This kills TCU to the BE which is a positive result for basketball among the break-up.
Where is the landing place for Louisville and Cincinati? Big Ten?
I've always believed the 8 BIG EAST football schools were going in another direction anyways and thank god this should stop the madness of asking Villanova to throw large sums of money down the drain to upgrade football.
That leaves a basketball first conference of The NEW BIG EAST...probably 10-12 teams. I think the first 10 are easy with the 8 Catholic schools adding 2 like-minded institutions. Dayton/Xavier are #1 and #2 in Basketball revenue for all Catholic colleges. They own their arenas which they regularly sell-out as two of the Top 40 attendence programs among the 330+ that play Division I basketball.
Georgetown
Providence
Seton Hall
St Johns
Villanova
DePaul
Marquette
Notre Dame
++ Dayton
++ Xavier
After that, the Conference needs to look at possible public schools who are left out of the BCS football situation who can add to the basketball profile or have the ability ($$$ + facilities) to compete and prosper long term.
+++Memphis
Memphis remains the biggest "Basketball-first" school who is desperate to play in a better Basketball Conference but lousy football has kept them out of the current Big East. They can park the dead carcas of their football team in Conf USA, MAC or Sunbelt as no one much cares where they continue to lose their games. Their basketball program has strong support and tremendous value to a non-football conference. They would jump at a chance to play Georgetown, Villanova, ND, Marquette, St Johns, Xavier faster than a FED-EX overnight package.
That's 11 basketball-first schools and then they need to find a 12th school closer to the East Coast...preferably another Public School who has the facilities to compete long term at a high level.
?? UMASS might be a consideration with a solid Academic base but no one shows up at their basketball games. 3300 avg attendence is pathetic. They have good facilities as a State subsidized institution but you got have some interest from your own fans.
?? Old Dominion who I like as a possibility based on the huge investment they have made across the board in their athletic facilities and they now have their OWN on-campus Basketball facilities (both a dedicated practice building and an Arena) that rivals any of those remaining Big East programs above. They continue to lead the CAA in attendence in recent years and although the Tidewater region is not the biggest market, it is seperate from the DC/northern VA market that Georgetown occupies. Most people know about their women's basketball team's great success through history but ODU has done well in several non-revenue sports over the years.
There is really no reason to go bigger than 12 teams because I am sure the 6 eastern teams want to play each other Home & Away and then play the further west teams only once (and vice-versa) which gives them 16 Conference games and allows for 2 more OOC games than the current cumbersome Big East schedule. Extra OOC games for these BIG EAST Catholic schools that may help them reach out for at least one old rivalry game each season like Gtown-Syracuse, Nova-Pitt, Seton Hall-Rutgers, St Johns-UConn, etc.
Again, I am going under the assumption that all 8 BIG EAST football programs find a landing place but I don't know that is going to happen until the music stops and the chairs are filled. I have been saying for a long time that the current BIG EAST was unsustainable because of it's ridiculous size and the total mismatch of objectives by the football & basketball schools not to mention that Notre Dame was just a thumb in the eye of Big East Football.
As a Villanova fan, I miss the old Dave Gavitt BIG EAST that used to exist but once the carpetbaggers joined in 2005, it was never the same and when you are adding schools like TCU and are trying to push a small school like Villanova into FBS football who has no facilities, no football fans and no money to afford the upgrade, it became just one stupid idea after another. :angry:
RIP Dave Gavitt
RIP old Big East
Life moves on...
From out of the ashes rises the phoenix that is the "new" BIG EAST CONFERENCE where "Basketball first" schools move ahead into the future.