The formation of the Big East - an alternate history

[Zissou]

The Big East formed in the late 1970s driven by Dave Gavitt from Providence and his vision for a basketball conference to dominate the Northeast metro TV market. Early collaboration was with Georgetown, St John’s, and Syracuse, all independents that would benefit from a conference affiliation and an NCAA automatic bid.

Two other dynamics at play at the time were the Eastern 8 basketball conference in the same regional footprint and Joe Paterno’s vision for a Penn State led Eastern football conference.

The Eastern 8 had only been around for a few years, starting in 1976, and had an automatic bid from its conference tournament. The Eastern 8 did not sponsor football.

The dynamic in the formation of the Big East was a competitive view vs the Eastern 8. There were also a range of views on Paterno’s vision for Eastern football, with concerns that his position was for Penn State to be an unequal leader in a conference.

An alternate history could have developed if the outlook was a collaborative merger of the Big East startup and the Eastern 8, with an inclusion of Eastern Football from the start.

To set the stage for 1978, the the NCAA has just established the 1-A and 1-AA split of Division 1, and Eastern football was dominated by Independent programs.

Let’s start with the teams invited to join the Big East, with the football level of each at the time in parentheses:

• Providence (NA), St John’s (3), Georgetown (3), Syracuse (1-A) were the original collaborators.
• Seton Hall (3), Connecticut (1-AA), BC (1-A) accepted invites as founding members.
• Nova (1-A) accepted but deferred a year to start because of its Eastern 8 affiliation.
• Holy Cross (1-A) and Rutgers (1-A) declined their invitation.

The Eastern 8 was: Villanova (1-A), Duquesne (NA), Penn State (1-A), West Virginia (1-A), George Washington (NA), Massachusetts (1-AA), Pittsburgh (1-A), and Rutgers (1-A)

Villanova was the best basketball program in the Eastern 8 and had already been picked off in the Big East formation. Next came a decision on Pitt or Penn State - they both wanted into the Big East. The decision was to take Pitt, and Penn State was voted down needing one more vote, with (reportedly) Georgetown, St Johns, and Villanova voting against.

A Big East - Eastern 8 merger could have resulted in the basketball conference of Dave Gavitt’s vision and the football conference of Joe Paterno’s vision:

Big East Football

• 1-A programs Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Nova from the Big East
• 1-A Holy Cross from the original invitation, now including football
• 1-A Penn State, WV, and Rutgers from the Eastern 8.
• 1-AA UConn (Big East) and UMass (Eastern 8) moving up to 1-A.

Big East Basketball

• The 10 football members: Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Nova, Holy Cross, Rutgers, Penn State, WV, UConn, UMass
• The 6 non-football members: Providence, St John’s, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Duquesne, GW

The resulting conference would have set in motion the Big East as one of the major football conferences (BCS, later Power). The basketball would have had all of the punch of the programs of the 1980s plus 7 more programs poised to flourish with Big East membership, like UConn did in the 1990s and beyond.

Penn State probably benefited from the snub and affiliating west to the Big Ten instead of east.

The biggest losers in missing this opportunity were Nova (dropping football, alumni revolt, then returning as 1-AA), Holy Cross (dropping to 1-AA and falling off the national exposure map), UConn (left out of football re-alignment), UMass (never finding a major football conference), and Duquesne and GW (diminished basketball programs).

The rest managed re-alignment to Power conferences, but are largely geographical misfits that would have better fit in an Eastern conference.

 

[CL82]

Didn't Nova vote against Penn State joining the big east? I wonder had that vote gone otherwise whether the big east would have remained a stable conference. Of course, the fact that the basketball only were paid less was troubling to them, though entirely justified. So I'm not sure that even with the timely edition of Penn State, it would've been a stable conference. Although, who knows, that might have led ESPN to choose the big east as its house band and funded it to raid the ACC. Up until the raid they were pretty much equivalent conferences.

 

[Zissou]

Didn't Nova vote against Penn State joining the big east? I wonder had that vote gone otherwise whether the big east would have remained a stable conference. Of course, the fact that the basketball only were paid less was troubling to them, though entirely justified. So I'm not sure that even with the timely edition of Penn State, it would've been a stable conference. Although, who knows, that might have led ESPN to choose the big east as its house band and funded it to raid the ACC. Up until the raid they were pretty much equivalent conferences.

As noted in the original post, Nova (reportedly) voted against Penn State.

(Reportedly) the Big East was considering Pitt or Penn State and football was not in the vision or discussion. Pitt had a better basketball program and was in metro Pittsburgh. Penn State in rural State College. Two western PA additions were not viewed as desirable.

The vision would have had to be different and more collaborative vs competitive efforts. The Big East was the original raider! It picked off Nova and Pitt from the Eastern 8.

Whether or not this alternate version of the Big East would have survived is debatable. Penn State would not have needed to court westward to the Big Ten. However, some think that JoePa would have been too demanding of the Big East, like Texas dominating the Big12. Pitt, Syracuse, and BC were wary of Penn State as a partner. One example was Penn State demanding 2-1 scheduling arrangements with other independents.

The real Big East history had member Presidents back stabbing each other. Would this mix have been better, or would the same dynamics have also doomed this version? Hard to say, but the weight of Penn State, once in, may have held the conference together. This version would have also been a magnet for Miami, VT, and Temple, as were added in the real history.

 

[DFW HOYA]

The Eastern 8 was: Villanova (1-A), Duquesne (NA), Penn State (1-A), West Virginia (1-A), George Washington (NA), Massachusetts (1-AA), Pittsburgh (1-A), and Rutgers (1-A)

Duquesne was Division III at the time. GW passed for I-A until 1966 as a member of the Southern Conference and played at RFK Stadium.

 

[Zissou]

Duquesne was Division III at the time. GW passed for I-A until 1966 as a member of the Southern Conference and played at RFK Stadium.

Duquesne was a club team from 1968-1978, then became a D3 team in 1979.

 

[DFW HOYA]

Duquesne was a club team from 1968-1978, then became a D3 team in 1979.

Agreed. In 1979-80 (at the outset of the Big East) they would be D-III.

 

[Rufus]

Even in an alternate history that had Penn State in the Big East, the day still would have come that the B1G would have offered PSU membership and the money would have been too good to turn down. The alternate history would have only delayed the inevitable.

 

[Zissou]

Even in an alternate history that had Penn State in the Big East, the day still would have come that the B1G would have offered PSU membership and the money would have been too good to turn down. The alternate history would have only delayed the inevitable.

Or not. JoePa wanted Eastern Football.

 

[freescooter]

The real impetus for the forming of the z original Big East had more to do with an NCAA rule change requiring everyone to be in a conference in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament, and as I recall, any NCAA title and only conferences had input into rule making. I remember UConn playing Providence in Springfield in the ECAC championship in the mid-70s. For reasons I don’t recall the Yankee Conference didn’t qualify. PC was an independent as were Georgetown and Syracuse. I think the Johnnies too though they might have been part of a league with Fordham and some other City schools at the time. Not sure why the Yankee champ didn’t qualify. Maybe size? After a few years of Eastern schools playing in things like the ECAC Gavitt put together the Big East of the best known northeastern basketball schools.

 

[DFW HOYA]

The real impetus for the forming of the z original Big East had more to do with an NCAA rule change requiring everyone to be in a conference in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament, and as I recall, any NCAA title and only conferences had input into rule making. I remember UConn playing Providence in Springfield in the ECAC championship in the mid-70s. For reasons I don’t recall the Yankee Conference didn’t qualify. PC was an independent as were Georgetown and Syracuse. I think the Johnnies too though they might have been part of a league with Fordham and some other City schools at the time. Not sure why the Yankee champ didn’t qualify. Maybe size? After a few years of Eastern schools playing in things like the ECAC Gavitt put together the Big East of the best known northeastern basketball schools.

One could still be an independent to qualify for the NCAA's (e.g., Notre Dame, Marquette) but the ECAC was about to enforce round robin scheduling which Gavitt and the other Big East athletic directors did not prefer, at least not against lesser teams in their region. The ECAC conferences that came out of that decision largely exist today, but under different names:

ECAC-North Atlantic: America East
ECAC-Metro: Northeast
ECAC-Upstate: MAAC
ECAC-South: Colonial