Iona Director of Athletics, Matthew Glovaski, announced that Iona will be leaving the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to join the Big East Athletic Conference.
 

The move comes after Iona basketball head coach Rick Pitino resigned after the team was knocked out by Big East school, the University of Connecticut, and will be joining Saint John’s University as their head coach.
 

Iona’s move to the Big East will involve all sports moving, not just the men’s basketball team, as the school looks to become more nationally recognized across the board.
 

The Big East was originally formed when the “Catholic Seven” members of the original Big East Conference elected to split from the football-playing schools in order to start a new conference which focused primarily on basketball as the number one sport.
 

Therefore, the move to the Big East makes sense for Iona as the school discontinued their football program back in 2008.
 

Iona’s addition to the Big East is good news for the basketball programs as they will no longer compete in a one-bid conference and will both potentially be able to qualify for the NCAA tournament even without winning the conference tournament.  

Although the news will be good news for the basketball teams, the new conference may be met with a mixed result by the other Iona athletics teams.
 

The men’s cross-country team has won 32 MAAC titles in a row, and the women won 16 out of the last 18. The men’s team streak will be snapped, and they will face the nationally ranked Villanova University and Providence College who beat the Gaels at this year’s Northeast Regional cross-country championships.
 

The move will also mean that Iona is adding a tennis team to really feel and be part of the conference. However, to stay in line with the Big East sports Iona is also losing some. Softball and volleyball are the sports to make way at Iona while water polo will be the only sport remaining in the same conference, they already are scheduled next year.  

Rowing will also be unaffected by the change to the Big East as they will stay the same and not change their conference or schedule due to the move.  

Glovaski said that he is very pleased to be joining the Big East and really believes this will improve the overall standard of Iona athletics.  

Ironically, with the Big East wishing to keep the conference at 11 teams, Saint John’s University is the school to make way for Iona University with the school rumoured to be joining the MAAC to replace Iona.  

DISCLAIMER: This is an April fools article. None of the above is true as it is apart of the April fools section of our March 30th Issue. Not meant to be taken seriously.