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  1. #131
    Quote Originally Posted by xubrew View Post
    I would say that it's even a little more specific than that.

    The round of realignment that occurred in the mid-2000s was about major conferences getting to 12 schools so they could have a conference championship game as a cash cow. The SEC did it first, the Big 8 and SWC merged to form the Big 12 and did it second, and then everyone else decided they wanted in too. What NO ONE ever said at the time was "Wow! this is great for basketball!!" In fact there are a few popular documentaries that ESPN has made (who I think would know about this stuff) about how that totally ruined the basketball.

    The Big East went to 16 mostly mostly for internal political purposes. They didn't want the schools with football interests to be outweighed by those who didn't field football teams, and vice versa.

    The current round of realignment has to do with conference networks and streaming services, and getting those networks on as many non-premium tiers with as many carriers as possible in as many markets as possible, and collecting the fees from the carriers. The partnerships with the major networks have caused the media deals to absolutely skyrocket. It has nothing to do with making the basketball better, and I would also say that making the football better isn't even the top priority.

    So, when people say "We need to expand because the P5 conferences are doing it!!" I kind of think it's like saying "We need to hire a pool cleaner because all the rich people have them!" when you don't even have a pool to clean. What they're doing, and the reasons they're doing it, are not necessarily in line with the basketball centric conferences like the Big East. There is no Big East Network that demands a fee from the providers that's proportional to the number of customers that it's available to. There are no showcase football games or events that will draw more than ten million viewers during the regular season, and that cannot be achieved through expansion. Not in basketball. As a rule the college basketball regular season rates horribly out of market. Prior to the NCAA Tournament and the later rounds of the major conference tournaments everyone pretty much watches their own team and that's about it.

    So, assuming that expansion will automatically result in more dollars per school for the Big East is a HUGE assumption at best, and most probably totally incorrect. If you look JUST AT BASKETBALL, and look at the TV ratings, and the overall strength of a conference and the teams within the conference, and the NCAA Tournament revenue, and the percentage of teams that make it into the NCAA Tournament...you'll find that almost no one was really any better off after expansion, and the vast majority were actually worse off.
    Bravo.

  2. #132
    Supporting Member XUGRAD80's Avatar
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    Because the expansions are money driven, and it’s football that really brings the money in, any talk of the B12 wanting schools from the BE, or Gonzaga, makes no sense to me in any way.

  3. #133
    Supporting Member GoMuskies's Avatar
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    Is anyone sad the Big East added UConn?

  4. #134
    Quote Originally Posted by GoMuskies View Post
    Is anyone sad the Big East added UConn?
    I think everyone was happy with that as obviously UCONN had a long history as a former member, is in close proximity to almost every other school and has won a number of recent national titles.

    I remember wanting to have the new Big East stop at 9 because I really thought UCONN would be back. Their football program was relatively new at the time with hardly any real success or following. I thought they would hate playing basketball against Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, Memphis, USF and UCF so much that they’d crawl back to the BE.

  5. #135
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    With the success UConn had in the Big East, we should be asking them if they are happy with the new alignment. They're probably the most deserving program outside of maybe Villanova.

  6. #136
    I still believe. muskiefan82's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoMuskies View Post
    Is anyone sad the Big East added UConn?
    The AAC?
    We've come a long way since my bench seat at the Fieldhouse!

  7. #137
    Supporting Member xubrew's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoMuskies View Post
    Is anyone sad the Big East added UConn?
    Not really, but I do wish we could have UConn while at the same time having one less school. I also don't think that (at least from a metrics and profile standpoint) Big East will ever be as good as it was the year before UConn came in. But I also guess we'll never know how that year's NCAA Tournament would have played out...

    http://www.xavierhoops.com/showthrea...torically-Good
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  8. #138
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    I will also add that I'd love Pitino back in the Big East as well. Would GTown or SJU consider it?

  9. #139
    SLU and Dayton should never be in the Big East. They have large arenas, they pour money into their programs and are basically the only game in town, but yet they never can rise above mediocrity. There is no place for that in this conference. I kind of get the fear with conferences re-aligning, but as many have said it's all about football. Our brand is the best pure basketball conference in the country. Why dilute that just because other conferences are adding members? We have the perfect set-up, with the right amount of members and no dead weight programs (DePaul, SJU and Georgetown still have name recognition even if their programs aren't great at present).

    There is room for one program - the worst thing would be to go to divisions and do away with the home and homes. If Gonzaga wants in, great. If not, we still have a great conference. There isn't another program I'd want to join.

    The focus should be on making sure all programs are fully committed to basketball and not just getting a paycheck, not on expanding.

  10. #140
    Junior IM4X's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by drudy23 View Post
    I will also add that I'd love Pitino back in the Big East as well. Would GTown or SJU consider it?
    Interesting. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about him as an option for one of those two schools. Maybe it’s because of the baggage he brings. Still, he would seem to be a pretty good fit for SJ’s and even possibly Georgetown. Both programs need someone whose proven track record would give them a high probability of turning things around. Captain Obvious agrees.

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