by Fitzgerald Cecilio

Atlanta, GA

The Big East's seven departing Catholic schools will keep the Big East Conference name for their own league that begins July 1.

Joining the Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova -- in the new "Big East" this fall will be Xavier and Butler. They expect to play 18 games in its inaugural season.

Xavier and Butler have not formally withdrawn from the Atlantic 10, and to do so with less than a year's notice would cost each school $2 million.

Creighton is tapped to become the 10th team next season, with Dayton and St. Louis joining in 2014 for a 12-team league.

Big East commissioner Mike Aresco announced Friday that negotiations with the breakaway Catholic 7 are ongoing and that there was no deadline to have a separation agreement.

But Georgetown coach John Thompson III is against the holdout.

"If you know there's going to be a change, the sooner the better," he exclaimed.

The Catholic 7's exit from the Big East is being expedited by Fox Sports Network, which laid the groundwork for them to leave the league. The teams were promised a lucrative media-rights deal, expected to be worth at least $3 million annually per school.

It's unknown how much it will cost the Catholic 7 to keep the Big East name.

The departure of the Catholic 7 schools also could mean Notre Dame joins the ACC this summer instead of 2014.

Notre Dame plans to stay in the Big East for the 2013-14 academic year if the Catholic 7 schools did so. If unable to join the ACC in 2013-14, the Fighting Irish may spend one season in the Catholic 7 league before moving to the ACC in 2014.

Last year, Notre Dame announced it was leaving the Big East to join the ACC in all sports, but football. Big East bylaws require 27 months notice before leaving, but multiple schools have negotiated an earlier exit.

As it stands, Connecticut, Cincinnati and South Florida remain the only holdovers not committed to either the new "Big East" or another conference.

The loss of the Catholic 7 schools also will impact the value of the media-rights deal with ESPN, a source said.

Last week, ESPN retained the Big East's media-rights deal by matching an offer from NBC Sports Network, worth $130 million for seven years, including $10 million for the 2013-14 basketball season.

However, if the Catholic 7 schools are not in the Big East in 2013-14, that $10 million amount would be reduced.

It also remains unknown which league -- the Catholic 7 or the remaining Big East schools -- would hold its basketball tournament in Madison Square Garden.

Even though the Big East will have to change conference names this fall, the football league will still remain an automatic qualifying BCS conference in 2013 and its champion will receive a berth to one of the BCS bowls.

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Xavier and Butler to Join Catholic 7 in New Big East