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Late last night as I was being impressed by the run that Michigan State went on to defeat Iowa in the Big Ten quarterfinals, this tweet drifted through my timeline, courtesy of a retweet from Sports Illustrated's Andy Glockner:
BREAKING: Butler will withdraw from A-10 and join Big East.
— David Woods (@DavidWoods007) March 16, 2013
Mr. Woods is the Butler beat reporter for the Indianapolis Star, so he's a guy who knows a thing or two about a thing or two. According to Woods' story on the Bulldogs moving conferences for the second consecutive year, there should be an official announcement coming next week before the NCAA tournament kicks into high gear with the "second" round games on Thursday. He also notes that this will be a significant upgrade in television money for Butler, jumping from the estimated $400,000 per year in the Atlantic 10 to the more than $4 million per year that has been reported by multiple outlets for the Big East's new contract with Fox.
So that was exciting all on it's own. It's good to see that progress is being made on getting Marquette's conference set to go starting on July 1 of this year. As I was celebrating the Butler news, noted Nebraska native Admiral Ackbar, S.J., retweeted this one into my feed:
Breaking news: Creighton plans to accept an offer to join the Big East, the OWH has learned. ow.ly/j1C33 #CUBigEast
— World-Herald Sports (@OWHsports) March 16, 2013
I'll admit I've never heard of the Omaha World-Herald, but 1) you have to trust the Nebraska native and 2) Hard to argue with a story published on Omaha.com under the banner of "Award Winning Creighton Coverage." I'd like to focus on the third paragraph of the story from Henry J. Cordes, emphasis mine:
[Creighton's] entry into the newly reconfigured, basketball-centric conference will have the Bluejays annually going to battle on the court against iconic programs like Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova.
I like the cut of Mr. Cordes' jib. Perhaps we should all chip in and send him an Edible Arrangements bouquet.
So, now we wait to hear anything from Cincinnati regarding Xavier. I'm told that Shannon Russell of the Cincinnati Enquirer is the best Musketeers beat reporter, but she hasn't tweeted anything since March 14, and there's nothing of note on the Enquirer's sports page. It's possible that things are quiet from the Queen City because Xavier Athletic Director Mike Bobinski is currently occupied with his side job, chairman of the NCAA men's basketball tournament selection committee. Then again, Bobinski is leaving Xavier for Georgia Tech starting on April 1, so who knows why we've gotten news from two of the most popular rumored partners, but not the third.