30 for 30....Requiem for the Big East

[Carl Spackler]

The BE roots are derived from having multiple teams consistently competing for FF's and winning championships. Which of the NBE teams fit that mold?

Answer? None. (Butler was a nice story in 2010)

I'm not disagreeing with your overall point, but this is revisionist history. It's already been touched on, that without the likes of UCONN, Louisville, Syracuse, West Virginia, the nostalgia of the Big East in the 1980s basically revolves around early 1980's Georgetown basketball, and the spring of 1985. The year the Big East put 3 teams in the final four. After 1985, Syracuse and Providence made it to the final four in 1987, Seton Hall in 1989, and then no team made it again to the final four until Syracuse in 1996 and UCONN in 1999 - and we all know what happened in 1999, and know the history of who carried the league in the current century.

From 1986-1998 - 12 years - The big east produced 3 final four teams - Cuse twice in 87 & 96, Providence in 87 and Seton Hall in 89. The Big East was a much stronger basketball conference when it comes to the NCAA tournament in the past decade, than it was anytime between 1985 and 2003.

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[Fishy]

The Big East is gone - that Catholic 7 deal is no more the Big East than you're the Queen of England.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The Big East is quite dead to me, which is ironic for discussion purposes here so far, because in that case, for me individually, a Requiem would be linguistically and vocabulary fitting. I assume that comment Fishy, was directed to me. The current Big East, is actually still the Big East conference, as much as the Colonial Athletic would still be the Yankee Conference, if they hadn't muddled everything up around basketball and football to start with,, regardless of how you feel about it, , so technically the statement is not correct.

I could be the Queen of England. So I take no umbrage, in such statement, but had you said "Mary, Queen of Scots", there may have been an issue.

 

[dsturdy5]

BSPN admits that the Big East is gone.

Syracuse joined the ACC in basketball this season, coming over from the now-defunct Big East.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...ll-syracuse-orange-charge-vs-duke-blue-devils

 

[whaler11]

The one word in the title really bothers me because they are interpreting it differently than me, and if it means what you say it mean, then it should be "Requiem for the original Big East conference."

I'm fairly easily annoyed, but even my threshold is higher than the use of a word in the title of a documentary.

 

[whaler11]

The Big East is quite dead to me, which is ironic for discussion purposes here so far, because in that case, for me individually, a Requiem would be linguistically and vocabulary fitting. I assume that comment Fishy, was directed to me. The current Big East, is actually still the Big East conference, as much as the Colonial Athletic would still be the Yankee Conference, if they hadn't muddled everything up around basketball and football to start with,, regardless of how you feel about it, , so technically the statement is not correct.

I could be the Queen of England. So I take no umbrage, in such statement, but had you said "Mary, Queen of Scots", there may have been an issue.

Has it occurred to you yet that whoever made the documentary may feel the same way and therefore the word fits for them?

Being named the Big East and being The Big East are not the same thing.

 

[MattMang23]

I don't get the hostility towards the basketball schools. They stuck it out as long as anyone could have reasonably expected. UConn got stabbed in the back by Syracuse, TCU, Pitt, Rutgers and WVU, who would have picked up buckets of money if they had just stuck together. They still ended up getting paid, but left USF, Cincinnati and UConn to die.

I don't have hostility toward the basketball schools. I just pointed out that the league that calls itself the "Big East" purchased the name.

Why did they have to purchase it? Because they weren't the Big East and didn't have the rights to use the name without buying it.

I wasn't attempting to convey anything hostile.

 

[MattMang23]

actually the current "Big East" does very much resemble the conference of the 80's minus Syracuse. The 80's was dominated by Georgetown, St John's, Villanova, Syracuse and Seton Hall and Providence made it to the final four in the late 80's. The C5 and Syracuse were the big guns in the 80's.

Big East basketball is alive and well, Big East football no longer exists. ESPN is interviewing the wrong group of people, Paul Pasqualoni is the coach they should have interviewed for their requiem and the show should be airing in August prior to football season.

Yes, you're correct regarding the substance of the league.

You're legally incorrect, though. They had to buy the name from the original Big East, the AAC. They had to buy it because they had no rights to the name unless they did, which means the AAC, not the current "Big East" is the legally recognized successor to the original Big East.

 

[Samoo]

This is probably a pretty good idea for a documentary. Unfortunately, the chances of ESPN airing an accurate documentary on the subject rather than revisionist propoganda are slime and none.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Which is sort of evidence they aren't the evil mastermind they are portrayed to be.... Since they paid more for less in the end.

The tough thing about thinking you are in control is that you often are not. ESPN started tipping over dominoes without thinking about other dominoes that would get tipped over next. I firmly believe they though that they would raid Pitt and Syracuse and get the rest for the price of the contract they ultimately signed with the AAC. Fox took the opportunity to pick ESPN's pocket for a ton of content that would have been happy to stay at ESPN for less money as part of the Big East.

By the time the feeding frenzy was done, ESPN had a worthless property in the AAC and had wildly overpaid for the ACC, while losing a ton of content in the process. Nice work.

 

[metsfan2323]

By the time the feeding frenzy was done, ESPN had a worthless property in the AAC and had wildly overpaid for the ACC, while losing a ton of content in the process. Nice work.

How is the AAC worthless? ESPN is probably making a small fortune off of its content given that it costs them very little. If the content was worthless our games would be on NBC as ESPN would have never matched their offer.

You are the king of crap.

 

[djct1999]

any chance jeff goodman or brett mcmurphy narrarates?

 

[pj]

ESPN screwed up and did have to pay hugely more for media rights than it would have paid had it acquired the rights earlier. No doubt they regret those mistakes. But in truth, no one 4-5 years ago predicted the rise in value (bubble?) in live sports programming.

ESPN's screw up pales next to UConn's. We really had poor leadership in the crucial period when we needed to prepare for this possibility.

 

[Fairfield 1st]

I won't watch a minute of this revisionist history

 

[John]

I've long thought that if a good writer got their hands on all the source documents, the rise and fall of the Big East would make a truly great sports/business book.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

ESPN screwed up and did have to pay hugely more for media rights than it would have paid had it acquired the rights earlier. No doubt they regret those mistakes. But in truth, no one 4-5 years ago predicted the rise in value (bubble?) in live sports programming.

ESPN's screw up pales next to UConn's. We really had poor leadership in the crucial period when we needed to prepare for this possibility.

Every business is impacted by the bad decisions of its largest customer. UConn and the Big East is no different.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

On the History Channel, Lee Harvey Oswald is producing, "JFK"

One of the best posts I have ever seen.

 

[NCHusky91]

Documentaries you see in 4th grade may be factual, but those on TV and in the movie theater are specifically designed to promote the point of view of its creator. I learned this when I stupidly watched "SportsCentury" about Mickey Mantle hoping to see and hear about all of the 500 foot homers he hit, instead it was 60 minutes of what a lousy father and drunk he was.

 

[gars44]

The funny thing about all you guys who claim "it was just business" is that you fail to recognize that it would have been a lot cheaper for ESPN to pay the Big East market than do what happened. ESPN ended up paying almost $300MM a year for Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse, and Notre Dame's basketball program, and about half the games of TCU and WVU. That doesn't count the uptick they will have to pay the Big 10 for Rutgers. It was about as bad a business decision as ESPN could have made, and they apparently did it to teach the Big East a lesson. Every Big East school but UConn, USF and Cincinnati doubled their revenue by telling ESPN to buzz off.

Too funny. Have to tell you, have an interesting insight into all of this.

 

[Waquoit]

I learned this when I stupidly watched "SportsCentury" about Mickey Mantle hoping to see and hear about all of the 500 foot homers he hit, instead it was 60 minutes of what a lousy father and drunk he was.

That wasn't factual?

 

[NCHusky91]

That wasn't factual?

It likely was true, but certainly subjective in nature, and was just overemphasized a wee bit, and I heard little about his career.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

It was true. Mickey was nearly as lousy a father as Ted Williams was.

 

[IMind]

ESPN screwed up and did have to pay hugely more for media rights than it would have paid had it acquired the rights earlier. No doubt they regret those mistakes. But in truth, no one 4-5 years ago predicted the rise in value (bubble?) in live sports programming.

ESPN's screw up pales next to UConn's. We really had poor leadership in the crucial period when we needed to prepare for this possibility.

Jeff Hathaway doesn't get nearly the blame he deserves for the demise of the Big East. You know he was siding with the basketball schools at the expense of football.

 

[whaler11]

Jeff Hathaway doesn't get nearly the blame he deserves for the demise of the Big East. You know he was siding with the basketball schools at the expense of football.

It's really more that the Big East lasted as long as it did partially because of UConn wanting to keep it together.

 

[upstater]

It's really more that the Big East lasted as long as it did partially because of UConn wanting to keep it together.

UConn should have let it die in 1993. It would have focused minds about football. They would have been ready to play in 1996.