Time to Drop the "New" From The Big East Article

[Hoya Hoya Hoya]

http://www.todaysu.com/big-east-today/t ... onference/

Conference realignment was a fickle jerk. Leagues were ravaged of their history simply so university presidents could line their schools with even more (football) money. Rivalries died due to the new structure, and college basketball — as per football-money rules — was to suffer the worst fate of all parties involved.

That fate being spoken of was the death of the Big East Conference as many people knew it. A great, historically important league gone the way of the dinosaurs.
Well, maybe not all the dinosaurs.

Well, maybe not all the dinosaurs.

Then, as if rising from the ashes (brand names can be immortal), the Big East’s Catholic Seven attempted to stave off imminent death. They watched as former pillars of the league left for the AAC and ACC, but managed to grab three other programs with solid reputations to start a (Division I) basketball-only conference — which was the original design of the league anyway.

Yet everyone knew the deal.

The Big East was only going to be that in name. In fact, many of us were so disheartened about the entire thing—rather bitter about the end of a conference we grew up watching—we had to attach certain connotations to the league moving forward.

Nope. It surely wasn’t going to merely be the Big East anymore. The league morphed to being, unofficially, the New Big East Conference.

That was three years ago. You know what else happened three years ago? The birth of my youngest daughter (science has yet to prove she’s mine!). When my wife gave birth to her in the hospital a connotation of her own– like other new things — was attached. She was considered a newborn. Funny thing happens over a period of time, though. She didn’t stay a newborn baby forever. Eventually she graduated to being a terrible toddler in her twos, a little princess in her threes, and we’re closing in on her being whatever it is she will be called when she turns four.

Point being: Why are we still calling the Big East the “New” Big East?

I mean, it isn’t all that new anymore. Also, the connotation attached to it no longer feels like a disclaimer, but a desperate attempt to cling to the idea of a league which certainly left us with good memories, but doesn’t need to be reflected upon every single time the current version is discussed.

I get it to a point, though. This league isn’t as good as the Big East when it was at the peak of its powers. But which conferences in the history of college basketball were ever that good for that lengthy period of time?
"Back in my day the Big East was..." probably a lot of things you didn't appreciate at the time either.

“Back in my day the Big East was…” probably a lot of things you didn’t appreciate at the time either.

Thing is, all the conferences in the country are different. Some better, others worse.

We don’t feel the need to call them the New ACC, New SEC or New Big Ten, though. We’ve simply allowed those leagues to benefit from conference realignment and let them be discussed in the similar ways we have the Big East.

It likely comes down to semantics.

Many of the refined versions of conferences throughout the country became better (in different, not always on-the-playing surface ways) thanks to universities being more greedy than a contestant risking it all for a chance to win more money on {insert whatever popular game show}. It has worked out for them, so I suppose that means being all passive-aggressive with their leagues is unwarranted.

Still, it is no longer necessary to continue calling the Big East anything other than what the league is named. Everyone gets it now. It isn’t the same conference in many ways we all grew up remembering. None of the conferences are. What they have done, though, and will continue to do, is build their brand of basketball each season since its rebirth. And all things being considered, without the luxury of football-money, they have done a hell of a job in the re-branding process.

Sure, some of the programs in the league are still struggling to find their footing, but every conference has bottom-feeders. Despite that, the top of the Big East continues to present itself in a way which continues to warrant calling it a power-conference. The weird perception here being, with UConn, Syracuse and the like gone, the league doesn’t have truly great programs anymore.

In a sense, of course that’s true. No league can move on without losing a step as traditionally great programs bolt. Yet, the Big East has to a certain degree dropped dead weight with the sole focus being on basketball, and is in a far better position — as far as college basketball is concerned — than it was when then Big East commissioner Mike Aresco was so infatuated with football money that he was willing to forgo any prestige the league had by way of inviting programs such as Tulane to join the conference.

I’m not saying it was addition by subtraction, because losing the programs it did made a real alteration to the league, but the Big East Conference would have been a shell of its former self — likely worse, actually — if it continued to ride-or-die for that football loot. The college basketball aspect would have suffered the most for it.

The Big East today is a good basketball league. One which FOX Sports features as one of its flagship television programs. A league which focuses solely on the hoops, still has a devout following, and will continue to get better in every way.

Honestly, today’s Big East is probably the best version it could have been, considering the two paths it could have traveled. So let’s stop putting weird disclaimers of the league in front of it.

It’s simply the Big East Conference.

Agree 100000000000%

[stever20]

i think you're going to see more folks starting to call things the Old Big East and now the Big East.

[NJRedman]

Just read it and agree 100%. This version of the Big East is closer to the original vision Dave Gavitt had when he put this thing together. Not to mention that 5 of the original 8 schools are still in the league. The only thing "new" about this league are our three new members, and even they are starting to feel at home.

[billyjack]

Someone suggested this on the Scout Friar board ---> I might start referring to the post-2013 ACC and Big Ten as the "New ACC" and the "New Big Ten".

[NovaBall]

Great article

Do I miss Cuse and UConn? Sure. Perfect world we go with the current 10 and those two. But they are gone, and while UConn might one day come back we don't need to sit around and wait for them.

But this current conference is awesome, and more similar to what we used to have. The three new additions have passionate fan bases, good program infrastructure, and quality coaches.

Once as Notre Dame and Miami entered the mix Pandora's box was opening. WVU, Rutgers and V-Tech really cheapened the hoops side of things. Not sure if people remember but the 1990's were a down time for the conference. No final four teams between Seton Hall 1989 and Syracuse 1996, and no titles between 1985 and 1999 (although 1996 was awesome). 13 team conference landed 4 bids in 1997, with a ten loss Villanova as the only ranked team (barely) entering the dance). Anyway, I don't really miss the schools like Miami, WVU or Notre Dame as I always viewed them as watering down the product and riding coattails.

The 2003 ACC raid was the best thing that happened to the conference because it allowed the conference to re-focus on basketball. But it was still a house divided and was always a short term fix. That's why, even though I immensely enjoyed that decade of basketball, I don't lament the loss of a power program like Louisville, they never had the long term feel anyway.

The fear of expanding to 16 in 2004 at the time (because at the time that was unique) was that the conference would lose its intimacy and become unweildly. And while the Big East flourished at the top, it did lose some intimacy and some teams (like PC, Seton Hall, and St. John's and DePaul) did get lost in the mix. I have friends from PC who used to love the Big East tournament but stopped making the trip because it was a lot of days off and money to watch your team lose in the middle of the week. Meanwhile, teams like Louisville and Pitt were benefitting from the Big East footprint.

Now we have a more intimate conference. One that has a common purpose. And the three new additions are perfect. Great fan bases, great facilities, national name brands. The schools that managed to stay a float in the old big east (GTown, Nova, Marquette) are still great and that is an awesome 6 team foundation. And the 4 schools that need work have the infrastructure to improve, they just need to rehabilitate after a decade of being over shadowed by the Louisville/Pitt/WVU's of the world. Providence is already back on track it looks.

The Big East gained a resurgence post-2003 because it refocused on basketball, but it wasn't great only because of schools like Louisville, UConn, Pitt, WVU, etc... Louisville in the late 1990's had lost its luster, WVU was a middling A10 team, UConn took a decade in the Big East before they achieved anything. Pitt didn't emerge until the 2000's with Ben Howland. These teams didn't make the Big East great. It's the opposite. The Big East made those teams great. The media footprint. The focus on the sport. The generations of fans who have followed the schools. And now it is time for the C7 + X, Butler and Creighton to reap the rewards.

The platform is still a great one for teams to succeed. Time for our teams to step up. Realignment creates voids and opportunity for other teams. Look at the old big east football conference when Miami, V-Tech and BC left, you suddenly had WVU as a power (they were not prior to the defections), Cincy got good, Rutgers had a respectable season. The Big East basketball brand still carries enough clout whereby the teams who do well will have national respect, and the increased recruiting bump will follow.

In college hoops, it is not about being in the best conference. It is about being in the conference that provides the best platform for your school to succeed. No way would I want to trade places with Boston College or Pitt right now. Heck, once Boeheim retires from Cuse, we will see how they rebuild in ACC. It is tough to argue that the old big east was not a "better" conference than the newer version. But as a Nova fan, I kind of like the opportunity that Nova has to be the new premier program of the northeast corridor instead of the two decades of looking up to Cuse and UConn in the post-Rollie era.

[GoldenWarrior11]

It's worth emphasizing the importance of the C7 fighting UConn, Cincinnati, USF, Memphis, Temple, Houston, SMU, UCF, East Carolina and Tulane for the Big East name, the rights to hold Madison Square Garden and the right to "separate" from the football schools. Continuing on with those schools, under the Big East banner, would have tarnished the basketball brand - as much as the Big East football brand had been tarnished over the years. By fighting to keep the name and "rebuild" the brand if you will, the schools gambled on themselves and came out victorious - much to the help of the absolutely wonderful additions of Butler, Xavier and Creighton.

If the C7 did not get to keep the name (or Madison Square Garden), the look and feel of the league would be considerably different. If we were the Metro Conference, the Skyline League or whatever crazy name the Presidents decided upon, and had to play in a rotating basis of Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Milwaukee or Cincinnati for our conference tournaments, the conference would be good - but not great like it is today. Keeping the Big East brand and re-establishing it was the true victory in conference realignment.

Every season, I am so thankful the chips fell where they did - to continue to be aligned with these conference schools, and be a part of one of the elite basketball conferences in the country.

[ChelseaFriar]

All said makes sense, though I will add that I don't necessarily think PC's decade of garbage was a result of being overshadowed in the mega-conference. It was a result of hanging on to Welsh a bit too long and then a terrible hire with Keno Davis. Welsh's recruiting fell off and he started targeting mid-major guys. Keno was an absolute train wreck. One of the disappointments I had about the break up of the conference was that I strongly felt that with Cooley we would start fighting for NCAA Tournament births again, as we did in the early Welsh days and under Gillen and Barnes. We were rarely a lock, but often around the bubble.

The other thing is that the current president, and current AD, started making athletic fundraising a huge priority, and they were finally beginning to improve aging facilities in order to compete in the old league. The previous president was anti-athletics (thankfully he didn't get his way). The current president is a huge sports fan.

I think the PC ticket holders probably miss having Syracuse (who owned us) and UConn (who we basically split evenly with, believe it or not) playing at the Dunk, but things shook out in a great way and I believe most are very happy.

[ChelseaFriar]

It's worth emphasizing the importance of the C7 fighting UConn, Cincinnati, USF, Memphis, Temple, Houston, SMU, UCF, East Carolina and Tulane for the Big East name, the rights to hold Madison Square Garden and the right to "separate" from the football schools. Continuing on with those schools, under the Big East banner, would have tarnished the basketball brand - as much as the Big East football brand had been tarnished over the years. By fighting to keep the name and "rebuild" the brand if you will, the schools gambled on themselves and came out victorious - much to the help of the absolutely wonderful additions of Butler, Xavier and Creighton.

If the C7 did not get to keep the name (or Madison Square Garden), the look and feel of the league would be considerably different. If we were the Metro Conference, the Skyline League or whatever crazy name the Presidents decided upon, and had to play in a rotating basis of Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Milwaukee or Cincinnati for our conference tournaments, the conference would be good - but not great like it is today. Keeping the Big East brand and re-establishing it was the true victory in conference realignment.

Every season, I am so thankful the chips fell where they did - to continue to be aligned with these conference schools, and be a part of one of the elite basketball conferences in the country.

Huge point. I was shocked we ended up with the name and MSG. I live about 12 blocks south of MSG and was disappointed when I thought PC would no longer be playing in the Garden in March. Then the contract with Fox was astonishing.

[gtmoBlue]

The BE, as a young conference (36 years) has been amazingly successful. I am happy that Creighton was one of the new members selected. The article is spot on, as the new car smell has worn off and the conference is re establishing its' rightful place amongst the basketball elite. I have been advocating to Today's U, BECB, and others to drop the new over the past few weeks in my responses to articles.

I hope to see additional (future) growth so that the Eastern schools don't get permanently mired in the basement of the conference - as the western half are all great schools and staunch competitors (DePaul rising).

The future of the Big East is very bright, positive, and promising - as our recent performances of the past 2 years, coupled with our continued stellar recruiting, and our wins ratio against the other 5 basketball power conferences attest. Spending is up, recruiting is up, we are winning, and the stats confirm we are in the top 2-4 leagues nationally. Great work Big East.

Now, schedule stronger in the non-conference portion of the season (Marquette, others), play a couple of true road games in the non-conference schedule, and secure either a PAC-12 or Big-12 challenge and march ahead smartly Big East. As for NCAA runs - stay tuned for this season's dance.

gtmoBlue

[Xudash]

All said makes sense, though I will add that I don't necessarily think PC's decade of garbage was a result of being overshadowed in the mega-conference. It was a result of hanging on to Welsh a bit too long and then a terrible hire with Keno Davis. Welsh's recruiting fell off and he started targeting mid-major guys. Keno was an absolute train wreck. One of the disappointments I had about the break up of the conference was that I strongly felt that with Cooley we would start fighting for NCAA Tournament births again, as we did in the early Welsh days and under Gillen and Barnes. We were rarely a lock, but often around the bubble.

The other thing is that the current president, and current AD, started making athletic fundraising a huge priority, and they were finally beginning to improve aging facilities in order to compete in the old league. The previous president was anti-athletics (thankfully he didn't get his way). The current president is a huge sports fan.

I think the PC ticket holders probably miss having Syracuse (who owned us) and UConn (who we basically split evenly with, believe it or not) playing at the Dunk, but things shook out in a great way and I believe most are very happy.

Excellent take.

Strong front office. Things like the Gavitt Games between the B1G and the Big East only add to the perception of the league, regardless of matches. 8 yrs. of that action to look forward to overall.

Recruiting continues to trend in the right direction.

Strong core of key coaches, with perhaps only one or two fix-points with which to deal in coaching.

There is much to like with the present direction of the Big East.