In forming a new conference maybe history can teach us something?

[TulsaWarrior]

Perhaps it might be helpful to look at the founding of the Big East.

"The Big East was founded in 1979 when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College to form a conference primarily focused on basketball, with Rutgers and Holy Cross declining to join.[4] Villanova joined a year later in 1980[5] and Pittsburgh joined in 1982."

At the time the list wasn't that impressive. None of the schools had the success Marquette had in the 60s and 70s. Not even close. Providence, St. John's, Syracuse and Holy Cross had a few seasons of impressive success much like some of the school being considered to join the C7 group; The point is the BE helped make the original schools what they are today. That and the TV exposure of the coming of age of the cable TV era. ESPN needed to fill the air and the BE had inventory of games in big TV markets.

I think the reworked BE with the national reach of football orphan schools might have worked but in the end the core BE football schools didn't believe the new vision and didn't trust each other to make it work. So we are where we are with a new league hopefully with the BE name. I like the history that brings. Times are different but the good news is Fox has deep pockets and the surviving schools are PO'ed and ready to work like hell to make a success. That's an impressive combination. The resources and media exposure of a pure basketball league are encouraging. Those additions to the C7 should be hungry to step up. This will be a unique opportunity for them and you can bet they will not take the opportunity lightly. They will all want to prove something on a national TV stage.

[unclejohn]

I think you are right. Whether or not schools can make money with football or not, schools like Marquette and the rest of the C7 cannot. The original Big East was a great conference, though it the original schools were better at basketball than you give them credit for. Most of them were members of the East Coast Athletic Association, which was a loose collection of teams on the East Coast that were not otherwise affiliated. The NCAA grouped them together for tournaments for automatic bids every year. Georgetown, Syracuse, St. John's and Providence were regular post-season teams. So was Holy Cross. Rutgers made the Final Four in 1976.

The big thing was that they were focused on basketball. Football was not yet the be all and end all of college sports. The Big East benefited greatly from being on ESPN. It is not clear if that type of success can be repeated, but it is worth a try. In any case, I believe that all the schools in the proposed conference can succeed. All of them are or have been basketball powers at various times. With a strong commitment to succeed, I think most of them can be again. And now, football will not be getting in the way and forcing conference strategy.

[TheSultan]

The big thing was that they were focused on basketball. Football was not yet the be all and end all of college sports. The Big East benefited greatly from being on ESPN. It is not clear if that type of success can be repeated, but it is worth a try.


See this is where I think comparisons to the old Big East fall apart. Back then, cable was 30+ stations and ESPN was the only one that showed sports during the week. I remember the days where they would actually scroll through the basketball games they were going to show that month, and I would keep a running list of games I wanted to watch. Many of those were BE games.

Now I can probably watch 3 or 4 games a night....if not more. And if those games don't grab my attention in a minute or two, I am not watching. Most of these games aren't going to be watched by fans outside of those programs, and hardcore basketball fans. That is why the schools in this league have to be good.

[TulsaWarrior]

I think both Rutgers and Syracuse made the Final Four in the decade prior to the forming of the BE. The Cuse coach cashed in and went to Tulane. He was never heard from again. Holy Cross mad headlines during the Bob Cousey era. St. John's was a big name in the 40s and 50s. Providence had Ernie D and a Final Four Run but when you want to talk about teams that made a run like that how about St. Bonnaventure, with Bob Lanier? The point is most of the schools being considered for the new BE all have history if not immediate successful history. Creighton under Eddie Sutton, St. Louis, Dayton.

New big money, marekting and exposure could make magic happen again or keep the ball rolling for serous basketball schools.

[unclejohn]

Creighton has been consistently good, if not great, for about 40 years. They were regular tournament attendees in the 70's, and when Marquette was regularly making NIT appearances, so was Creighton. We even played them a couple times. All these schools have some basketball history.

I agree, we are not likely to replicate the start of the original Big East, but I think it is a good collection of schools all interested in playing top-level basketball, and that can be successful.

[TulsaWarrior]

One other factor I think needs to be included in membership. All schools must agree to a poison pill making it too costly to pull the stuff the Pitt President pulled while the BE was negotiating a new TV contract with ESPN. A poison pill approach will do away with the problem of a trust issue that made it impossible for the BE to re-constitute itself Pitt and Syracuse bolted.