Nova still on Top?

[Hall2012]

I'll take a Big East regular season title over the BET title any day of the week. Proven champ over 18, soon to be 20 games vs. A three day tournament.

The BET title will get you an extra feather in your cap, but the committee for the most part doesn't put a ton of stock in the conference tournaments.

Except for, you know, auto-bids. The Big East Tournament literally has a direct tie to the NCAA tournament while the committee puts absolutely 0 stock in conference regular season championships.

Plus I mean...how great is a "championship" that the league can't even be bothered to create a tiebreaker for so they're willing to call it a tie and have "co-champions". In the BET, there's only 1 team left standing. And that's the Big East Champion.

I'd obviously like to have a good conference (and overall) for seeding purposes but in terms of the winning a championship...the tournament is the one that matters.

[scoscox]

I'll take a Big East regular season title over the BET title any day of the week. Proven champ over 18, soon to be 20 games vs. A three day tournament.

The BET title will get you an extra feather in your cap, but the committee for the most part doesn't put a ton of stock in the conference tournaments.

Except for, you know, auto-bids. The Big East Tournament literally has a direct tie to the NCAA tournament while the committee puts absolutely 0 stock in conference regular season championships.

Plus I mean...how great is a "championship" that the league can't even be bothered to create a tiebreaker for so they're willing to call it a tie and have "co-champions". In the BET, there's only 1 team left standing. And that's the Big East Champion.

I'd obviously like to have a good conference (and overall) for seeding purposes but in terms of the winning a championship...the tournament is the one that matters.

i mean, if you win the big east you basically already have an auto bid.

both are important and both are nice to have. this is a stupid argument in general.

[kayako]

BET Championship is more "in the moment" important.

Outright regular season title is the more important metric down the line IMO.

Take your pick, it's subjective. But 2nd place or worse in either is pretty meaningless.

I do think it's become NCAAT or bust for the vast majority of programs, and that's kind of sad. Here's hoping for more intense rivalries down the road. It looks like Xavier fans are doing the heavy lifting here

[RxJay]

Don’t you think that in the old BE the regular season didn’t mean as much because you couldn’t play a round robin format. That would create a discussions on who was the best team was in the conference every year. The BET was actually the only way to determine who the best team was. CU has always played in the round robin format so we always thought the regular season was a big deal.

[FriarJ]

It is definitely an old BE school thing. You had very little chance of winning the regular season "crown" I am telling you the truth that NOBODY celebrated the BE regular season crown. It is all about the tournament. Always has been and always will be for the older BE schools like Nova, SHU, Georgetown, SJU, PC, and UConn. I know NOVA does not care about all the consecutive BE regular season titles they have when PC and SHU won the tournament. If you have not seen the marketing around the BE and the BET and MSG you have not been paying attention. Jay Wright does not sit in front of a recruit and ever tell them what a thrill it will be for them to win the regular season "crown". He talks about the REAL BE Champion and that is determined in NYC at MSG. That is why it's packed and is a must see event and has been for 40 years. Xavier fans seem to have the most problem with this and I can only say it's because you don't have the history here and don't understand the closeness of the alumni bases for the original schools in NYC.

[Husky_U]

Yup. Conference Champs to me will always be the conference tourney winners. That is the Big East way. The AAC folks didn't understand this (and still don't). Also, if regular season championships were the top prize, they would be rewarded the auto-bid.

[xufan02]

Everyone is making fair points, but for me it comes down to being the regular season champ and what that means to your prospects of getting to a Final Four or National Championship. Winning the Big East regular season means you are wearing home jerseys and are likely protected seed in the NCAA tournament.

Winning the Big East Tournament doesn't likely give you that same opportunity unless you are the regular season champs or fell in the top three on a very strong year for the conference.

If you are striving to be relevant in college basketball you should want to win both, but the regular season matters more. I know coaches sell playing at MSG, but you know what sells better playing into the second and third weekend of March.

A few year old, but here are the stats:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/11 ... ce-winners

[Hall2012]

Yup. Conference Champs to me will always be the conference tourney winners. That is the Big East way. The AAC folks didn't understand this (and still don't). Also, if regular season championships were the top prize, they would be rewarded the auto-bid.

And this is coming from a fan of a team with 10 regular season championships.

If anyone would be inclined to try to talk up the importance of a regular season title, it would be a UConn fan.

[Husky_U]

Yup. Conference Champs to me will always be the conference tourney winners. That is the Big East way. The AAC folks didn't understand this (and still don't). Also, if regular season championships were the top prize, they would be rewarded the auto-bid.

And this is coming from a fan of a team with 10 regular season championships.

If anyone would be inclined to try to talk up the importance of a regular season title, it would be a UConn fan.

Our 7 BE tourney championships are so much sweeter than those 10. Not even close.

[scoscox]

It is definitely an old BE school thing. You had very little chance of winning the regular season "crown" I am telling you the truth that NOBODY celebrated the BE regular season crown. It is all about the tournament. Always has been and always will be for the older BE schools like Nova, SHU, Georgetown, SJU, PC, and UConn. I know NOVA does not care about all the consecutive BE regular season titles they have when PC and SHU won the tournament. If you have not seen the marketing around the BE and the BET and MSG you have not been paying attention. Jay Wright does not sit in front of a recruit and ever tell them what a thrill it will be for them to win the regular season "crown". He talks about the REAL BE Champion and that is determined in NYC at MSG. That is why it's packed and is a must see event and has been for 40 years. Xavier fans seem to have the most problem with this and I can only say it's because you don't have the history here and don't understand the closeness of the alumni bases for the original schools in NYC.

Except a Nova guy just told you it's subjective. And i'm pretty sure Georgetown still touts their "most regular season big east championships" as often as they can.

i'm not sure why this is being discussed as an either or thing. both the regular season champion and tournament champion are big east champion. whoever you think is the "real big east champion" is subjective. both are important and impressive accomplishments. the tournament is probably more memorable, but that doesn't discount the accomplishment of the regular season. i think everyone can agree at least that winning the regular season is more difficult.

providence fans seem to have this bizarre, patronizing need to put us in our place about this. many people are saying this could be because they've never won a regular season title! sad!



begone ye friars!