Where is our commissioner?

[Chief00]

She’s useless.

Greg Sankey and Brett York basically spent last week threatening the makeup of the tournament and they got 14 at large bids. Phillips went nuts last year and this year he gets Virginia in the back door.

Meanwhile, Val’s off watching Netflix and failing on every single thing she has tried to do over the past year. Renegotiate the contract last March? Fail. Last summer? Fail. Fall? Fail. Winter? Fail. She keeps talking about it, but where is it?

She was jabbering about expansion way too publicly and then her only target said NFW and she’s left with her thumbs up her ass again.

Let her hand out trophies, but hire a killer to sit behind the big desk.

Exactly!

 

[HuskyHawk]

The BE obviously got screwed but I’m not buying a power conference or cbs affiliate scheme because the MW is a midmajor with a fox deal aren’t they? And they got 6 bids

Are they? How many teams are in the Pac next year? Two. They have a scheduling deal with the MWC and have two years to get to 8 teams. Then this will probably happen.

The contract, executed on Dec. 1, says that from the moment of its effective date, the schools will “negotiate in good faith the consummation, as promptly as reasonably practicable, of a definitive transaction pursuant to which all MWC Member Institutions join Pac-12 as Pac-12 member institutions with no MWC Exit Fee payable by any MWC Member Institution to MWC. The invitations, if made, would be effective as of the 2025-2026 NCAA season or the 2026-2027 NCAA season.

Oregon State, Washington State see future coming into focus after Pac-12 chaos

Oregon State and Washington State were left behind by their soon-to-be-former Pac-12 mates. They refuse to be left behind by everyone else.

theathletic.com

 

[WiseWillie]

Agreed. Is this who the conference members want to trust with a new tv contract looming?

First, regarding a new tv contract, it is past time for the BE to dump Fox (or really the Fox Sports Network which devotes more coverage to NASCAR and UFC than to collegiate basketball) and switch to ESPN or other.

Second, there are several reasons for the lack of teams in the field of 68 but it also indicates a first step to improvement would be a new, more forceful and impactful BE Commissioner.

 

[Drew]

Not to mention, the Big East was the only one on that Thursday in March of 2020 to actually tip-off a basketball game when COVID became a thing. Every other major conference + AAC cancelled their conference tournaments leading up to the games Thursday morning and the Big East still played a half of basketball before saying “whoops we’re out too!” and cancelled the Creighton/St John’s game at halftime

 

[Kenny11]

Has she really not made a statement yet??

 

[freescooter]

St John’s got screwed period. They had better metrics in NET and KenPom than several teams that got at large bids.

Some ESPN guy last night said Virginia got in because of their wins over BC….

Last I checked St John’s was 25 in KenPom. Virginia was 69.
Not even close.

You guys are in love with metrics. St John’s was not a good team. Sorry. They won 6* in a row but they lost 8 of their previous 10. Plus lost to BC and Michigan. 2 of the six were against Georgetown. One was DePaul. Not exactly heaviest of lifts. The eye test matters. And I’m sure CBS desperately wanted Pitino in the tourney. Great human interest story. But at some point you need to beat somebody. Come on! At best the Johnnies were a bubble team. I didn’t even have them there. With 5 stolen bids they had zero chance.
* The NCAA has determined that DePaul does not contain basketball material.

 

[pepband99]

So let me get this straight. Val is a crappy commissioner because she doesn’t do a good enough job for her members, and proof of that is that when we entered the conference we got screwed (meaning that by definition her members got a good deal). LMAO.

Explain to me what, other than make you feel better, an angry press release attacking the committee is going to accomplish?

The job of the commissioner in this day and age is to primarily to negotiate contracts for the conference. By far, the most important ones are the m ultimate-year TV deals. We’ll see how she does. But how loud she whines about committee decisions will have little to do with it.

Her #1 job is to drive revenue for conference members. The BOHICA job that just happened will cost us NCAA credits, to the tune of a minimum of $2MM per snub. She should be camped on the headquarters lawn right now.

 

[WiseWillie]

Exactly!

There are several reasons that the lack of selection for more teams in the field of 68 means but as a first step Ackerman should announce her retirement to bring in a new, more widely and nationally known, more active and much more impactful commissioner to strongly represent the Big East and get it back on track. To do nothing and acquiesce to the obvious lack of respect being shown by the NCAA will be a huge mistake.

 

[Dibbie]

Not to mention, the Big East was the only one on that Thursday in March of 2020 to actually tip-off a basketball game when COVID became a thing. Every other major conference + AAC cancelled their conference tournaments leading up to the games Thursday morning and the Big East still played a half of basketball before saying “whoops we’re out too!” and cancelled the Creighton/St John’s game at halftime

Please, let’s not turn this into a Covid discussion. WTF!?

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

All the teams that have any chance to win the NCAA tourney are in the field. They generally get that right each year.

 

[Drew]

Please, let’s not turn this into a Covid discussion. WTF!?

To be clear, I raised that as another example showing her lack of proactivity/highlight her reactiveness, not turn it into a COVID debate

 

[businesslawyer]

So, you don't believe that playing in the NCAA tournament increases brand value? Only getting three teams in the NCAA tournament in year we negotiating our contract is not a good look at all.

Of course Ackerman should be out publicly talking about why this is a bad decision. She should absolutely cherry pick metrics and talk about how St. J's, Seton and (sigh) Providence were better choices. Commissioners routinely stand up for their members and market for their conferences. Why is that "whining" if Ackerman does it?

To be clear, I’m not saying she can’t or shouldn’t do it. I’m saying it’s of no use to anything other than making people outside the process feel better.

And come on — you know as well as I do I didn’t say it wouldn’t be better for the conference if one or two of our bubble teams had gotten it. It would have been and I would have been happier had it happened.

 

[John]

Val = Tranghese

 

[WiseWillie]

You guys are in love with metrics. St John’s was not a good team. Sorry. They won 6* in a row but they lost 8 of their previous 10. Plus lost to BC and Michigan. 2 of the six were against Georgetown. One was DePaul. Not exactly heaviest of lifts. The eye test matters. And I’m sure CBS desperately wanted Pitino in the tourney. Great human interest story. But at some point you need to beat somebody. Come on! At best the Johnnies were a bubble team. I didn’t even have them there. With 5 stolen bids they had zero chance.
* The NCAA has determined that DePaul does not contain basketball material.

What no one seems to mention so far is the size of the fan bases of the majority of the BE teams compared to many of the large schools (not the auto bids) that got the nod for one of the 68. Comparing a Seton Hall or St John's to a Michigan State or some others is like the old apples to oranges.

100% agree. Our return to the conference that helped establish our legacy has this romanticizing factor. But we need to take a 10,000 foot view here. Big East is not about growth. It’s about trying to relive and recreate the past. The past is dead. It will never be the same 90’s battles. AND the Big East commish and officials are scared of the NCAA. The Big East has no leverage.

If we want to grow, get the best media deals (to help with NIL), and be part of the leagues that will have leverage w the NCAA, it’s time to move on.

Agree. After this year, what All-American high school candidate would prefer to play on a BE team versus playing in the ACC, SEC, Big 12 or other larger more nationally recognized conference. The Big East keeps saying its the toughest league with obvious physicality (fouling?) but so what if at the end of the year it doesn't mean anything (except maybe the chance to get injured in the foul-prevalent games). It is past time to move on to new conference leadership.

 

[J187Money]

She’s useless.

Greg Sankey and Brett York basically spent last week threatening the makeup of the tournament and they got 14 at large bids. Phillips went nuts last year and this year he gets Virginia in the back door.

Meanwhile, Val’s off watching Netflix and failing on every single thing she has tried to do over the past year. Renegotiate the contract last March? Fail. Last summer? Fail. Fall? Fail. Winter? Fail. She keeps talking about it, but where is it?

She was jabbering about expansion way too publicly and then her only target said NFW and she’s left with her thumbs up her ass again.

Let her hand out trophies, but hire a killer to sit behind the big desk.

Sankey and York have something to threaten someone with. Val doesn't. Without leverage, it is just pissing in the wind.

 

[shizzle787]

Apparently (according to Marchand or Ourand- can’t remember which), the TV contract negotiations are going well. I do think Ackerman needs to make a statement though.

 

[McLovin]

I said back in December that the conferences (outside of UConn & Marquette) lack of OOC wins was concerning and this could end up a 4 bid league. Yesterday was even worse than I thought it could be.

With that said, I think Providence did enough in conference to earn a bid (they beat Marquette and 2X Creighton) and St. John’s had good metrics even though they really only had 1 signature win… especially compared to Virginia or the MWC teams whose best win on the season (outside of their league) was over Creighton (which PC did 2X and St. John’s did as well).

Seton Hall has 2 of the best wins in the country with wins over UConn and Marquette.

But we pooped the bed, as a league, in the non conference slate this year. Outside of the BIG / 12 challenges the middle / bottom tier teams in the league don’t really schedule any good games and participate in tier 2 or 3 MTEs.

IMO, this needs to be addressed by the commissioner (privately is okay) to ensure we don’t get screwed like this going forward. Plus teach these teams how to game the metrics like the Big 12 and SEC (Auburn had 1 win against a top 85 KenPom team away from home before this past weekend but was consistently a Top 10 team in the metrics).

Val is a useless commissioner though whose only good move since we’ve rejoined the league was extending the MSG contract, so I doubt she does anything about it.

I’m hoping a strong OOC showing next year has this league back to getting 5 or 6 bids. If not, it could be a signal from the NCAA of how they view the Big East as a “power” conference…

 

[billybud]

Maybe...the Committee deliberately made it difficult for UConn to repeat...

The East is a brutal bracket...Huskies have to beat the Big Ten champ, SEC champ, Big 12 champ...

Auburn fans are also claiming being screwed by being in the bracket... with UConn, Iowa State, etc.

 

[Ports21]

Seton Hall and St. John's should have been in, I know the bubble shrank but to not have them be at least in the first four is dumb. Yet Michigan St gets their annual pass that they get every year.

 

[uconnever]

So let me get this straight. Val is a crappy commissioner because she doesn’t do a good enough job for her members, and proof of that is that when we entered the conference we got screwed (meaning that by definition her members got a good deal). LMAO.

Explain to me what, other than make you feel better, an angry press release attacking the committee is going to accomplish?

The job of the commissioner in this day and age is to primarily to negotiate contracts for the conference. By far, the most important ones are the multi-year TV deals. We’ll see how she does. But how loud she whines about committee decisions will have little to do with it.

I think speaking publicly about the conference getting screwed will help in a way that maybe they won’t have the balls to be so blatant at the very least. You seem to be a lawyer, you know, you leave no stone unturned, can’t hurt.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Maybe...the Committee deliberately made it difficult for UConn to repeat...

The East is a brutal bracket...Huskies have to beat the Big Ten champ, SEC champ, Big 12 champ...

Auburn fans are also claiming being screwed by being in the bracket... with UConn, Iowa State, etc.

If they intentionally made it more difficult for us to repeat, so be it.

For all I care they could have put twelve of the fifteen best teams (after us) in our region. Put them in front of us one game at a time and I like our chances.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Part of me is wondering if a) the conference put a bit if an effort to add one more matchup to the Gavitt Games (BE vs B1G) and b) we knocked off a B1G school in that matchup, would it have benefited any of the BE bubble schools that got left out?

 

[StllH8L8ner]

 

[RedStickHusky]

Our bubble teams suffered from the separation of the BE top three, weak OOC performance, and four conference games against DePaul and Georgetown. They were not strong bubble teams. The committee has been saying for years that they look at teams not conferences so saying the BE deserved better is a weak argument. You can make a case for St. Johns or Seton Hall but not a strong one. We still might've gotten a couple in before the bid stealers weighed in. That's the thing that bothers me the most; stolen bids should come from the conference that lost them. Otherwise, you've created a financial incentive for a team, secure in its bid, to lose in its conference tourney.

As for the east being stacked, I'm sure Auburn, Illinois, and Iowa State are more pissed off than we are. We'll probably have to play two of them in Boston. I like our chances, but it's not supposed to be easy.

 

[ScottVib]

Are they? How many teams are in the Pac next year? Two. They have a scheduling deal with the MWC and have two years to get to 8 teams. Then this will probably happen.

Oregon State, Washington State see future coming into focus after Pac-12 chaos

Oregon State and Washington State were left behind by their soon-to-be-former Pac-12 mates. They refuse to be left behind by everyone else.

theathletic.com

They have the deal with the Mountain West for football, but are playing hoops with the WCC next year

 

[businesslawyer]

In 2014, Iowa State, as a higher seed, had to play us in MSG. The thought that they wait ten years to get another shot at us in the tourney and it will be in Boston can’t be making them too happy.

 

[Chief00]

First, regarding a new tv contract, it is past time for the BE to dump Fox (or really the Fox Sports Network which devotes more coverage to NASCAR and UFC than to collegiate basketball) and switch to ESPN or other.

Second, there are several reasons for the lack of teams in the field of 68 but it also indicates a first step to improvement would be a new, more forceful and impactful BE Commissioner.

Fox does a great job with NFL and I thought better than ESPN on college basketball. But, 100% agree on showing Val the door. Ackerman really let her membership down. And it's going to cost some loss tournament revenue to both schools and conference. And it may adversely impact the TV contract negotiations that have been dragged out. Over-all a bad situation.

 

[ScottVib]

One challenge for the TV deal is that, by far the most valuable property (UConn) can not and will not commit to any kind of grant of rights and everyone knows they have to leave for any kind of mid-tier (rump-ACC) or above full sports offer.

Other than UConn the Big East is a collection of Villanova and a bunch of smaller schools whose brands have faded over the last 30 years or whom have never been a brand. With UConn they get a raise, without it’s a lot harder deal to make from the network side.

 

[Big Fan]

And on the women's side the BE only got 3 in - heck the Ivy League got 2. It's not just the mens tourney. There IS something up with the BE

 

[BlueandOG]

Our bubble teams suffered from the separation of the BE top three, weak OOC performance, and four conference games against DePaul and Georgetown.

This! The top of our conference is strong - but the bottom is WEAK! Georgetown at least has lineage. We need to fire DePaul. Or, even better, we need to get to a P2 conference and not have to worry about this.