Big East Completes Football-Basketball Breakup The Big East is going back to its roots - and punting football. The football and basketball schools in the ever-changing conference announced Friday that they have agreed to a settlement that will allow the two sides to go their own ways on July 1. Commissioner Mike Aresco told The Associated Press the seven Catholic schools that are leaving to form a basketball-centric conference will get the Big East name, along with the opportunity to play their league tournament in Madison Square Garden. The football members, most of which are newcomers to a conference that has been ravaged by realignment, get a huge cash haul but will have to find a new name for their league. "It's been an arduous four months but we got to the right place," Aresco said in a phone interview. I think both conferences have good futures. Aresco, who will remain commissioner of the football league, would not disclose the financial part of the settlement. A person familiar with the negotiations told the AP earlier this week that the football schools will receive about $100 million from a $110 million stash the conference had built up over the last two and a half years through exit and entry fees as well as NCAA men's basketball tournament funds. Aresco said the football schools have not chosen a conference name and there are no favorites yet. "We can get on with reinventing ourselves and re-establishing our brand," he said. He also said they have not determined how the money from the separation agreement will be split among the members. The person familiar with the negotiations said the bulk of the money will go to holdover members Cincinnati, Connecticut and South Florida. The divorce agreement with the basketball members, and the football schools' new TV deal with ESPN, still must be ratified by the school presidents. Aresco said that should come soon and without glitches. Next up on the agenda for the football schools, Aresco said, is to find a 12th member and venues for future basketball tournaments. The settlement will bring the Big East back to its origins. When it was formed in 1979, it banded together a group of mostly small, private schools located in and around big Northeast cities. The seven schools breaking away from the football schools include some of the Big East's founding members and most recognizable teams: Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, Marquette and DePaul. They are expected to sign a television rights deal with Fox, add at least two more schools and have the new league up-and-running by July. "We are grateful to Commissioner Mike Aresco for spearheading an agreement that truly represents the best path forward for each of our great institutions and the thousands of student-athletes who compete for our schools annually," the presidents of the seven basketball schools said in a joint statement. The football conference now known as the Big East will consist next season of Connecticut, South Florida, Cincinnati, Temple, Rutgers and Louisville, along with incoming members Memphis, Central Florida, SMU and Houston. Rutgers and Louisville will likely be playing their last seasons in the conference before switching leagues, to the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, respectively. Tulane and East Carolina are scheduled to join the football league in 2014, and Navy comes aboard in 2015. Tulsa is being targeted as the next addition to the conference.