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View Full Version : Headline from today's Palm Beach Post - Big East's Big Return



pbiflyer
04-02-2016, 07:28 AM
With Villanova in the Final Four, Revamped League Re-establishes itself.


Nice way to wake up this morning, seeing this as the lead story in today's sports section.
It was important that we finally had a team make it to the final four.

HOUSTON — The Big East is back in the Final Four, reinvented and re-establishing itself as one of the best basketball conferences in the country.

Villanova will play Oklahoma in tonight’s first national semifinal, making the Wildcats the first Big East team to reach the Final Four since the conference essentially dropped major college football after the 2013 season.

“It does reinforce that the reputation the conference has had for more than three decades as a college basketball powerhouse is intact,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said Thursday.

The big Big East breakup came during sweeping Division I conference realignment that started in 2010. With FBS schools such as Pittsburgh, Louisville and West Virginia jumping to other conferences, the Big East’s basketball-focused schools decided to go it alone and return the league to its hoops roots. The remaining FBS schools formed the American Athletic Conference.

The basketball schools, with old-school Big East powers such as Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s, kept the name and the tournament at Madison Square Garden. The so-called Catholic Seven added Xavier, Creighton and Butler and nabbed a 12-year, $500 million television deal with Fox’s fledging sports network, FS1.

“We’re equipped and resourced to stay competitive,” Ackerman said.

The 10-team Big East has received 15 NCAA Tournament bids in the three years of its existence, four the first year, six last year and five this season and had eight of its teams reach the tournament. The problem has been getting those teams past the first weekend. The Big East had no Sweet 16 teams in ’14 and just one last season. The biggest culprit was Villanova, which went into those tournaments as a 2 and a 1 seed.

Villanova was the only Big East team to get through the first weekend this year, but getting all the way to the Final Four goes a long way toward masking the disappointments and building — or rebuilding — the brand.

“I think our presidents went in thinking this is going to be more or a marathon than a sprint to re-establish the league,” Ackerman said. “The fact that it’s happened quickly does reinforce their vision that it can be done. And I think it hopefully quiets the naysayers who thought that because the Big East was different it wouldn’t be as good.”

Wildcats coach Jay Wright, who grew up just outside Philadelphia, adoring the city’s college basketball and the Big East, said getting teams in the Final Four helped make the first incarnation of the conference.

“The year St. John’s, Villanova and Georgetown all got to Lexington (1985), they were the new,” Wright said. “It kind of woke everybody up.”

Now the Big East is trying to do it again.

“We have to prove ourselves, not because we’re not a good league, but just because we’re new,” Wright said. “It’s important that we do this, our league does this, and we continue to do this, for our league as much as for our school.”

CaribouJim
04-02-2016, 11:32 AM
Ouch - MU & DePaul the only 2 schools in the BE not to have made the tourney in the last 3 seasons.

mufan2003
04-02-2016, 12:46 PM
Good to see, thanks for sharing. I am amused though at the double standard. Some pundits seem inclined to erase any history prior to 2014 for the 10 teams in the Big East. Yet, at the same time, they will give the ACC credit for having 2013 national champion Louisville and Syracuse's 2013 Final 4 that were achieved when they were a part of the Big East. If the ACC gets credit for that, the Big East should get credit for Butler's back-to-back national championship appearances in 2010 and 2011. Xavier's multiple Sweet 16 appearances and Elite 8 appearance in recent years. MU's run to the 2nd weekend from 2011 to 2013 of S16, S16 and Elite 8. Nova's 2009 Final 4, Georgetown's 2007 Final 4, and MU's 2003 Final 4.

mufan2003
04-02-2016, 01:07 PM
Duke and UNC are bluebloods, probably 2 of 5 along with Kentucky, Indiana and UCLA. Louisville and Syracuse are in that next tier with plenty of success, but just joined the ACC recently. Here is a look at the other 11 teams making up the ACC, their history of success does not exactly wow you. The ACC is a great conference, but 11 of their teams have not done much recently, especially in terms of Final 4's and Elite 8's.

NCAA tourney appearances in parentheses

Virginia (20): F4-1984 E8-2016,1995,1989
Miami (8): F4-none E8-none
Notre Dame (35): F4-1978 E8-2016,2015,1979,1958,1954,1953
Virginia Tech (8): F4-none E8-1967
Pittsburgh (26): F4-1941 E8-2009,1974
Clemson (11): F4-none E8-1980
Florida St (14): F4-1972 E8-1993
Georgia Tech(16):F4-2004,1990 E8-1985,1960
NC State (26): F4-1983,1974,1950 E8-1986,1985
Wake Forest (22): F4-1962 E8-1996,1984,1977,1961,1939
Boston College (18): F4-none E8-1994,1982,1967

CaribouJim
04-02-2016, 02:01 PM
Duke and UNC are bluebloods, probably 2 of 5 along with Kentucky, Indiana and UCLA. Louisville and Syracuse are in that next tier with plenty of success, but just joined the ACC recently. Here is a look at the other 11 teams making up the ACC, their history of success does not exactly wow you. The ACC is a great conference, but 11 of their teams have not done much recently, especially in terms of Final 4's and Elite 8's.

NCAA tourney appearances in parentheses

Virginia (20): F4-1984 E8-2016,1995,1989
Miami (8): F4-none E8-none
Notre Dame (35): F4-1978 E8-1979,1958,1954,1953
Virginia Tech (8): F4-none E8-1967
Pittsburgh (26): F4-1941 E8-2009,1974
Clemson (11): F4-none E8-1980
Florida St (14): F4-1972 E8-1993
Georgia Tech(16):F4-2004,1990 E8-1985,1960
NC State (26): F4-1983,1974,1950 E8-1986,1985
Wake Forest (22): F4-1962 E8-1996,1984,1977,1961,1939
Boston College (18): F4-none E8-1994,1982,1967

Wow - enlightening.

DowntownSweeney
04-02-2016, 02:13 PM
Duke and UNC are bluebloods, probably 2 of 5 along with Kentucky, Indiana and UCLA. Louisville and Syracuse are in that next tier with plenty of success, but just joined the ACC recently. Here is a look at the other 11 teams making up the ACC, their history of success does not exactly wow you. The ACC is a great conference, but 11 of their teams have not done much recently, especially in terms of Final 4's and Elite 8's.

NCAA tourney appearances in parentheses

Virginia (20): F4-1984 E8-2016,1995,1989
Miami (8): F4-none E8-none
Notre Dame (35): F4-1978 E8-1979,1958,1954,1953
Virginia Tech (8): F4-none E8-1967
Pittsburgh (26): F4-1941 E8-2009,1974
Clemson (11): F4-none E8-1980
Florida St (14): F4-1972 E8-1993
Georgia Tech(16):F4-2004,1990 E8-1985,1960
NC State (26): F4-1983,1974,1950 E8-1986,1985
Wake Forest (22): F4-1962 E8-1996,1984,1977,1961,1939
Boston College (18): F4-none E8-1994,1982,1967

Notre Dame has back to back E8's 2015, 2016

mufan2003
04-02-2016, 06:56 PM
Notre Dame has back to back E8's 2015, 2016

Yes, thank you, missed that.