ESPN Insider Article: "Two Years later, Big East still looks like a major conference."

[azescobar]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...s-realignment-big-east-count-major-conference

We've discussed this ad nauseum (sp), but I figured I'd share this as UConn is featured prominently in the article. Essentially, ESPN is trying to sell the Big East as a major basketball conference and the American as a "high mid-major" akin to the A-10.

I'm not trying to reignite our back and forth conference realignment/Big East v. AAC conversations, but suffice it to say, I disagree with the premise of the article, as the "New Big East" may have a decent regular season record these past two years, but has been exposed pretty badly in the tournament thus far. Anyways, until that B1G invite comes, let's just dominate the American like we are supposed to.

 

[Stainmaster]

Re. the title of that article: bull .

 

[Rocktheworld]

Can't wait for Nelson to make his appearance ITT

 

[upstater]

Lessee. ESPN doesn't own the BE. But ESPN owns the AAC. Heh.
So, get Fox to pay up for ratings drawing 14k viewers, and downplay the worth of the AAC.

 

[Silk31]

I think ESPN meant this to be a satire piece..............

 

[4in16]

I read this earlier today, this part is made me laugh.

Two years ago when the Big East was forced to reconstitute itself as a league that doesn't play FBS-level football, no one really knew what would happen to the conference in terms of basketball. After all, the teams that left the Big East comprised a regular who's-who of college hoops: Connecticut, Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Cincinnati all departed in search of greener pastures. (While the league was hemorrhaging teams, two somewhat less storied basketball programs also chose to head out the door: Rutgers and South Florida.) Within the span of just three seasons, the one-time 16-team "super conference" lost over half its members.

Because UConn, Cincy and USF had a say in this and willingly joined the American, smh ESPN. Greener pastures alright nice try.

 

[champs99and04]

I guess I will be the one who takes the unpopular view and backs Gasaway's claim.

The tournament point is fair (only one sweet sixteen team in two years, IIRC), but it's also true that the conference boasted six top 50 teams last season (that's 60% of the league).

The Big East cannot be discussed in the same breath as the Big Ten or ACC (though, until last season, the ACC had tournament questions of their own to answer) until their teams show more on the biggest stage, but they have accomplished enough OOC to view them as on par with the Pac-12 and SEC. Let us not forget how fickle the tournament can be - Notre Dame, a team that would eventually give undefeated Kentucky all they could handle, had to go to overtime to beat Butler, and Xavier - the conferences sixth place team - came within a couple plays of knocking off a loaded Arizona team and advancing to the elite eight.

Given that the Big East returns a lot of talent and figures to be even better this season, in addition to success they have had recruiting, I don't mind viewing them as a power conference for now, which is certainly subject to change as the disparity in wealth widens (obviously, that's a problem for us, too).

I'm not sure I agree with the premise, though, that the Big East is significantly better than the AAC, and the way the article is framed - which is, Cincinnati, USF, Louisville and UConn "jumped ship" - annoys me.

 

[Gringo]

I guess I will be the one who takes the unpopular view and backs Gasaway's claim.

The tournament point is fair (only one sweet sixteen team in two years, IIRC), but it's also true that the conference boasted six top 50 teams last season (that's 60% of the league).

The Big East cannot be discussed in the same breath as the Big Ten or ACC (though, until last season, the ACC had tournament questions of their own to answer) until their teams show more on the biggest stage, but they have accomplished enough OOC to view them as on par with the Pac-12 and SEC. Let us not forget how fickle the tournament can be - Notre Dame, a team that would eventually give undefeated Kentucky all they could handle, had to go to overtime to beat Butler, and Xavier - the conferences sixth place team - came within a couple plays of knocking off a loaded Arizona team and advancing to the elite eight.

Given that the Big East returns a lot of talent and figures to be even better this season, in addition to success they have had recruiting, I don't mind viewing them as a power conference for now, which is certainly subject to change as the disparity in wealth widens (obviously, that's a problem for us, too).

I'm not sure I agree with the premise, though, that the Big East is significantly better than the AAC, and the way the article is framed - which is, Cincinnati, USF, Louisville and UConn "jumped ship" - annoys me.

Agree with you champs.

UConn has no place in the Big East, but the conference still has quality basketball.

Tough to say what significantly better means, but conference RPI's over the last two years typically have the big east rated much higher than AAC. Problem is the bottom half of the big east, although not great, is much better than the bottom half of the AAC which crushes the AAC's conference ranking.

 

[Ewekon]

If you scroll down after the NBE article, you will see what may be the biggest piece of doo doo squid has ever dropped. And that is saying something. Basically dismisses recent national champs in favor of his 38 - 1 losers. But the tone and arrogance are a new low even for that can't understand normal thinking.

 

[Fishy]

It's going to be hard for the Big East to maintain that they're on level footing with some of the P5 conferences unless someone consistently acts as the flagship.

They need Nova and Gtown to be national contenders yearly and they need St. John's to be consistently better.

The rest of the conference doesn't draw any water nationally or really even regionally in some cases.

 

[uconnfan68]

It's going to be hard for the Big East to maintain that they're on level footing with some of the P5 conferences unless someone consistently acts as the flagship.

They need Nova and Gtown to be national contenders yearly and they need St. John's to be consistently better.

The rest of the conference doesn't draw any water nationally or really even regionally in some cases.

And some even locally.

 

[Huskies4ever]

If you scroll down after the NBE article, you will see what may be the biggest piece of doo doo squid has ever dropped. And that is saying something. Basically dismisses recent national champs in favor of his 38 - 1 losers. But the tone and arrogance are a new low even for that can't understand normal thinking.

That's Calipari in a nutshell. Can they vacate his Hall of Fame induction?

 

[A10 fan]

It's going to be hard for the Big East to maintain that they're on level footing with some of the P5 conferences unless someone consistently acts as the flagship.

They need Nova and Gtown to be national contenders yearly and they need St. John's to be consistently better.

The rest of the conference doesn't draw any water nationally or really even regionally in some cases.

This is it! They've done fairly well until now, but you have to have some teams that can make a run at the championship. If you don't, eventually you become just a deeper A10, and as opposing coaches hammer away, it will begin to affect recruiting. If the AAC stays together for a while, folks are going to be surprised at how strong the conference becomes. Some of the underperforming schools are located in areas that produce a lot of talent, and they are starting to benefit from living in a better neighborhood. Schools like Tulane might not become powers, but they will become much less of a drag on the top teams. A better coach at Memphis would help. I don't know if SMU's rise will continue after Larry Brown is gone, but I expect Houston to soon become a serious threat in the league. Kelvin Sampson may be slimy, but he's a really good coach, who has won everywhere he's been. The league needs to do better ooc, and then have a strong run in March to raise it's profile.

 

[UConn990411]

The Big East is almost the same as it's always been - a large, deep collection of really good teams.

The only difference is they no longer have Louisville and UConn to carry everyone else on their backs when the games matter most.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

The Big East is almost the same as it's always been - a large, deep collection of really good teams.

The only difference is they no longer have Louisville and UConn to carry everyone else on their backs when the games matter most.

That's a pretty generous description of the new Big East, but it's also not what people used to say about the old version. They referred to it as basically the undisputed best conference in America.

No conference can replace UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh with Butler, Xavier, and Creighton and be anything close to "almost the same as it's always been."

 

[amory]

"ESPN is trying to sell the Big East as a major basketball conference and the American as a "high mid-major" akin to the A-10."

I would agree, honestly. Top to bottom, the Big East is a better basketball conference than the American. But the American wasn't formed to be a better basketball conference. It was floating debris left by a sinking ship.

 

[UConn990411]

That's a pretty generous description of the new Big East, but it's also not what people used to say about the old version. They referred to it as basically the undisputed best conference in America.

No conference can replace UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh with Butler, Xavier, and Creighton and be anything close to "almost the same as it's always been."

Without UConn and Louisville winning a bunch of titles, would people have considered the Big East the undisputed best conference?

Put it this way: the ACC has 2-3 good teams out of 16, and people consider it to be a great conference (even though it's not). Why? Because Duke and UNC win titles consistently.

Sure, Xavier and Creighton don't replace what the conference lost. But the OBE went from good to great because UConn and Louisville.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Without UConn and Louisville winning a bunch of titles, would people have considered the Big East the undisputed best conference?

Put it this way: the ACC has 2-3 good teams out of 16, and people consider it to be a great conference (even though it's not). Why? Because Duke and UNC win titles consistently.

Sure, Xavier and Creighton don't replace what the conference lost. But the OBE went from good to great because UConn and Louisville.

Are you describing the old ACC or the new ACC? The old version was Duke, UNC, and everyone else. The new version is considered a great conference because it also has Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Tony Bennett's version of Virginia. The ACC had 5 teams in the top 21 of the RPI last year - it's not a 2-3 team league.