zagsblog: In BE split American is leading...

[The PonyGrad]

When the seven Catholic schools broke up the Big East Conference more than a year ago, they took their brand, the Big East name and their rich basketball traditions with them.

The basketball schools remained in the new-look Big East, adding Butler, Creighton and Xavier to form a new 10-team league that still gets to play its postseason tournament at Madison Square Garden.

The football schools departed for what was eventually called the American Athletic Conference, adding in some former Conference-USA members to round out their 10-team league that will play its postseason tournament at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

Though it’s true that the Big East is ranked fourth in RPI among conferences and the American is ranked eighth, let’s face it.

The most important factor when all is said and done is how many teams will go dancing come March.

When the AP Top 25 poll was released this week, five teams from the American made the poll: No. 10 Cincinnati, No. 13 Louisville, No. 20 Memphis, No. 23 SMU and No. 24 UConn.

Only two Big East teams made the Top 25, although Villanova was the highest-ranked team between the two leagues at No. 6. Creighton was No. 18.

If the NCAA Tournament started today, the American would have five teams in the Big Dance and the Big East would have four, including Providence, which has dropped three in a row and is set to have a play-in game, according to Joe Lunardi of ESPN.

“Let’s be honest here, I think the basketball has carried a lot of that,” Providence coach Ed Cooley said Wednesday when asked about the American.

“I’m not surprised, Louisville is Louisville, Memphis is Memphis, UConn is UConn. Those are some great basketball schools. I think football is what it is. But let’s face it, basketball is carrying that torch.”

As for whether the Big East feels a rivalry with the American, Cooley downplayed that notion.

“I’m worried about the Big East,” he said. “I don’t care about any other league right now. There’s no rivalries there. It is what it is. They’re in their conference, we’re in our conference. We gotta worry about DePaul on Saturday, that’s the rivalry I’m worried about.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright also said he isn’t surprised at how Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis and UConn are performing, but did express some surprise about Larry Brown’s SMU team, which scored a big win over Cincinnati Saturday and visits Rutgers Thursday.

“I’m maybe a little bit surprised they’re as good as they are,” Wright said of SMU.

Wright also downplayed the nature of a rivalry between the two leagues, saying that all the leagues involved in realignment — the Big East, the ACC, the AAC — are regrouping.

“We’re all trying to get our ships in order first, build who we are, build from within,” he said.

Meantime, other than Villanova, Creighton and Xavier, no Big East school appears certain of making the Big Dance, meaning the next month is critical for bubble teams like Providence, St. John’s and Georgetown.

“With six games left, I don’t know what team in our league isn’t desperate to play right now, to position themselves, whether it be for the Big East Tournament or a postseason tournament,” Cooley said.


http://zagsblog.com/articles/in-big-eas ... the-court/

[Mustangs35SMU]

Psh. I would love nothing more than to see SMU take on Creighton in round 2 and mud stomp em.

[East Coast Mustang]

Think of our conference in 2014-15 if BE hadn't split, and we'd added only Tulane. 9 FB schools and 7 BBall schools:

UCF
USF
Temple
Cincy
Memphis
UConn
SMU
Houston
Tulane
Georgetown
Villanova
St. John's
Seton Hall
Providence
Marquette
DePaul


Those schools were idiots for taking their TV rights to FS1. That would've been a ridiculous basketball conference, even with some deadweight.

[Nacho]

the big east is dieing a little bit. well at least the new pope is kinda cool.

[East Coast Mustang]

Funny thing is the new BE schools considered us part of the deadweight they didn't want to be associated with...look at us now, b1tches!

[malachi896]

I don't hold anything against the school's that split off. Small, private schools who don't compete in football having their future decided by football and having to pay for trips halfway across the country to play bball games. They wanted to avoid the cost, and did what is best for them. Would have loved to see the conference as one though. The new Big East would have been an amazing basketball conference.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Small, private schools who don't compete in football

No different from SMU.

[malachi896]

Small, private schools who don't compete in football

No different from SMU.

C'mon, weve been a recruiting class and a half away from competing for a BCS bowl game for 5 seasons now. We're almost there....

[Mustangs35SMU]

Small, private schools who don't compete in football

No different from SMU.

C'mon, weve been a recruiting class and a half away from competing for a BCS bowl game for 5 seasons now. We're almost there....

[sadderbudweiser]

Actually I'd like to see an early season BE vs AAC contest like the BE did with the ACC in years past. Each team matches up against one team from the other conference on the same weekend. It should be fairly easy to arrange, would be cool for TV, good publicity etc. They should rank the teams top to bottom and games should be 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 etc. A great way to get quality early season opponents…..and we'd kick their [deleted]

[leopold]

I don't hold anything against the school's that split off. Small, private schools who don't compete in football having their future decided by football and having to pay for trips halfway across the country to play bball games. They wanted to avoid the cost, and did what is best for them. Would have loved to see the conference as one though. The new Big East would have been an amazing basketball conference.

I absolutely agree.

Them leaving had more to do with them being sick and tired of being on the football merry-go-round than it had to do with the schools. And let's face it - every school in this conference would leave today if they could if a P5 conference came calling. One or two more conference realignment rounds and this who they would end up being anyway.

They know who they are athletically and that's all they want to be. In a lot of ways I sympathize.

[mustangfan01]

The BE v AAC matchups would be a great idea.

How about the preseason favorites for each conference battle it out?

So. Villanova vs...Us.

I love this.

[sadderbudweiser]

or maybe even have some kind of holiday festival with 4 reps from each conference. How cool would that be? It would certainly be attractive for a promoter. We do have some great potential host towns. Year one in an AAC town, year two in a BE town, etc. Host town team gets automatic invite.

[birddogger]

A BE/AAC basketball-only conference would have been awesome, and it may not be out of the question in the future. Going forward, I wouldn't be shocked to see a trickle-down of the conference-by-sport model for the non-P5s, like we have with soccer and other non-revenue sports, especially if the P5 completely co-opt football.