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Message: [QUOTE="Mike9904111, post: 3563082, member: 10239"] Good article with a lot of solid good points. I think being back in the Big East with a lot of our rivals will help immensely, especially with fan support. We won't have Syracuse in conference, but we can play them every season. I know Butler, Creighton, and Xavier aren't original schools, but I would take them over the majority of the AAC programs. In the AAC I liked Memphis, Houston, Temple, and Cincinnati. Outside of that I could never really get up for a game and I felt that playing ECU, Tulane, SMU, Wichita State, UCF, South Florida (Even in the Big East, it was a terrible fit), and Tulsa wasn't good for our program. No disrespect to those programs, but I would much rather player Villanova, Providence, Marquette, St John's, Georgetown, Depaul, and Seton Hall, to go along with the three I already mentioned above. The Big East is where we belong. I hold no ill-will towards the administration for trying to make the AAC work, and had things worked out properly and the Big East had turned into the conference it was initially supposed to be we 100% wouldn't be having this discussion. Football could have had true East/West divisions with the addition of Boise State and San Diego State. Basketball would have been fine because Villanova, Providence, Marquette, St Johns, Georgetown, Depaul, and Seton Hall would have remained in the conference. I recall them bailing once schools like ECU, Tulane and so on were added. Bottom line is we have the right coach now. I am fully behind Hurley and think he will get us where we need to be and we are also back in the Big East where we belong with the programs we should be in a conference with. Football is a fine sport but it will never be THE sport here. Men and Women's basketball run the show and they always will. We are 4x Men's National Champs and 11x Women's National Champs. It is our identity. I hate to say this, but we could drop to FCS in football and be way more competitive and build a brand at that level and it would be more fun than what we have been experiencing in the AAC. I know the argument before from some, especially with fans from other programs was that this kills our chances to get into the Power Five. At this point I could care less about the Power Five. I want to save our basketball brand and it was slowly dying. Football wasn't making any headway and it looked liked we'd have been locked into the AAC forever or worse. Every time expansion came up it was always Memphis, Cincy, Houston, UCF, USF etc... and it never happened anyway. We can't live in a what if world. The Big East is where we belong. We will make plenty of money moving forward. We will be competing on the biggest stages again. We will have the majority of our rivals back. We are seeing results on the recruiting trail. This just feels right. Sorry for the book! [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach