Yesterday the Philadelphia Inquirer confirmed an earlier report from the Delaware County Times. Villanova would need to join the Big East by June 1 to start league play in 2014. After June 1 the earliest they could join is 2015.
For some reason Brian from VU Hoops keeps reading this as a NCAA requirement but that isn't true. It's a Big East requirement that has remaining consistent through multiple media sources. The NCAA mandates a two year transition from FCS to FBS.
The Big East standard for teams transition from FCS is different. UConn had two transition years between starting their FBS upgrade and becoming a full member. They were only allowed to join the Big East after three years (which was originally supposed to be four before the ACC raided the Big East.)
