Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com understandably mocked the entirety of this Tulane to Big East deal earlier today, writing in his concluding comments, "Is this good for Tulane? I don't know. Who cares? It's Tulane. That's the point. It's Tulane."
Given the history of Green Wave football and men's basketball that he describes - the revenue/television sports - that really is the point; it's a somewhat bizarre move. But for women's basketball fans it's a bit more interesting, perhaps - Tulane is certainly no Rutgers, but they've held their own in recent years advancing to the second round of the WNIT for the past couple of years after falling by 5 to Georgia in 2010.
Wikipedia has a summary of their program as well.
Tulane's women's basketball program has found continuous success under the coaching of Lisa Stockton, who began at Tulane in 1995. That year, Stockton led the team to its first NCAA Tournament appearance and was named Metro Conference Coach of the Year. That first appearance began a string of 9 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. The team has been regular-season C-USA champions 4 times, most recently in the 2009–10 season, when they held a 23–6 record (14–2 in C-USA). In addition, they have won the C-USA tournament 5 times: 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, and 2009–10. Lisa Stockton is the winningest coach in C-USA history and has twice been named C-USA Coach of the Year (2006–07 and 2009–10).[8][9]
Not bad and, if nothing else, the move to the Big East could help them with recruiting.