West Virginia Mountaineers Become Newest Member of Big 12 Conference

The dispute between West Virginia and the Big East is over—WVU has become the 10th and newest member of the Big 12 conference, effective July 1, 2012.

The NY Daily News' Dick "Hoops" Weis was one of the first to report it early Friday morning.

Weis wrote "The Big East will receive $20 million, according to a report in the Charleston Daily Mail. West Virginia will reportedly pay $11 million while the Big 12 will chip in $9 million."

The news was somewhat surprising after a Rhode Island judge said yesterday nothing was accomplished in the first round of mediation between the two parties.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram a formal announcement could come today:  "It's when the Big 12 is set to release its 2012 conference football schedule, according to media reports."

WVU and the Big East had been engaged in a long dispute which was keeping the Big 12, the Big East and many other football teams in limbo because no one was certain which conference WVU would be playing football in next season.

The first indication that an agreement had been reached came last weekend when the Mountaineers cancelled next year's game against FSU in Tallahassee.

This was done to lower their 2012 non-conference games to three so they would be able to play a nine-game Big 12 schedule and not exceed the 12-game limit set by the NCAA.

Apparently, it was just the details that had to be worked out, and they were ironed out yesterday.

Both parties had filed lawsuits against each other but the matter has been settled.

Pittsburgh papers have stated that Pitt might want to explore following WVU's lead and seek to depart from the Big East for the 2012 season (they'll be headed to the ACC).

At this time it remains unclear if they intend to take such action and if they would have to pay the same exit fee ($20 million) to which the Mountaineers have been reported to have agreed upon.