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I realize that many of us over-fantasize the wonder of the Big East. As good as the league was last season, the unbalanced schedule where we no longer play the best teams twice during the regular season IMO has tainted the BE product. Now granted, going deep and winning the BET certainly made up for it last season, but you're not always going to have a deep BET run and can end up during any given season only playing one or two of the top BE teams twice and not even seeing some of them at home whatsoever.
If, and I realize it is a big IF, we get an ACC invitation, the following scenario IMO would be an upgrade to what we currently have. Consider the followoing:
Northern Division: (Home & Home for all 8 teams): UConn, SU, Pitt, BC, MD, VT, UV & RU (or some other 8th team. I would love see Nova added along with us but they put off going D1 in FB far too long.)
Southern Divsion: (Play all 8 once...not sure if that's too many games, so it might be play 4 of the 8 on a rotating basis once) - UNC, Dook, WFU, NCSU, GT, Clemson, FSU, UM
Granted, we'll all miss playing Georgetown. Although SJU was finally relevant last season, they haven't been for some time. I could certainly live without playing long time members PC & SH, especially when a change would continue games against Pitt & SU and more of them, not to mention rekindle the hated battles between us and BCU. Yeah, I'll miss playing tough competitors like UL, Marquette, Cincy & WVU, but replacing them with MD twice a year, a program that is usually very good, plus playing UNC and Dook once a year, maybe twice if we face one or more of them in the ACC tournament, plus a pair of teams that are usually good in WF & GT will more than make up for it.
With SU & Pitt leaving, even if we played the top BE teams twice, it simply is no longer the product that it recently has been. Any FB/BB replacements will not come close. Playing the top BE BB teams twice, which simply won't happen, unless they unbalance the schedule even more, won't cut it. Imagine if they schedule us twice against Nova, Georgetown and UL, does that come close to what we would get with an ACC schedule? Feel free to replace any of those with Cinci, WVU if they're still around, ND if they're still around, etc. Losing Pitt & SU is a huge hit to the BE BB wise.
I had been thinking that a move to the ACC wouldn't be much of a BB upgrade, but the more I think about it, especially due to the ridiculous unbalanced schedule, a move to the ACC would be more of a BB upgrade that we think. If we were playing SU, Pitt and the others 2 times a year during the regular season, it would have been a different story. As good as the league was last year, the BE overall product is not as good as it used to be when we played the marquee programs twice a season and then maybe again in the BET. Our perception is a tad tainted because we ended up playing a second time and beating GU, Pitt, SU & UL in the BET last season during the 5 wins in 5 days on our way to the unprecedented BET 2011 Championship!
I think a run that goes through say, SU, Pitt, Dook and/or UNC would be pretty damn good too!
If, and I realize it is a big IF, we get an ACC invitation, the following scenario IMO would be an upgrade to what we currently have. Consider the followoing:
Northern Division: (Home & Home for all 8 teams): UConn, SU, Pitt, BC, MD, VT, UV & RU (or some other 8th team. I would love see Nova added along with us but they put off going D1 in FB far too long.)
Southern Divsion: (Play all 8 once...not sure if that's too many games, so it might be play 4 of the 8 on a rotating basis once) - UNC, Dook, WFU, NCSU, GT, Clemson, FSU, UM
Granted, we'll all miss playing Georgetown. Although SJU was finally relevant last season, they haven't been for some time. I could certainly live without playing long time members PC & SH, especially when a change would continue games against Pitt & SU and more of them, not to mention rekindle the hated battles between us and BCU. Yeah, I'll miss playing tough competitors like UL, Marquette, Cincy & WVU, but replacing them with MD twice a year, a program that is usually very good, plus playing UNC and Dook once a year, maybe twice if we face one or more of them in the ACC tournament, plus a pair of teams that are usually good in WF & GT will more than make up for it.
With SU & Pitt leaving, even if we played the top BE teams twice, it simply is no longer the product that it recently has been. Any FB/BB replacements will not come close. Playing the top BE BB teams twice, which simply won't happen, unless they unbalance the schedule even more, won't cut it. Imagine if they schedule us twice against Nova, Georgetown and UL, does that come close to what we would get with an ACC schedule? Feel free to replace any of those with Cinci, WVU if they're still around, ND if they're still around, etc. Losing Pitt & SU is a huge hit to the BE BB wise.
I had been thinking that a move to the ACC wouldn't be much of a BB upgrade, but the more I think about it, especially due to the ridiculous unbalanced schedule, a move to the ACC would be more of a BB upgrade that we think. If we were playing SU, Pitt and the others 2 times a year during the regular season, it would have been a different story. As good as the league was last year, the BE overall product is not as good as it used to be when we played the marquee programs twice a season and then maybe again in the BET. Our perception is a tad tainted because we ended up playing a second time and beating GU, Pitt, SU & UL in the BET last season during the 5 wins in 5 days on our way to the unprecedented BET 2011 Championship!
I think a run that goes through say, SU, Pitt, Dook and/or UNC would be pretty damn good too!
