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JOHN MARINATTO COMMENTS AFTER BIG EAST PRESIDENTS MEETING

PHILADELPHIA, November 1, 2011 - John Marinatto, Commissioner of the BIG EAST Conference, issued the following statement after the annual meeting of the BIG EAST Conference Presidents. "We had a very productive meeting and were able to discuss the great progress we have made in the last few weeks regarding conference realignment.

"Our Presidents voted unanimously to extend invitations to specific institutions, including both football-only and all-sport members to join the BIG EAST Conference. I will be speaking to representatives of those schools shortly and look forward to announcing with them their acceptance into the BIG EAST. The addition of these members will extend our reach, bring us to exciting new markets, strengthen our status within the BCS, and lay the foundation for possible further expansion, all while maintaining the high quality and standards our Conference is known for.

"In light of the lawsuit filed by West Virginia yesterday, the Presidents also discussed and confirmed our continuing commitment to enforce the Conference's 27-month notification period for schools choosing to leave. The Conference believes these claims to be wholly without merit and will explore all its legal options to protect its interests and to ensure that West Virginia lives up to its obligations."

POW!

Calling SMT

i read the thread title and thought we were inviting the BE somewhere.

In (first page)

SMT is crying...either tears of joy or tears of infinite sadness. I am leaning towards #2.

Twitter says we're in, so it must be true. So does Joe Schad, so it must not be true.

schadjoe Joe Schad
Look for UCF, Houston and SMU to be the first group to walk through the door to the new Big East

@PeteThamelNYT Pete Thamel
Big East announcement appears to mean that at least UCF, Houston and SMU are on the way. Those were the locks.

SMT does in fact care about SMU

you sweep in and steal my thread by making it official? man, that's cold...

that's LIFE

i can't wait for all the "i told you so" links

and posts about the failing big east, and we should stay in CUSA, and blahblahblah.

AQ, here we come.

i hope.

I will let you make it official

I was kidding about SMT actually being upset. It is at times hard not to expect the worse as an SMU fan. I hope we can get this thing rolling in 2012.

invitations to specific institutions, including both football-only and all-sport members to join the BIG EAST Conference

It has been said that invites would not be going out without knowing that acceptances would be given. That means that more that just the CUSA teams would be walking through the doors. ESPN just can not admit that it means Boise et al.