The Big East’s seven schools without Football Bowl Subdivision programs are leaving the conference and plan to announce the decision “within a week barring an unexpected change of plans,” CBSSports.com reported Thursday.

The schools’ presidents and Big East commissioner Mike Aresco gathered for a teleconference on Thursday morning, and ESPN reported on Thursday a statement from the university presidents about the schools’ futures would come in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The seven schools — Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, St. John’s, Marquette, Seton Hall and DePaul — played a large role in building the league’s rich basketball tradition since the conference was founded in 1979. Aresco hoped to keep the conference in tact, but the Catholic schools with premier basketball programs won’t stay after all the departures in the last year, according to the article.

Syracuse and Pittsburgh — two top basketball programs — started the shift in the conference when they announced they would leave for the Atlantic Coast Conference last September. West Virginia would follow in October and Rutgers announced their move to the Big Ten this fall. The Big East added nine schools in the last year to account for the departures, rebranding itself as the first conference to stretch from coast to coast.

But that new image was far from the one revolving around basketball when it was formed in 1979.

The seven schools hold a majority vote and could dissolve the league, giving them the ability to keep the name and contract for the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, but it wasn’t clear whether they would take that approach, according to The New York Post.

Butler, Dayton, Xavier and St. Louis — top basketball programs in the Atlantic 10 — are among the possible schools that the Big East programs would target in creating their own basketball conference, according to the articles.