Bring Balance Back To The Big East

By Brendon Rosenau
Love Of Sports Correspondent

Growing up on the East Coast, Big East basketball was what I learned to love. Coming from a place that doesn’t celebrate its college athletics like the boys that get all the coin, I found myself watching teams like Georgetown, St. Johns and the school I would eventually become an alum for, Seton Hall.

It’s with that love of the Big East that may confuse some as to why I am asking for a reconfiguration of the league. Why would someone, when the Big East could be a few months away from sending 10 teams to the NCAA tournament (nine would be a record) want a change? Simple. Because bigger is NOT always better.

In 2005 the Big East raided the Conference USA pantry and came away with Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati, DePaul and South Florida. That move was a greedy reaction after the departure of Virginia Tech, Boston College and Miami to the ACC. The addition of two teams, 10 years after the conference added Rutgers, Notre Dame and West Virginia, gave the Big East 16 squads; that’s four more teams than any other conference!

Currently, seven Big East teams are ranked in the AP Top 25 and two more received votes. While some admirers of the Big East are thrilled with the possibility of dominating the basketball landscape, I say enough is enough.

With 16 teams, each school plays 18 conference games. They play everyone once and three teams twice. Gone are those home-and-homes between the Hoyas and Wildcats or the Huskies and Orangemen. You might get those occasionally or you might see the Johnies play South Florida twice.

As of this year, the conference tournament includes all 16 members, which is just ridiculous. Not only is the tournament extended by one day, but teams seeded 9 thru 16 would have to win five games in five days to snag the automatic bid. That’s impossible!

It also means that the top four seeds would not play for the first two days of the tournament. Good luck selling seats to see the Blue Demons and Friars in a second round donnybrook.

Add in the fact that the Big East will get more coverage than any other conference and you have a new definition of left coast bias.

Now, that I’ve laid out the problem, here’s the solution: Rip the conference in half. Yes, you read that right, divide up the nation’s best conference.

Keep the eight original Big East teams together and siphon off the remaining eight to another conference.

The Big East would have UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, St. Johns, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Providence. Each team would play 14 conference games (two games against each team) and then have a nice and tidy eight-team tournament in the Garden.

The other conference would be Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, Cincinnati, South Florida, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Rutgers. They would play a similar schedule to the Big East and could play at least two games with their former league-mates. That means the Battle of New Jersey can still be waged.

If this was the case today, the Big East would have four Top-20 teams, plus the 30th ranked Orangemen and the other conference would have three teams in the Top 15 plus the Mountaineers who are 37th. Each has perennial powerhouses and each has teams that have struggled. It’s as fair and balanced as Fox News claims to be.

Sadly, this will never happen because size and money matter in the NCAA but a man can dream.