Report: Catholic 7 To Keep Big East Name and Madison Square Garden

Woo-hoo! Though the runors were flying of such just last week, according to Big East realignment guru ajerseyguy.com, the Catholic 7 will indeed keep the Big East name and play its Conference Tournament in Madison Square Garden:

The Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Villanova, Marquette and Georgetown -- are still negotiating their share, which could be as much as $5 million per school, but is likely to be somewhere between $3 million and $5 million per school. They also are expected to announce a TV deal today in New York with the new Fox cable channel.

Aside from the financial considerations involving both conferences, a prime topic of debate has been determining a site for the postseason basketball tournament. It will not be Madison Square Garden, which, once the breakup is official, is expected to make an arrangement with the Catholic 7 league to play next year's tournament in New York.

As 'A Jersey Guy' mentioned, Fox is scheduled to formally introduce "Fox Sports 1" at a press conference in New York on Tuesday. According to the New York Times, "Fox plans to use existing long-term deals to fill Fox Sports 1 with M.L.B. games, including some from the league division series, beginning in 2014; Nascar Sprint Cup and truck races; U.F.C. matches; future World Cup soccer matches; and Big 12 and Pac-12 football and basketball games, as well as those from a basketball conference that is being formed by the seven Catholic universities that are leaving the Big East. The new network is also expected to buy some Big East games from ESPN."

That's us! We'll have more details on Fox Sports 1 after the press conference Tuesday that none of us will be attending.