According to a report from the Charleston Daily Mail, West Virginia University and the Big East Conference have reached a settlement in their ongoing dispute over the Mountaineers' desire to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 Conference.

If you've been following along at all, you know that the dispute has not been over WVU's desire to leave but instead over its desire to leave before the 27-month waiting period required by the Big East. The same rules may keep Syracuse and Pitt in the conference for longer than those schools would like, as they have reached an agreement to join the ACC.

Here's a link to the article, which has lots of good information and cites a couple of anonymous sources.

http://www.dailymail.com/News/breakingnews/201202090205

The gist of the news is that the Big East will receive a $20 million departure penalty from West Virginia on its way out the door. According to the article, WVU will pay $11 million of that and the Big 12 Conference, which will receive similar settlement money from SEC-bound schools Texas A&M and Missouri, would pay the remaining $9 million to complete the deal.

One report, from Orangebloods.com, cited a source saying that the Big 12's portion of the $20 million WVU would pay to the Big East would be a loan that WVU would pay back in full over time.

Why would the Big 12 be willing to cover nearly half of WVU's penalty? Simple. The sooner the league can get West Virginia into the fold, the sooner the league can move forward with plans for 2012-13, which includes nailing down the football schedule for the upcoming season, one of the most critical issues the conference currently is dealing with because of the importance of having a stable and complete league in place for the Big 12's television contracts.

Sources have said that even though nothing has been released to the media or the public, the Big 12 already has provided its TV partners with a tentative schedule that includes West Virginia and the schedule could be released as soon as today.

Here's the breakdown of how the Big East reached the $11 million dollar figure it will get from WVU:

• $5 million for the Big East exit fee

• $5 million to cover Boise State's buyout from the Mountain West Conference (the Broncos have agreed to join the Big East in 2013 but may be swayed to join sooner)

• $1 million as part of its obligation as a future Big 12 school

Although the Big 12 is paying the remainder of the buyout (for now) as a league, the total was reached by the Big East and Big 12 agreeing on roughly $1 million per school in additional exit fee money. Evidently, that money will come from the buyouts that the Big 12 will receive from A&M and Missouri.

There has been no official word on what Texas A&M and MU will pay the Big 12 as their exit penalties, but past reports indicated the amount could be as high as $20-$30 million.

With Step 1 now out of the way and WVU free to leave the Big East, the next step is waiting for the release of the 2012 football schedules.

Stay tuned...