Chicago Tribune reports today that Butler and Xavier will join the 7 Catholic schools from the Big East to form a new conference. Creighton, Dayton, Saint Louis and Virginia Commonwealth are other candidates for what could be a 10- or 12-team conference. Lots of money issues to be worked out apparently, but clearly there is a likely breakup of the Big East into football-driven and basketball-driven groups. Will be interesting to see where the A-10 goes, especially if Dayton and/or St. Louis leave, and it would seem that the St. Louis market would be particularly attractive to the new conference as well as give another geographic rival for Butler, DePaul and Marquette. Dayton-Xavier also makes an attractive pairing. Does the mention of Creighton mean it may be looking to "step up" to a new conference?