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Big East: Can the non-football schools survive?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by BYH, Mar 16, 2008.

  1. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    The Ivy League doesn't have a post-season tournament. The Big 10 and Pac 10 used to not have a post-season tournament. In the absence of those, they give the bid to the regular season champions. If conferences want to render their regular seasons to be worth less than a weekend's worth of games, that's their choice. Just don't bitch about it when someone goes 15-1 in conference and heads to the NIT so that someone who went 5-11 but got hot one weekend can go on to lose by 600 against a number one seed.
     
  2. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Georgetown and Villanova already play Division I football. Just in I-AA.

    That said, the Big East could use two more I-A football teams, two more league games and then three non-league games for a 9-3 split instead of the present 7 and 5. It wojld make for easier scheduling too.
     
  3. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    I agree there should only by 32 teams in the field but it should be broken up like this---

    Eight spots go to the conference champions of the eight top-rated conferences in the RPI.

    The other 24 conference champions must "play-in" against each other -- creating a field of 12 more teams from the winners of those games.

    The final 12 teams in the field are at-large teams that were not a part of the conference champion play-in field -- since they all already had a chance to get in.

    That's all you need and it would create a much more true NCAA championship.

    There is just no need for a conference like the Big East to have eight teams -- I mean, if you can't finish in the top four in your own league, what right do you really have to bitch about being left out of the NCAA Tournament?
     
  4. I think the Big East is loathe to spin off the 2 groups so logically, as they then would have the hard part of creating 2 brand new conferences that could then easily fly the coop. So, they'll keep them cross-pollinated.

    And, both groups would want to lay claim to the name "Big East." So, then, you'd have Pink Floyd, circa 1987. Sure, they'd go quadruple platinum with "newbie" David Gilmour at the helm, but it was on the backs of the likes of Roger Waters (with apologies to Syd Barrett) where they made their name.
     
  5. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Because conferences are all the same size and relatively even competitively, so we don't need to factor those things in at all, right? ::)
     
  6. As a St. John's alum, I would probably if the school ever left the Big East conference. But I don't think any one would ever let it happen. As people have already said on here, the Big East is a basketball conference first. I think the additions of Louisville, South Florida, etc. have hurt the conference, but I know it was done with football in mind.

    St. John's is the perfect example of a program still trying to find the glory days. There was that brief period under Mike Jarvis when things were great, but he did it with Fran Fraschilla recruits (Eric Barkley, Ron Artest, Lavor Postell). Jarvis set the program back and now they are trying to rebuild. I think Norm Roberts is the answer, but he needs time to develop the seven freshmen he has now. It still kind of angers me when I see the New York Pitt trio winning the BE Tournament at Madison Square Garden. St. John's has lost its luster and playing at the Garden is not what it used to be.

    But St. John's out of the Big East? It'll never happen. I'll bet you a Lou Carnesecca sweater.
     
  7. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    St John's is an embarrassment to the Big East. Do you know how hard you have to work to suck so bad at basketball despite being located in the mecca of basketball and having the ability to play games at one of the greatest venues in the world?

    They should be kicked out of the Big East for incompetence.......
     
  8. accguy

    accguy Member

    I think the Catholic schools will split and form a Catholic league for everything but football. The I-AA football schools (Nova, Gtown) will continue to play where they play and Notre Dame will keep playing an independent.

    It would be an interesting basketball league.
     
  9. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    G'town plays in de facto D-III, but the league had to go I-AA with no scholarships when the NCAA ruled that you couldn't be in one classification in football and another in basketball (I forget the exact ruling, but it's not completely overarching or you wouldn't have the hockey and lacrosse teams moving up). So they'd have to make up a motherfuckload of ground to be even remotely competitive. Whereas Nova's in a I-AA conference that would be at least Sun Belt good if they played in I-A, so their transition is more palatable (not Big East related, but in the same vein, wasn't there talk of Delaware and their mighty, mighty Blue Hens moving up?)
     
  10. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Actually the original Division I rule only applied to schools that were DI in basketball and not in football. They all had to move their grid programs up to DI or drop them. Some dropped them, some moved up.

    Division III passed a rule a few years ago that you could not compete at a higher level in one sport and at the DIII level in every other sport. However, they grandfathered in existing programs which is why, among a few others, Colorado College is still DI in hockey and Johns Hopkins is still DI in lacrosse.
     
  11. Yeah, but those arguments don't work any more for St. John's, which is the point I am trying to make. They made a mistake hiring Jarvis because he wasn't a New York City guy and couldn't recruit NYC talent. They let Jay Wright slip through their fingers. Norm Roberts has done a good job recruiting and just needs some time for it to come together. Once they start winning, the recruits will come. At this point, I don't think kids care too much about playing at MSG. They want to win and that's why you have guys like the Pitt trio going there because the school has a recent track record of being a winner. If St. John's starts to turn it around, the recruits will come.
     
  12. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Jarvis was beautiful. Couldn't recruit if someone left Jabbar in a baby basket on his doorstep, but would big-time everybody in town. Failure, guaranteed.

    That said, it's not an easy sell. You're in Queens, for heaven's sake. It gets damn cold. You're not playing Beach Blanket Bingo. Storrs may be an easier sell, right now. At least UConn has something resembling a tradition, at this point.
     
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