to leave for the Big 12 or in the case of the Orange and Panthers, the ACC, proclaimed the West Virginia suit baseless, predicted victory and vowed to make any team planning to defect, to abide by a 27 month notice clause in their contracts with the league.

Tuesday, Marinatto had the last laugh. That was the deadline for the Big 12 to announce its football schedule and they wanted the high profile Mountaineer program on it: NOW.

Tuesday the Big East members voted to terminate West Virginia's membership in the conference, in exchange for drop its suit and fork over $20 MILLION. $20 Million!

West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck says of his schools $10 million share, that no state, taxpayer, tuition or other academic dollars will be used in the settlement. The Big 12 will just go out and shake its historically bountiful money tree to come up with its 10 mil.

The windfall now has Marinatto thinking of offering early outs to Syracuse and Pitt to join the ACC before their appointed date in 2014. Its not likely they'll be so forthcoming with tens of millions of dollars. Then again they might.

Sadly this means the end of one of the more intense Big East rivalries that of course has its roots back in Clifton. The UC-West Virginia series took on new luster when Bob Huggins on boarded in Morgantown in 2007. Who can forget his Big East debut against the Bearcats that January night in 2008, and his one time protégé, Mick Cronin. More memorable for Mick than Bob's House of Adams duds that night was the outcome, a 62-39 UC rout. Now Bob will regularly face not Mick but the wrath of fans he jilted at Kansas State coached by another former assistant Frank Martin.