From 1980 to 2005 the
Big East launched an unparalleled period of success and visibility for its
schools in basketball. Traditional eastern powers like Villanova, Georgetown,
Syracuse and Providence joined with newcomer powers like Connecticut and
Pittsburgh to generate a depth of competition and market visibility. The Big East branded a distinct form of physical and tough basketball. Each year 6-8 teams
got into the NCAA tournament, and their coaches spread the gospel of brutal Big East
basketball across the land. The expansion of the NCAA tournament into a national
liturgical event gained immense stature for its schools. Connecticut and
Syracuse with their superstar coaches took home a series of titles
This basketball
success could not withstand the pressures unleashed by the economic dominance
of football over the last twenty years. College football and its vast
popularity has reaped huge media money, and power conferences have reaped gigantic
windfalls from conference contracts. These contracts at the five elite BCS
conferences garner 15 to 19 million dollars a year for schools.
College football drives the profit. The Big East was never a football conference.
Largely because no one else even looked plausible, the Big East snuck into the
BCS championship pool as much as a sop to the mid major conferences as any
football merit of the conference. Each year its BCS team got humiliated by real
football powers in a random BCS bowl game. Heck, TCU quit the conference before it ever joined the conference.
A media consultant
once told me, “aside from the tournament, basketball is filler for slots. It
has bulk but not profits.” The dominance
of football and the migration of real money to the big five left the Big East
vulnerable in two ways. First, it would never be a serious football conference.
At random times Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia or
Cincinnati might emerge for a year a two with a great player or coach. But the
coach would inevitably move on, and the player would graduate. When Boston
College, Miami and especially Virginia Tech jumped to the ACC, this portended
the end of any hope of football elite status. Second, all the Big East schools
were hemorrhaging money with football, and the inability of the conference to
ever gain elite football status doomed them to perpetual money losing.
This still-born
football status coupled with huge monetary losses from football meant any half way
decent football schools looked for other conferences that could gain them more
money and status. It also meant that the basketball only schools found
themselves mooted by the desperate and futile search for football credibility. This lead to increasingly desperate overtures to Boise State, San Diego State, Tulane or whomever could
bring a shred of credibility to the conference.
In addition unlike the
ACC or Big 10, the Big East never had any serious academic credibility. Schools
such as Syracuse or Pittsburgh or Louisville would jump to the ACC which
offered more money, stability and more academic stature. Each defection lead to
more panicked search for lower quality football schools to fill the void. The Big East could no longer fulfill the requirements of a successful modern conference.
The paradox here lies
with the non-football schools. Most of them were city based religious colleges
colleges. They all remained mission driven undergraduate institutions. None of
them had huge endowments, but all had fierce and loyal alumni based in urban
areas. Many had added strong professional schools and grown into universities,
but their core identity remains mission driven undergraduate education. None of
them had added football, and the very few who did like Boston College struggled
with indifferences and periodic success.
These urban, mission
driven religious undergraduate schools had great markets in big eastern cities
and had strong traditional rivalries among New York, Providence, Boston, New
Jersey or Philadelphia. Many of these rivalries echoed back fifty years when
schools clustered in small boxes to play intense rivalries. They all shared
plausible commitments to serious undergraduate education with a values based
foundation. Sister schools like Xavier, St. Louis, Creighton lived in different conferences. They now loom along with an interesting and similar
newcomer like Butler as possible new allies for a reconstituted conference who
would share a scale and values dimension.
This basketball driven
conference would not make huge amounts of money, granted. The new conference,
however, would connect strong rivalries among strong markets with strong
committed undergraduate focused universities and colleges. It would also lead
to strong filled auditoriums. The conference would post strong strength of schedule and high RPI ratings for the tournament. Travel for the Olympic sports would be manageable. It would have a strong brand, solid recruiting
base, good coaches and regularly get strong exposure at tournament time.
More
interestingly the conference schools would not face the economic hemorrhaging
of football. Football is a two-edge sword. The vast majority of football
schools lose serous money, and the losses require internal subsidies. Even with
the new mega conference contracts, schools continue to lose money as they must
pay rising salaries, build up facilities and pay back internal subsidies to
schools. Freeing themselves from the football schools permits these
undergraduate focused universities to live within their means, still gain
visibility through NCAA tournament runs and imbed themselves in their
communities as they once did. It still gives alumni a focal point of identity.
The demise of the
first purely commercial conference creates a paradox. Who knows, maybe a new
conference might emerge that shares similar undergraduate based values, has
relatively contiguous markets with traditional rivalries and does not lose huge
amounts of money each year chasing the dream of football largesse. It would be a conference based upon affinity and proximity. Now wouldn’t
that be a change?
Big East Exodus
Big East Exodus
School | Left | For |
---|---|---|
Miami | 2004 | ACC |
Virginia Tech | 2004 | ACC |
Boston College | 2005 | ACC |
TCU † | 2011 | Big 12 |
West Virginia | 2012 | Big 12 |
Syracuse | 2013 | ACC |
Pittsburgh | 2013 | ACC |
Louisville | 2014 | ACC |
Rutgers | 2014 | Big Ten |
Notre Dame | 2015 | ACC |
DePaul* | undetermined | |
Georgetown* | undetermined | |
Marquette* | undetermined | |
Providence* | undetermined | |
St. John's* | undetermined | |
Seton Hall* | undetermined | |
Villanova* | undetermined |
"Each year its BCS team got humiliated by real football powers in a random BCS bowl game."
ReplyDeleteThe Big East was 5-4 in BCS bowl games after Miami, VT and Boston College left, including WVU's 70-33 demolition of "real football power" Clemson.
"When Boston College, Miami and especially Virginia Tech jumped to the ACC, this portended the end of any hope of football elite status."
Virginia Tech may be the most overrated football program of the past 20 years. They're 2-6 in BCS Bowl games (1995 over Texas - weak, Southwest Conference Version; 2009 over Cincinnati). Granted, they've played in several, but the last 20 years are the only period in their history of ANY national relevance whatsoever. And yet zero national championships, and two BCS bowl wins over mediocre competition which had been slotted by default. Throughout most of their history, they've been little more than a marginal, regional program. In fact, the Virginia state legislature used UVA's vote to force the ACC to take Virginia Tech instead of Syracuse in 2003. Virginia Tech had been a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought against the ACC by the remaining Big East members, until they were swapped with Syracuse for membership. The thought that anyone outside of Miami was giving Big East football legitimacy is laughable. Aside from that, all of their other sports programs are terrible.
hermes handbags
ReplyDeletehermes belts
hermes bag
yeezy boost 350 v2
kyrie irving shoes
moncler outlet
adidsas yeezy
curry 7 shoes
yeezy supply
yeezy boost 350 v2