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The American Athletic Conference is the new name for the former Big East Conference, according to sources.
The league is expected to formally announce the new name as early as Thursday.
In the Big East's final season in its current makeup, the league is going out with a flourish.Louisville upset Florida in the AT&T Sugar Bowl, and five teams reached the men's and women's Final Fours, the most from one conference in NCAA history.
Last month, sources told ESPN that commissioner Mike Aresco favored America 12 Conference as the league's new name. However, the schools' presidents rejected it because they didn't want a number included.
The old Big East needed a new conference name because the Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and Villanova -- kept the Big East name when they announced they were splitting and forming their new league.
The new 10-team Big East begins July 1 with the Catholic 7 schools, plus Butler, Creighton and Xavier.
Besides the Catholic 7 schools leaving, the league also loses Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC on July 1. In 2014, Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) also depart.
To compensate for those defections, the American Athletic Conference will add full members UCF, Houston, Memphis and SMU on July 1; East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa on July 1, 2014; and football-only member Navy on July 1, 2015.
In 2015, the 12-team league will split into two six-team divisions, the makeup of which is still to be determined. It also will hold a conference football championship game, which will be televised on either ABC or ESPN.
The American Athletic Conference will be the third Division I conference with a variation of America or American in its name. The others: America East and Mid-American. There's also Conference USA, which, ironically, is the league where nine of the 12 teams in the American Athletic Conference came from.
The league is expected to formally announce the new name as early as Thursday.
In the Big East's final season in its current makeup, the league is going out with a flourish.Louisville upset Florida in the AT&T Sugar Bowl, and five teams reached the men's and women's Final Fours, the most from one conference in NCAA history.
Last month, sources told ESPN that commissioner Mike Aresco favored America 12 Conference as the league's new name. However, the schools' presidents rejected it because they didn't want a number included.
The old Big East needed a new conference name because the Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and Villanova -- kept the Big East name when they announced they were splitting and forming their new league.
The new 10-team Big East begins July 1 with the Catholic 7 schools, plus Butler, Creighton and Xavier.
Besides the Catholic 7 schools leaving, the league also loses Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC on July 1. In 2014, Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) also depart.
To compensate for those defections, the American Athletic Conference will add full members UCF, Houston, Memphis and SMU on July 1; East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa on July 1, 2014; and football-only member Navy on July 1, 2015.
In 2015, the 12-team league will split into two six-team divisions, the makeup of which is still to be determined. It also will hold a conference football championship game, which will be televised on either ABC or ESPN.
The American Athletic Conference will be the third Division I conference with a variation of America or American in its name. The others: America East and Mid-American. There's also Conference USA, which, ironically, is the league where nine of the 12 teams in the American Athletic Conference came from.
