Who's Ready For Big East 2.0? The Seven Officially Separate From The Football Schools

As announced via press release and reported by everyone under the sun, The Seven - Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, and DePaul - will officially separate from the football schools in the Big East starting on July 1, 2013.

BRA-FREAKING-VO to all of the hard working individuals who kept the dream of getting the [BLEEP] away from football as soon as possible alive to reach this point.

Football school commissioner Mike Aresco:

I am pleased that this agreement has been reached. With the long-term well-being of our outstanding institutions and their student-athletes of paramount importance, each group worked through a number of complex issues in an orderly, comprehensive and amicable manner marked by mutual respect. We part ways as friends and colleagues and look forward to the success of both conferences.

And the joint statement from The Seven:

We are grateful to Commissioner Michael 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. It is a great credit to Mike, our colleagues, and all involved that we were able to work through a host of highly complex and time-sensitive issues in such a short period of time. We are pleased that we reached this amicable and mutually-beneficial separation by approaching each issue with a spirit of cooperation and shared respect.

There's no other news from the announcement, so all we have to go on is what's been reported already. I'm guessing that James Danko, Rev. Michael Graham, S.J., and Rev. Timothy Lannon, S.J., should all stay near a phone for the rest of the day, though.

UPDATE! Marquette athletic director Larry Williams:

After many months of thoughtful dialogue with the presidents and athletic directors of the other six basketball schools, we are excited to start this new era of excellence in intercollegiate athletics – a move that will allow us to enhance the elite status of our athletic programs, led by men’s basketball. We look forward to taking this positive step toward ensuring that all our student athletes continue to compete at the highest levels. I want to personally thank Father Pilarz for his leadership in this transition, as well as our loyal fans for their unwavering enthusiasm and support.