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Message: [QUOTE="Mike9904111, post: 3720871, member: 10239"] I respectfully disagree about your take on the Big East and Villanova. Nova has THREE titles. Zags have competed for one. Villanova is very well known. Louisville, Notre Dame, Pitt, and Syracuse 100% cannot be replaced. I'm not even putting Boston College into the conversation for this. So me being a realist AND optimist I say this. UConn = UConn St. Johns = St. Johns Seton Hall = Seton Hall Providence = Providence Depaul = Depaul Marquette = Marquette Georgetown = Georgetown Villanova = Villanova Those eight programs are now all back together in the Big East with us rejoining. Now to the teams we've upgraded from. Xavier > Cincy. (Especially this last decade + We'll see how they end up after Mack but I expect them to be fine). Creighton > Rutgers. (Not even a discussion). Butler > South Florida (Again, not even a discussion). So while we don't have 5-6 title contending programs every season, we will have 2-3. We will also have an additional 2-3 that are capable of making good runs in the NCAA Tournament. The Big East's worst team last season was Depaul who was .500 overall. (Georgetown was 15-17 but they would have been better without the issues). Depaul was 16-16 but 15 of those losses came in the Big East. Georgetown even with the issues was 15-17 with 13 losses come in the Big East. St. Johns was 17-15 with 13 losses coming in the Big East. Xavier was 19-13 with 10 losses coming in the Big East. Marquette was 18-12 with 10 losses coming in the Big East. So the bottom half of the conference took care of business OOC. Suffering no more than 1-4 losses OOC and doing what they needed to do to prop up the top half. I know things change season to season, but the programs in the "NBE" as people like to call it, are all stepping up and getting better. There is also the potential of adding a 12th program. Which I am sure will also be quality or have the potential to be quality. So while I personally wish none of this realignment crap had ever happened, it's not all doom and gloom. I am perfectly happy exactly where we are now. I would love to play Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame, and Louisville OOC when we can (Syracuse and Pitt every season if possible), but outside of that, this is a very good conference that will compete at the highest level every single season. We will get 4-6 teams in the NCAA Tournament every year and that number could very easily be 7 some seasons. [/QUOTE]

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