Little Big East
May 5th, 2008 | by The Prowler |There is no doubt that fans of [teams in] every conference believe that their conference is the best. Fans in every conference feel slighted every year when NCAA Tourney brackets come out. Fans are angry when their conference doesn’t have a team that has a shot at a BCS championship, or if their conference didn’t get as many bowl invitations as they “deserve”. And of course, fans in every conference believe that the teams in their conference are far superior to teams in all other conferences, and that the only thing that keeps fans of those other conferences from admitting it is their own blind allegiance to an otherwise inferior league.
Prior to the defections of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, the Big East was legitimately a top football conference. It has since come to be [not so] lovingly referred to as the Little East. Like it or not, losing three of the top programs in the league definitely hurts the competition level. At the same time, the Big East did add some teams, and two of those teams (Louisville and South Florida) have turned out to be solid teams. Also, Rutgers’ coach Greg Schiano has turned the Scarlet Knights into a solid team.
The issue is whether or not this is enough for the Big East to maintain respect as a league. I would say that the conference has been hurt by two other factors that, if rectified, would allow them to re-emerge as a solid BCS league. Those two issues are the inconsistency of Pitt, and the total demise of Syracuse. The league needs the core of the original Big East to be strong to maintain the public respectability.
For many in the media and fans of other conferences, no matter how well Louisville and South Florida perform, they won’t bring credibility to the league because they are new, and they don’t fill the shoes of the teams that left. On the other hand, if Pitt could consistently make bowl games, challenge WVU for the league championship, and win 8-9 games; and if Syracuse could return to being at least semi-respectable (making bowls and not being a team that goes on the schedule to ensure a win), the Big East would have a core of solid teams (Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, and Rutgers) who have been in the league for a long time. I truly believe that this would help the league to gain respect tremendously.
Consider that WVU has been ranked in the top 10 the last several seasons, and every year the outcry is that they are too highly ranked because their league is weak. Sure the Hoopies blew a shot at the BCS title by losing to Pitt. But this wasn’t nearly the magnitude loss as USC losing to Stanford. Pitt could be no. 1 and WVU no. 100, or vice-versa, and the Backyard Brawl would be a game where either team could win. That is what rivalries are about. In this case, it wasn’t about WVU choking and proving that the Big East didn’t deserve a shot at the BCS. It was about Pitt stepping up and showing that keeping their rivals from that title shot was important. After the loss, the naysayers immediately began the, “The Little East is a mid-major conference,” complaints. The only time I ever rooted for the Hoopies was when I was watching them THRASH Oklahoma, proving that they [and the Big East] are for real.
But the league can’t survive on WVU and Louisville alone. Pitt looks like they are heading in the right direction. If recruiting translates into actually game success, the Panthers should make the Big East proud. If only Syracuse could come along and do the same thing. The school that produced Marvin Harrison and Donovan McNabb needs to dig deep, for the good of their program, and for the respectability of the league, and return to form.
From Little East to Big East, let’s take a look at the other side of the story. While we have spent the last few years not being able to make a legitimate claim to being the best football league; there is little doubt that the Big East is truly a monster league in basketball. Even before the defections of teams to the ACC this was a truly solid league. The defections helped basketball because we lost perennial bottom feeders [other than BC who was generally solid, but hasn't been much of a threat in the ACC].
With powerhouses such as UConn, Syracuse, [more recently] Pitt, Villanova, and [traditionally] Georgetown, the Big East was always a top basketball league. Adding Louisville and Marquette only improved the league. While other conferences might claim one year or another that they are the best league, the Big East is consistently, year in and year out, the most competitive and difficult league. The Big East Tournament is the mother of all conference tournaments, playing in the Mecca of college basketball, New York City.
Sure, this year many claimed that the Pac-10 was the best. Another year people might claim it is the Big 10 or Big 12. Fans love to jump on the ACC bandwagon, but they only have two consistently good teams: Duke and UNC. A two team league isn’t a powerhouse, even though the top two teams are most definitely powerhouses.
The reality is this: while many in college football claim that WVU or Louisville wouldn’t survive in other “real” conferences, it is certain that no team could plow through the Big East basketball league year in and year out. Duke couldn’t do it. UNC couldn’t do it. UCLA couldn’t do it. Kansas couldn’t do it. These teams might be in the top half of the league; being an 8 seed in the Big East will still get you a workable NCAA tourney seed. But these teams would not dominate the Big East the way they dominate their leagues. UCLA might finish 16-2 one year in the Big East, but it would finish 12-6 another. While that kind of record hurts in another league, it is a reality for teams in the Big East. There are just too many good, competitive teams in the Big East.
Who out there thinks that Memphis would have finished with one regular season loss if they had to play Georgetown, Louisville, WVU, Pitt, Marquette, UConn, and Notre Dame, and some of these teams twice?
I am not going to get into whether the Big East is the “best” league. What I am saying is that it is the most difficult and competitive league in college basketball… every year.
So we are Little Big East fans. We realize that the football conference needs to improve; though we also know that it is a much better football league than many out there give it credit for. We also have the luxury of knowing that we get to watch some of the absolute best basketball every year. The rivalries, the tradition, the competition, and the tournament all make the Big East the premiere hoops league.
I am ok with being the Little Big East.
5 Responses to “Little Big East”
By Jason V on May 6, 2008 | Reply
As a Pitt grad living in southwestern-ohio I would like to mention Cincinnati in football, their head coach is very good and very under-rated, UC doesn’t really attract highly ranked high school recruits but beware!
UC is coached very well and will be competitive in the big east as long as Brian Kelly is around.
By J.D. on May 6, 2008 | Reply
You’re forgetting the best part of the story. The ACC is a terrible football conference. FSU definitely ain’t what they used to be. Miami and VT can’t dominate any more. BC is another middle-of-the-road team, Clemson is alwys one win away. Wake Forest is upstart. Nobody chastized FSU when they were dominating the ACC throughout the 90’s and that conference was on par if not worse than the current Big East. Early returns for 08 have as many as 5 Big East teams in the top 25, with 2-maybe 3 ACC squads. If the ACC’s aim was really to cannibalize the Big East it certainly was not on the mark.
By The Prowler on May 6, 2008 | Reply
It is very true that FSU was playing a much worse schedule in the ACC in the 90s than WVU has been playing in the Big East, with virtually no media bias against them. In fact, they were media favorites every year, without having to play in a real conference. In their defense, however, they scheduled Miami and Florida every year, giving them two games against generally top 10-15 teams.
Is it a surprise that FSU hasn’t been competitive in the ACC since VT and BC came in and took over?
I do believe that the Big East is coming back in football. But again, a lot of that depends on Pitt living up to the hype and Rutgers being able to continue what it has done the last 2-3 years.
By Sean on May 7, 2008 | Reply
A question.Do you think BC,VT and Miami would have left the BE if Penn State was a member?
By The Prowler on May 7, 2008 | Reply
Sean, that is a good question. I think money was the driving factor in leaving the Big East. For VT and Miami, at least they were joining a conference more in their geographical region. But ultimately, I think the ACC threw a lot of money at them. By staying in the Big East, Miami and VT would have probably stayed at the top of the league. However they wouldn’t have had the shot at a championship game. That one extra game, for a top program, is a shot every year at extra money. Considering the ACC sucked as a football conference, there was a better shot at winning the division, making a BCS bowl, and getting that extra game for the conference championship. So it came down to money.
I am not sure what having Penn St. in the league would have changed. There would have been more money involved because Penn St. would have been the only Big East school with 100,000+ at every game. But I don’t know that that alone would have helped. Sadly, college sports is all about money. Cash is even more important than rivalries and tradition.