Where is our commissioner?

[FfldCntyFan]

Maybe...the Committee deliberately made it difficult for UConn to repeat...

The East is a brutal bracket...Huskies have to beat the Big Ten champ, SEC champ, Big 12 champ...

Auburn fans are also claiming being screwed by being in the bracket... with UConn, Iowa State, etc.

If they intentionally made it more difficult for us to repeat, so be it.

For all I care they could have put twelve of the fifteen best teams (after us) in our region. Put them in front of us one game at a time and I like our chances.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Part of me is wondering if a) the conference put a bit if an effort to add one more matchup to the Gavitt Games (BE vs B1G) and b) we knocked off a B1G school in that matchup, would it have benefited any of the BE bubble schools that got left out?

 

[StllH8L8ner]

 

[RedStickHusky]

Our bubble teams suffered from the separation of the BE top three, weak OOC performance, and four conference games against DePaul and Georgetown. They were not strong bubble teams. The committee has been saying for years that they look at teams not conferences so saying the BE deserved better is a weak argument. You can make a case for St. Johns or Seton Hall but not a strong one. We still might've gotten a couple in before the bid stealers weighed in. That's the thing that bothers me the most; stolen bids should come from the conference that lost them. Otherwise, you've created a financial incentive for a team, secure in its bid, to lose in its conference tourney.

As for the east being stacked, I'm sure Auburn, Illinois, and Iowa State are more pissed off than we are. We'll probably have to play two of them in Boston. I like our chances, but it's not supposed to be easy.

 

[ScottVib]

Are they? How many teams are in the Pac next year? Two. They have a scheduling deal with the MWC and have two years to get to 8 teams. Then this will probably happen.

Oregon State, Washington State see future coming into focus after Pac-12 chaos

Oregon State and Washington State were left behind by their soon-to-be-former Pac-12 mates. They refuse to be left behind by everyone else.

theathletic.com

They have the deal with the Mountain West for football, but are playing hoops with the WCC next year

 

[businesslawyer]

In 2014, Iowa State, as a higher seed, had to play us in MSG. The thought that they wait ten years to get another shot at us in the tourney and it will be in Boston can’t be making them too happy.

 

[Chief00]

First, regarding a new tv contract, it is past time for the BE to dump Fox (or really the Fox Sports Network which devotes more coverage to NASCAR and UFC than to collegiate basketball) and switch to ESPN or other.

Second, there are several reasons for the lack of teams in the field of 68 but it also indicates a first step to improvement would be a new, more forceful and impactful BE Commissioner.

Fox does a great job with NFL and I thought better than ESPN on college basketball. But, 100% agree on showing Val the door. Ackerman really let her membership down. And it's going to cost some loss tournament revenue to both schools and conference. And it may adversely impact the TV contract negotiations that have been dragged out. Over-all a bad situation.

 

[ScottVib]

One challenge for the TV deal is that, by far the most valuable property (UConn) can not and will not commit to any kind of grant of rights and everyone knows they have to leave for any kind of mid-tier (rump-ACC) or above full sports offer.

Other than UConn the Big East is a collection of Villanova and a bunch of smaller schools whose brands have faded over the last 30 years or whom have never been a brand. With UConn they get a raise, without it’s a lot harder deal to make from the network side.

 

[Big Fan]

And on the women's side the BE only got 3 in - heck the Ivy League got 2. It's not just the mens tourney. There IS something up with the BE

 

[BlueandOG]

Our bubble teams suffered from the separation of the BE top three, weak OOC performance, and four conference games against DePaul and Georgetown.

This! The top of our conference is strong - but the bottom is WEAK! Georgetown at least has lineage. We need to fire DePaul. Or, even better, we need to get to a P2 conference and not have to worry about this.

 

[uconnfan68]

In 2014, Iowa State, as a higher seed, had to play us in MSG. The thought that they wait ten years to get another shot at us in the tourney and it will be in Boston can’t be making them too happy.

Good.

 

[Excalibur]

You guys are in love with metrics. St John’s was not a good team. Sorry. They won 6* in a row but they lost 8 of their previous 10. Plus lost to BC and Michigan. 2 of the six were against Georgetown. One was DePaul. Not exactly heaviest of lifts. The eye test matters. And I’m sure CBS desperately wanted Pitino in the tourney. Great human interest story. But at some point you need to beat somebody. Come on! At best the Johnnies were a bubble team. I didn’t even have them there. With 5 stolen bids they had zero chance.
* The NCAA has determined that DePaul does not contain basketball material.

Saying "St. John's was not a good team" just ignores the objective awfulness of the teams that got in ahead of them. Pay attention to the rest of college basketball if you're going to throw your opinion out there.

 

[Excalibur]

Sankey and York have something to threaten someone with. Val doesn't. Without leverage, it is just pissing in the wind.

True to some extent, but that's when you make the point that caving to threats like that endangers the integrity of the tournament and the committee itself. Yes, when you are in the weaker position you have to make noise.

 

[ctchamps]

And on the women's side the BE only got 3 in - heck the Ivy League got 2. It's not just the mens tourney. There IS something up with the BE

It was a positive they got Marquette in. BE women’s conference is very weak.

 

[J187Money]

True to some extent, but that's when you make the point that caving to threats like that endangers the integrity of the tournament and the committee itself. Yes, when you are in the weaker position you have to make noise.

Agreed she should be more visible - just that she has to play it differently.

 

[Ha Who]

100% agree. Our return to the conference that helped establish our legacy has this romanticizing factor. But we need to take a 10,000 foot view here. Big East is not about growth. It’s about trying to relive and recreate the past. The past is dead. It will never be the same 90’s battles. AND the Big East commish and officials are scared of the NCAA. The Big East has no leverage.

If we want to grow, get the best media deals (to help with NIL), and be part of the leagues that will have leverage w the NCAA, it’s time to move on.

AAC here we come. Or you prefer the Yankee Conference?

 

[Kmart]

St. John’s suffered because they pooped the bed in OOC (bad losses to BC and Michigan, no real quality wins). And then in the BE, their best wins outside of the Creighton win were against non-tournament or bubble teams. They should have been in, but I get it, especially since the committee didn’t think that highly of the BE outside of the top 3 and that’s where almost all of their wins came from.

Compare them against about four or five teams that got in and tell me what you would point to. I don’t see it.

 

[August_West]

100% agree. Our return to the conference that helped establish our legacy has this romanticizing factor. But we need to take a 10,000 foot view here. Big East is not about growth. It’s about trying to relive and recreate the past. The past is dead. It will never be the same 90’s battles. AND the Big East commish and officials are scared of the NCAA. The Big East has no leverage.

If we want to grow, get the best media deals (to help with NIL), and be part of the leagues that will have leverage w the NCAA, it’s time to move on.

LOL to where?

The A10? AAC? Conf USA? MAAC?


The stupidity of this place is mind numbing.

 

[Ha Who]

As much as I hate Bristol, I think we need a portion of the contract with them. Even the plus. Even though journalism is out the door with their ACC boosting, the conference needs this. Nobody is paying attention to Fox

 

[FearThePups]

Val has been a disaster as a Commissioner. She put the retiring Butler AD on the committee as the Big East Representative not appreciating the importance of that position but giving him a little recognition going out the door. So he’s MIA while all this very easy to rebuke nonsense is going on and now she is on damage control.

She’s no Dave Gavitt. If she can’t negotiate a sweet media contract with having the current reigning champ and favorite to repeat, then it’s time for us to move to a power conference sans football. The talk now is the football program will join a lesser conference with the likes of Buffalo and Toledo, so the argument to insist that our football program is an all or nothing proposition is moot. Dave Bennett needs to explore existing the Big East while the iron is hot.

 

[Jimdish255]

I might be crazy, but this might work out better for next year. This year the teams that got n give the conference a good shot at posting a winning record. Usually conferences and maybthat get in a lot have to scrape by to hit ,500. If we get 3 teams in at the 10-11 line, we are lucky to hit .500 with those 3. With the five stolen bids, how many are we short, maybe 2? Who could make a run? I agree - I would not put in Mich st (8/9), Virginia, Clemson, and maybe some b 12 teams like tcu (who I like to watch, they can hit home runs or strike out). Bottom line is our conferences best three teams got good seeds, and the teams that were pretty darn good got screwed, but in a weird way that will pressure them to alter next year.

This is hopium. Less teans means less money and less opportunities for one of them to get hot and make a run. There is no such silver lining here. We are underrepresented and the leadership are the people that need to come out publicly and say so in no uncertain terms. A phone call or a quiet conversation isn't going to get it done. We should even have a PR firm involved if the leadership doesn't feel comfortable doing this. Ultimately though, this is just another sign that the powerful conferences are going to rig the system in their favor both financially and competitively. In the short term we're fine but in the not so long term it's going to be the same situation as football.

 

[August_West]

I'll tell you this. The rest of the league (and the BigEast fanbases are pretty great about circling the wagons and uniting when it is time to be in an Us against them type deal) better all be rooting like hell for UConn, Creighton and Marquette to make the Final Four. It's really the only thing we can do now to jam this down the throats of these hacks, and the Media Coverage the week of the FF will be squarely on these snubs if we put 3 teams in it.

 

[Jimdish255]

Val has been a disaster as a Commissioner. She put the retiring Butler AD on the committee as the Big East Representative not appreciating the importance of that position but giving him a little recognition going out the door. So he’s MIA while all this very easy to rebuke nonsense is going on and now she is on damage control.

Put Calhoun or Hurley Sr in there and we'll get some results. In reality the The National Champs should get to pick the representative. It's called credibility.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Compare them against about four or five teams that got in and tell me what you would point to. I don’t see it.

I specifically said they should have been in, I’m just giving the reasoning why. And they could have avoided the impacts of a subjective judgment of the big East quality but not pooping the bed in OOC. We weren’t that strong in the middle and were atrocious at the bottom end of the conference this year. The committee just didn’t credit the middle of the BE for beating up on each other.

 

[upstater]

Our bubble teams suffered from the separation of the BE top three, weak OOC performance, and four conference games against DePaul and Georgetown. They were not strong bubble teams. The committee has been saying for years that they look at teams not conferences so saying the BE deserved better is a weak argument. You can make a case for St. Johns or Seton Hall but not a strong one. We still might've gotten a couple in before the bid stealers weighed in. That's the thing that bothers me the most; stolen bids should come from the conference that lost them. Otherwise, you've created a financial incentive for a team, secure in its bid, to lose in its conference tourney.

As for the east being stacked, I'm sure Auburn, Illinois, and Iowa State are more pissed off than we are. We'll probably have to play two of them in Boston. I like our chances, but it's not supposed to be easy.

This is the exact opposite of the criteria they used last year when they totally ignored UConn's undefeated OOC including against the #1 ranked team.

If you compare the teams, you'll find the BE teams showed quite well in terms of metrics. The teams that got in had a similarly hard time.

Somehow Creighton's loss to Colorado State is held against the conference, but the fact they blew out UConn or made the Elite 8 last year with practically the same team is forgotten.