Break up the Big East?

[HoyaChris]

Collegehoopsnet has a different (and fanciful) take on a special new conference. It is actually surprisingly similar in inspiration to the formation of the original Big East in its focus on major TV markets.

[ncaaball2]

great find



You may be interested in Rutgers' fans oppinion of your program. Here is a fascinating link, that you will find humorous.

rutgers.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=641&tid=58949794&sid=&style=2

You guys are has beens with no chance at ever being good again. Enjoy playing Rider (whatever that means).

[jerseyhoya34]

NCAA, it is not worth arguing with folks at a field hockey-only school like Rutgers. They'll just keep throwing junk out there and hope that some of it sticks because their only claim to fame is that UCONN and the other all-sports schools pick RU up by the bootstraps. RU will stink for the foreseeable future in most everything imaginable, and, if I am an all-sports school, I don't want RU in the mythic conference for all-sports schools only. .

[YB]

RU is the putrid stench on which BE Football is currently founded. They have been bottom 20 in most everything. Who are they to pick out top 20s in various sports- how would they know what that looks like???

I have more faith in 3 (Or Coaches Urick or Tabaznik for their sports) to raise up our bball program than almost any RU coach to raise theirs.

My advice to them: Work hard, make the tourney this year. The BE tourney.

[RBHoya]

I don't understand why the guys on the Nova board constantly engage in debate with people from Rutgers. Rutgers is perenially terrible in basketball. Theyre perenially terrible in football. The only high ground they have is that they are a huge state school who by default are lumped in with some solid programs like UConn, Louisville, and Syracuse. Like Cincinatti or South Florida, they are in a big time conference purely by happenstance--not because they've earned it with their play on the court/field.

For some reason the Nova fans keep paying them attention.... I don't know why. They're fools, except for a select few. That's why they go Rutgers (and didnt get into Georgetown, Nova etc). If they want to think they're great because they've got crappy programs but play in a conference with a few good teams, that's their problem. And if they want to think that a conference split is for the best, that's also their problem. I don't feel the need to try to convince them otherwise. I have enough faith in Georgetown athletics to know that our Mens basketball team will be fine, regardless of whether we get to play USF, Rutgers, Pitt, Cinci etc. every year.

[2ndRyan]

Rutgers has been of no importance to college basketball since the time of Jammin James Bailey a player who did his time before most Rutgers students were born.

[HoyaChris]

Here is another super conference that we just missed out on.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

The only thing Rutgers has going for it is that its not Seton Hall.

[CTHoya08]

I thought the only thing Seton Hall had going for was that it's not Rutgers...

[ncaaball2]

Seton Hall is a much better program than Rutgers. They are in the sewer right now, but at least they have hope.

[DFW HOYA]

I'm not sure Seton Hall is that much better than Rutgers, but Rutgers certainly has more institutional resources to put in basketball than the Hall does.

More on this topic to come, but there are roughly four tiers of overall program strength in the new Big East and Rutgers wants to be in the second, not third tier. Seton Hall falls in the fourth tier, and even that's a fairly strong place vis a vis other conferences.

[ncaaball2]

Last reporting period, Seton Hall put $3.2 million into their hoops team, Rutgers put $2.3 million into their hoops team.

[ncaaball2]

How can you not think Seton Hall is better than Rutgers? Seton Hall has been in the Sweet 16 this decade. Seton Hall does have the ability to land McD's All-Americans (Halloway, Barrett, Griffin).

Rutgers hasn't played a tourney game since Seton Hall was in the National Championship game.

[DFW HOYA]

I am looking at this topic in the view of overall athletic programs, not just basketball. As it relates to overall programs and their ability to absorb (or be at risk to) further changes in the conference landscape, the tiers are:

I: ND, Syr, UConn, Louisville
II: Pitt, WV, Cinc., S. Fla, Rutgers
III: Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's
IV: Providence, Seton Hall, Marquette, DePaul

(I place S. Florida slightly ahead of RU only because of football. )

Not coincedentally, that grouping is not far removed from the annual athletic budgets of these schools:

1. Notre Dame $43,119,402
2. Connecticut $36,337,819
3. Louisville $35,170,247
4. West Virginia $34,454,851
5. Syracuse $34,307,017
6. Pittsburgh $31,769,592
7. Rutgers $31,940,493
8. St. John's $24,072,910
9. Cincinnati $22,908,842
10. South Florida $18,566,177
11. Georgetown $17,705,058
12. Villanova $17,007,533
13. Seton Hall $15,260,330
14. Marquette $15,157,774
15. Providence $14,010,397
16. DePaul $13,497,690

[HoyaChris]

How does St John's, without D-1 football, spend more money than Cincinnati (that has a D-1 team)

[SSHoya]

Maybe St. John's budget is skewed because expenditures associated with the opening of their new $23 million Athletic Facility?