NovaBall wrote: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.
NovaBall wrote:I'm surprised providence and uconn don't get a home/away series going. It's an easy travel game for both the teams and fans, good for both rpi, could be a big fox weekend game. I'm sure there are some uconn fans who don't want to admit they need that type of game, but when they get the chance to travel to providence on a Saturday in January or watch their team in big fox rather than play Tulsa or ecu or whatever, they will quickly swallow their pride. Plus, if uconn can win the game they keep the title of king of New England. They have the hockey east relationship, I'm surprised they don't renew the hoops thing.
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.
GoldenWarrior11 wrote:The fascinating and intriguing aspect of where we are today is how can the league grow and advance further? Natural conversations will center on expansion, but I think the league should focus on getting a scheduling alliance with either the ACC or Pac-12 (in addition to the Gavitt Games), as well as having intra-conference "throwback" games - where schools use throwback uniforms to embrace the identity and history of the Big East.
cu blujs wrote: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.
12 blocks from MSG? I don't suppose you have an extra room or couch for some Jays fans come March? Just me, my wife and a couple of kids. You'd hardly notice us.
NovaBall wrote:Stever being stever....
Th gavitt games are plenty equitable. Every team in the big ten is committed to play ten games. Sometimes we will get Maryland or Michigan or indiana or Iowa, other times we will get Nebraska or Illinois or rutgers or penn state.
The gavitt games. Re a tip off series. It's not intended to match our top 8 against their top 8, but rather a convenient scheduling alliance that can generate a little buZ and interest.
But Stever is Stever and will never quite understand...
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