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It's almost March 1 and still nothing definitive (which is no surprise). July 1 is the cutoff used most frequently for business purposes and notification by those invited to inform their current leagues of their plans to depart - so my question is, will there be official invitations to join the C7 extended by July 1, 2013?

I sure hope that invitations are handed out before July 1st. From everything that is being reported it sure looks like Butler is going to get an invitation and will accept. I want this to happen sooner rather than later for the 2014 recruiting class. Butler is going after a couple of high profile Indiana kids in that class and it would be nice for the staff to tell them they will definitely be part of this newly formed league with a TV contract from Fox. Butler signed a couple of kids from the New England area last year shortly after the move to the A10 was announced so I have to believe the move to the new conference would have another positive effect on recruiting. They will need to land some top 100 players to be competitive in this new league.

Butler 1986

As I posted before, I expect they will try to time some of the announcements, (ie., naming of commissioner and possible invitations), with the NCAA tournament, to take advantage of publicity offered by the tournament.

XU85 wrote:As I posted before, I expect they will try to time some of the announcements, (ie., naming of commissioner and possible invitations), with the NCAA tournament, to take advantage of publicity offered by the tournament.

That would definitely be a smart move. Maybe name the commissioner on Selection Sunday and extend invitations officially during the Final Four.

I doubt they would announce during the final four. Probably right after out of tact... however an announcement right around selection sunday of the new league with an announcement that any new teams would be added after the NCAA tourny would lead to a lot of high profile bball chatter from the talking heads in a time where the USA only cares about cbball and is desperate for any cbball filler. Speculation would be rampant during every half time/ pregame and post game show. And no publicity is bad publicity- especially when its free.

I believe official invitations have been made, just not made public.

I would imagine there's been a lot of dialogue with a number of schools but what makes you think anything has been finalised in that sense? I hope you're right as the sooner we get this thing moving the better.

UDGutter2 wrote:I believe official invitations have been made, just not made public.

I'm sure unofficial invites have been extended based on likely scenarios, but I would doubt that official invitations have been made as there is currently no commissioner, TV deal, or even a league for that matter.

[quote="James"]I would imagine there's been a lot of dialogue with a number of schools but what makes you think anything has been finalised in that sense? I hope you're right as the sooner we get this thing moving the better.[/quote
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I think that if the plan is to start the season this fall the odds are the TV contract with the TV station that doesn't exist is most likely signed and the + schools have been basically confirmed. The Athletic Departments for the schools need to have some sort of a plan for whats going to happen this next year. While us fans can handle the change the logistics of scheduling and all is a lot more daunting. My guess is that if 2013 is in play the schools would need to be in the know by July and will most likely already know now.

If the goal is 2014 then there isn't as much as a hurry. But it is still quite possible the + schools already know. Setting up a league and running an athletic department is pretty involved odds are the schools involved will know before the fans.

UDGutter2 wrote:I believe official invitations have been made, just not made public.

And to whom have these secret official invitations been delivered?