Finally, all of this can be put to rest. The speculation can cease. The hand-wringing can stop.

After months of being plundered, having its future questioned and trying to save itself, the Big East conference will announce its reshaping today at 2 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese announced at last week’s Big East men’s basketball media day that a press conference would take place today, after a meeting of Big East presidents. Five Conference USA schools – Marquette, DePaul, Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati – are expected to join the Big East.

If those teams join, the Big East will salvage a beleaguered football conference and become perhaps the greatest men’s basketball conference ever.

Marquette and DePaul would join in all sports except football because the schools do not field football teams.

‘Football is going to take a few years, but we have the potential to be a tremendous basketball conference,’ Tranghese said at Big East Media Day.

Along with the expected unveiling of new members, Temple’s future in the Big East may be finalized.

Before this summer – when the Atlantic Coast Conference snatched the Big East’s best football programs, Miami and Virginia Tech – Temple was going to be expelled from the Big East after this season. After the ACC pilfering, the possibility of Temple remaining in the conference surfaced.

That query, among others, will be addressed this afternoon.

Finally, most questions will be answered, not created, for the Big East.

Published on November 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm