Departing Big East football teams have reportedly chosen a new red, white & blue conference name

I guess $100 million can buy you a new football league, but it still can't get you a good conference name.

It looks like the football schools that used to be part of the Big East are leaning towards the generic-sounding "America 12 Conference" as their new name, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy.

You can't get any more Wonder bread and mayonnaise than that.  It sounds like a real estate company.

Not the official logo

While the "Catholic 7" take their $10 million settlement and the Big East name for its own basketball conference, the remaining football schools could be stuck with that mid-level-sounding name.

The name makes sense because the football schools are spread all over the country, but couldn't a $100 million budget come up with something with a little more marketing zing.

"America 12 Conference" favorite to become new name for Big East, league sources told @espn. Not official; other names being considered
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) March 7, 2013

McMurphy reported that the new conference also registered the domain name AmericaOne.org — so that's a step up.

I kind of like the Catholic 7 Conference name. Maybe that group can sell the Big East name back to the Am-12 and become the Cat-7 for let's say $100 million plus punitive damages.

Source: Big East football schools to keep $100 million in split

After days of talks and negotiations, a person familiar with the discussions says the Big East football schools will get almost all of a $110 million pot in a deal that will allow seven departing basketball schools to keep the name Big East and start playing in their own conference next year.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the separation agreement has not been finalized.  That should happen by the end of the week.

According to the source, the basketball schools (aka The Catholic 7) — DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Villanova, Marquette and Georgetown —will keep the Big East name and the right to play their conference tournament at Madison Square Garden.  They will likely receive about $10 million to divide amongst themselves.

Meanwhile the football schools, most of which will go to holdover members Connecticut, South Florida and Cincinnati, will get about $100 million in the deal.

The whole deal is rotten from top to bottom — or since football invaded the once-proud league.  The football schools came into the conference on the shoulders of the basketball schools — the sport that built the Big East brand name.

These so-called Big East football schools were mostly middling at best and jumped in and out of the ACC and Big Ten hoops like trained circus dogs who crapped in the middle of the big top which originally took the strays in.

The new Big East is looking to add two or three basketball schools and a TV deal could be announced as early as today with the new Fox Sports 1 cable channel, reports USAToday.

Good riddance to Big Least football.  Long live Big East basketball. It rose up once, it can do it again.

Report: Big East's 'Catholic 7' optimistic about possible TV deal

The seven non-FBS football members of the Big East met informally on Friday to continue discussions on breaking away from the league and forming their own conference. The prospect of leaving the Big East without a big television contract was one of the largest hurdles facing the the seven Catholic schools.

On Saturday night, ESPN's Darren Rovell reported that the "Catholic 7" are anticipating getting at least double the money from what they currently earn in their Big East TV contracts.

The heavenly news must have sounded like Gabriel's Trumpet to the beleaguered presidents of St. John's, Georgetown, Providence, Villanova, DePaul, Marquette and Seton Hall — after weathering the hectic realignment of the conference over the past three years.

Having a TV schedule filled with basketball-only schools in a major market cities sounds idyllic at first but, in relation to the huge money earned from football and basketball leagues, the report of the lucrative deal is optimistic thinking at best.  Rovell wrote:

Sources say that Fox, whose Fox Sports 1 channel is set to launch in August, has an initial high offer on the table of more than $500 million for a 12-year deal. Fox Sports 1 will replace the network's motorsports channel Speed, already in 81 million homes. Sources say officials with Fox are scheduled to meet with those representing the interest of the "Catholic 7" in New York City on Wednesday. A Fox spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. A high-ranking source at NBC Sports Network, which has so far engaged in preliminary discussions with the "Catholic 7," declined comment. ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz also declined comment on the network's interest in the "Catholic 7" games.