The Big East has officially added the Butler Bulldogs, Xavier Musketeers, and Creighton Blue Jays to the conference, rounding out its membership to 10. Those three schools will join the seven remaining Catholic universities, Marquette, Seton Hall, Georgetown, Providence, DePaul, St. John's and Villanova, according to media reports.

Creighton president, Reverend Timothy Lannon, called the school's move to the Big East "a match made in heaven."

These moves became necessary due to massive defections from the Big East by Syracuse, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Notre Dame. These schools left the Big East largely for better revenues for their football programs; the Big East was widely known for its basketball tradition.

Louisville, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse fled to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) while Rutgers joined the Big Ten, much to the dismay of Syracuse head basketball coach Jim Boeheim, owner of 915 career wins placing second all-time among active coaches.

Jim Boeheim was quoted at the time by ESPN saying, "Rivalries don't matter to anyone anymore. If you ask someone at West Virginia if they like going to Texas Tech or Texas A&M and all those places, ask their fans whether they really like that. Maybe they do. I don't know. I don't get it. It's just the way it's going. There's nothing you can do about it."

Boeheim's Orange lost 78-61 to the Louisville Cardinals in Saturday's Big East championship game, the last time either of those teams will take part in the Big East tournament. It was a classic that featured Louisville overcoming a 20-point deficit in the second half. Of the five teams exiting the Big East, only Rutgers failed to reach the 2013 NCAA tournament.

Despite losing several quality teams, the three schools joining the Big East carry strong basketball traditions as well. Butler, which is leaving the Atlantic-10 conference, has been to back-to-back national championship games in 2010 and 2011, losing to the Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies respectively.

Xavier had made the NCAA tournament for seven straight years before missing it this season, and Creighton has been to the Big Dance seven times in the past 13 years.