I have friends who are divorced and they’ve told me the hardest part is always well after the split when the ex-spouse remarries. It’s particularly hard when the ex-wife takes on a new name. That’s finality.

And it is along those lines that we understand today the Big East Conference is now kaput.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The current Big East Conference has announced that it will be renamed the American Athletic Conference and will rebrand as such across all platforms, associations and media at the conclusion of the 2012-13 sports seasons.  The announcement was made today by Commissioner Mike Aresco after unanimous approval by the Conference’s Board of Directors.

I started at Twitter for a few minutes and I wondered if — no, I was sure that — the purveyors who oversaw the demise of the league picked something like “American Collegiate Conference” and were set to reveal it before an intern came in to gather info for the press release and said, “Uh, guys, about that acronym …”

And now it’s the AAC.

Only it’s not. Pay heed.