Where is our commissioner?

[FearThePups]

i have a feeling that Hurley is going to use the lack of respect for the BE and the loaded East Bracket as some major fuel for his team

Destroy them all. 40 minutes of hell and pedal to the metal.

 

[uconnyankee]

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.

Explain Virginia

 

[FearThePups]

Collecting a paycheck

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Puts all eyes on the process.
The ACC comish complained loudly last year. Voila his crappy league got 5 bids at our expense this year.

Well, we just saw what grease she used. Nothing. I’m not concerned what happens to any other team league but I do care about our self preservation. As someone pointed out in this thread, the NCAA committee by their actions, is systematically marginalizing schools without football.

 

[uconnyankee]

I hate to break it to you but outside the NEWBIE bubble, the Big East is viewed as a “high mid-major.” Closer to the MWC than the ACC or Big 10 or 12. You can through all the metrics around that you want. Doesn’t matter. It is perception. This selection just further confirms that view outside the bubble. UConn is viewed in the same way Gonzaga is. Power program in a lesser conference. If UConn were to leave the NEWBIE it would absolutely be viewed as the mid-major.

You’re saying the NE would be mid major….

 

[tzznandrew]

Yes, it is hard. That's why no conference has taken us. UConn is a hard sell because of football.

It's not. These conferences are idiots. They're in their own heads about how it will look. Invite UConn and we'll show up and start winning consistently in every major sport, including football. We've already proven it.

 

[Kolumbo]

One of the fans on the St. Johns board posted:

Not a huge fan but are we going to bring in a commissioner who is going to have BE teams start playing football? Because IMO, that is the elephant in the room; been hovering in the background for a while but the NCAA just delivered it front and center.

Also this:

We're totally expletive deleted if UConn suddenly figures out how to run a quality football program.

From another angle which has been mentioned, a couple reasons for just getting 3 bids are DePaul and UConn. DePaul couldn't win and UConn didn't lose enough. If SJU beat UConn once, it would be in, probably. It was penalized for having the best program in the country in conference. I do think the conference could be in trouble if UConn left but it did pretty well otherwise.

Some seasons of note:
2020 - 3 bids
2017 - 7 bids. 4 teams at 10-8 and one at 9-9
Then there are the big years when it was getting 8-10 bids every year. 3 legitimate final four teams and no other bids, ridiculous.

"The conference was the second best in all of D-I, according to noted statistician Ken Pomeroy, but received only three bids—its smallest total since 1993—compared to eight each for the Big 12 and SEC, and six for the Big Ten (KenPom conferences Nos. 1, 3, and 4)"

March Sadness? Tournament Snubs Leave New Round of Scars

March Madness, ordinarily one of the most joyous events in sports, is becoming weighed down by hurt feelings and recriminations.

frontofficesports.com

 

[FearThePups]

Yeah but the basketball onlies would whine about losing our ancient rivalry with Creighton.. it goes all the way back to 2021.

So what do you suggest we do? Our football program sucks and has for over 70 years. Our won/lose record is sub .500. It doesn’t have a get well plan nor any timeline for one. If no power conference will take our football, do you sacrifice the rest of our programs by staying where we are, facing inevitable death. I am not a basketball only fan and would wish football was respectable, but face reality. It’s not.

 

[uconnyankee]

Fanboy speaks. Are you a UConn fan or just a NEWBIE fanboy? Why do you even care whether St John’s or Seton Hall, 2 mediocre teams, got in?

You do realize that payouts are based on teams getting wins in the dance. More teams equals more money. Not for the teams but for the league.
So yes, there is a vested interest for UConn to see other BE schools get wins. Starting with 3 teams although highly seeded, hurts

 

[John]

This is all fine and daddy until we are in Seton Hall's shoes. It will happen one of the these days soon enough.

Some posters would be perfectly happy having our athletic department replicate Seton Hall or Butler's

 

[FfldCntyFan]

How milquetoast pathetic. Thank you sir, may I have another? What would Fox offer the Big East if UConn wasn’t part of the deal?

One of my first thoughts was the response was like this because they're afraid that if they say something that would make the Committee/ P Schools/NCAA leadership angry, they'll convice either the ACC or B-12 to grab us, then it will be over.

 

[Hamms30]

THE BIG EAST RESPONSE:

We are very proud that UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament following another tremendous season that included both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Marquette, a No. 2 seed, and Creighton, a No. 3 seed, give the Big East three of the top 10 overall seeds in the tournament, as many as any other league. We consider each of them legitimate contenders for a Final Four berth and another Big East national crown on April 8th.

These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena. Our four-year extension with Madison Square Garden, announced on Friday, means that the event, a New York City staple, will celebrate its 50th anniversary at MSG in 2032, a run unmatched in the college basketball world.

We have great respect for the NCAA men's basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament. It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee's final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.

That's 10 ply

 

[giddyup]

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.

The fact that we begged to get this conference and got fleeced shows how incompetent our guys are, not how shrewd she is. The value she is getting for the BE is crap by any measure. Not protecting the conference in the NCAAs is pathetic. Lightweight.

 

[kobe]

Hold on there professor. We know you mean the current basketball season and you are conveniently forgetting about Marquette's victories over Illinois, Kansas, Texas, Creighton. We'll throw in SJU and SHU because they were worthy victims. You're suspect!

no sir! read again!

marquette got a gifted 2 seed from the committee because they respected their two ooc wins over big 12 (power conference, best in the nation) teams along with the win over illinois (power conference) but since the calendar turned to 2024, they haven't defeated a single tournament team! wow! shocking stat!

 

[superjohn]

marquette didn't beat an ncaa tournament team in the year 2024 and received a 2 seed.

val should be thankful! they respected what was accomplished in the ooc! when you play in a small time conference like the big east you have to PROVE it in the out of conference to get an at-large. marquette, creighton and uconn did that, no one else did!

Will Cincinnati make the NCAA tournament again in your lifetime?

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

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.

Ok where do u want to go? We've already been rejected by the ACC and Big 12

 

[JB75]

Can anyone with a brain believe the mountain west got 6 bids while the big east got 3? Seeds 1,2,3 then nothing. Unreal

 

[TheRealKBuks]

Can anyone with a brain believe the mountain west got 6 bids while the big east got 3? Seeds 1,2,3 then nothing. Unreal

A lot of people, including Jason McIntyre on The Herd with Colin Cowherd today, pointing out how suspect it is that the MWC got six bids while conveniently having a TV deal with CBS sports...which network hosts march madness????

 

[jostar1]

It's not. These conferences are idiots. They're in their own heads about how it will look. Invite UConn and we'll show up and start winning consistently in every major sport, including football. We've already proven it.

I agree with you. I'm just saying that, so far, no power conference has viewed it that way.

 

[ec33]

no sir! read again!

marquette got a gifted 2 seed from the committee because they respected their two ooc wins over big 12 (power conference, best in the nation) teams along with the win over illinois (power conference) but since the calendar turned to 2024, they haven't defeated a single tournament team! wow! shocking stat!

Well in fairness, the committee stops watching games around groundhog day, so they aren't all that concerned with 2024 results.

 

[uconngb]

THE BIG EAST RESPONSE:

We are very proud that UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament following another tremendous season that included both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Marquette, a No. 2 seed, and Creighton, a No. 3 seed, give the Big East three of the top 10 overall seeds in the tournament, as many as any other league. We consider each of them legitimate contenders for a Final Four berth and another Big East national crown on April 8th.

These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena. Our four-year extension with Madison Square Garden, announced on Friday, means that the event, a New York City staple, will celebrate its 50th anniversary at MSG in 2032, a run unmatched in the college basketball world.

We have great respect for the NCAA men's basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament. It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee's final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.

OMG WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS

 

[Fishy]

THE BIG EAST RESPONSE:

We are very proud that UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament following another tremendous season that included both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Marquette, a No. 2 seed, and Creighton, a No. 3 seed, give the Big East three of the top 10 overall seeds in the tournament, as many as any other league. We consider each of them legitimate contenders for a Final Four berth and another Big East national crown on April 8th.

These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena. Our four-year extension with Madison Square Garden, announced on Friday, means that the event, a New York City staple, will celebrate its 50th anniversary at MSG in 2032, a run unmatched in the college basketball world.

We have great respect for the NCAA men's basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament. It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee's final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.

Wow.

That's awful.

The flex about MSG is lame.

 

[Kolumbo]

THE BIG EAST RESPONSE:

We are very proud that UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament following another tremendous season that included both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Marquette, a No. 2 seed, and Creighton, a No. 3 seed, give the Big East three of the top 10 overall seeds in the tournament, as many as any other league. We consider each of them legitimate contenders for a Final Four berth and another Big East national crown on April 8th.

These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena. Our four-year extension with Madison Square Garden, announced on Friday, means that the event, a New York City staple, will celebrate its 50th anniversary at MSG in 2032, a run unmatched in the college basketball world.

We have great respect for the NCAA men's basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament. It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee's final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.

I found it at the Big East website. Not sure what else they could have said, what's done is done.

"These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena." If this is true, then the Big East was no doubt bent over the barrel. Let's see more impassioned responses even if it can't come from BE HQ.

BIG EAST Statement on NCAA Tournament Selections

BIG EAST Statement on NCAA Tournament Selections

www.bigeast.com

 

[Chief00]

And, the retired Butler AD is on the committee for 2 more years!

Explain that to me????
A total nightmare - please tell me that’s a mistake.

 

[pepband99]

Wow.

That's awful.

The flex about MSG is lame.

Incredibly lame.

Jonathan XV could negotiate a contract with an arena where you basically guarantee 5 sold out sessions. .

 

[JungleLobo]

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

If you watch a half of DePaul basketball, you will develop Covid-like symptoms

 

[freescooter]

Here’s what the league office really needs to understand, and I think they do by the sound of this statement. “The problem is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

The real problem is that the NEWBIE has 2 teams that simply don’t matter. 10-10 with 4 wins against Georgetown and DePaul is not the same as 10-10 in any other major league. Those 4 games are like playing in the NEC-Big East Challenge. Ridiculous on its face, but not far from inaccurate. For some perspective on how bad those teams are, look at NET or really any of the other rating services. If it were possible to trade conference members, we would have been better off from a NET perspective with Central Connecticut (NET 249) and Fairfield (161) than Georgetown (205) and De Paul (320). In fact there were 5 teams from the NEC, Central’s league, with a better NET than DePaul, including LeMoyne which is in its first year of D1.

So rather than complain about the system, or the committee or some nefarious plot against the Conference, they should be looking to the Hoyas and Blue Demons. Playing 2 teams in conference that are in essence low mid majors does a huge damage to bubble teams so you have to counteract that by playing, and beating, good non-conference opponents. The League must push those teams either must significantly improve and everyone else to schedule assuming they won’t, or bubble teams from the NEWBIE will be in trouble again and again.

 

[CL82]

Wow.

It sounds to me like the conference's message is "We're sorry some of our coaches publicly criticized the selections. Please forgive us".

It sounded to me like an apology that the conference was not better couple with a promise to do better next year.

Honestly, it was better to be silent.

 

[nomar]

Wow, why bother even making a public statement if this is it? I never had much against Val, but I’m in agreement now that she needs to be shown the door. Bring in someone with a pulse.

If I had to describe the BE’s response in a word, it’d be “tepid.” Probably better to say nothing at all. That was akin to “yeah I know he hit me but I instigated it.”

 

[JeffConn]

What do you mean "consider joining"? We've practically been begging to join because the alternative is becoming gradually less relevant financially and competitively. After over a decade of being left out people still post as if you can invite yourself to a top conference! Really? It doesn't work that way and those within the Boneyard community that have been anti-football will someday realize or leave as their legacy that they were unwittingly anti-UConn in all sports. Money was always a thing. Now it's the biggest thing moving closer to being the only thing.

It's been published that UConn has had recent discussions with the Big 12 and ACC about joining those conferences. Those reports have indicated that Dave Benedict and UConn have previously indicated only interest in membership for all sports (including football). My earlier comments were about UConn reconsidering it's entry level status of membership as an all sports, EXCEPT FOOTBALL, member. I fully understand, as does anyone that is following this, that conference members must ultimately invite a school to join. But schools approach other conferences for consideration into membership all the time. SMU approached the ACC and reportedly offered to not receive significant for a fairly long period of time.

I suggested a UConn negotiation approach including some form of performance criterion in the entry negotiations that includes UConn's football team being able to join at a later time, once it achieves a winning record for a reasonable period of time. The sports talk shows in Big 12 Conference country have broadcasted that the ADs of their football-strong schools and their supporters/fans do not currently want UConn football as a member because they don't want to dilute the quality of play (like Depaul currently does in basketball in the Big East). The Big 12 ADs advise their university presidents during membership discussions and the Big 12 presidents raised concerns about UConn leadership's and the State's long-term commitment to football, citing that the team plays its games in a smaller, older stadium more than 20 miles from campus. As we all expect, geography and travel time and costs to member destinations also affect expansion and conference affiliation decisions. Despite Commissioner Brett Yormark's stated desire to have a coast-to-coast conference (with a member in the New York area) as well as to put more emphasis on basketball, the revenue-driving, football-strong conference members convinced the Big 12 presidents to hold off on extending UConn a membership invitation. Among universities, there's intellectual, football and basketball snobbery, along with their greed. The Big 10 has long preferred only adding large football-strong, heavy research oriented schools with Association of American Universities (AAU) membership (UConn is not a member) and yes, they must invite you into the AAU as well! The SEC will only add large schools with existing strong football programs. University presidents, PHd's functioning as CEOs, primarily make their conference expansion decisions based on how it will financially benefit their schools.

It is not anti-football to try to understand what others on the outside of UConn Nation are saying that effects the existing economic reality of the situation. While rejoining the Big East was a successful short-term decision, regarding conference affiliation over the long-term, UConn is in a complex predicament.

 

[billybud]

UConn is one of the pieces in the tectonic plate puzzle...as the football continents come together in their own Pangaea, what happens to premier basketball schools without a desirable football program ?

It won't be in my lifetime, but I could see an uncoupling of football and basketball...a P2 league of football and, similarly, a P2 basketball league.

Olympic sports, baseball, etc stay in region based conferences.And...P2 should not be forever...things change...like this year...who woulda thought that the UCLA powerhouse of days past would have a net of 107 ?