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The Catholic 7 take a calculated risk
By Dana O'Neil | ESPN.com
There is a perverse irony here now that the Big East is essentially defunct.
The league founded in 1979 on the strength of East Coast basketball essentially had to kill itself in order to save East Coast basketball.
And so in the completely dysfunctional process of conference realignment, we have now come full circle. The Catholic 7 (a name that Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown would appreciate) essentially is forging ahead much like Dave Gavitt once did, cautiously optimistic that there is both a television and marketing value in the roundball.
It is perhaps even more uncharted territory now than it was then, what with the glut of programming and the almighty power of the pigskin clogging the television guide already. But there also are more options now than there were before, thanks to, as Bruce Springsteen once complained, 57 channels and nothing on.
So it is a risk, but a calculated one. That much no one can argue.
If there is a lesson to learn in all of this -- aside from the fact that, in college athletics, grown-ups are never held to the same standards of collegiality, ethics, morals and decency as student-athletes -- it is to know who you are.
Or better, know who you are not.
Pardon the pun, but the Catholic 7 have finally had their come-to-Jesus moment. Like the old "Saturday Night Live" skit starring Stuart Smalley, they finally have looked in the mirror and repeated, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me."
They are basketball schools. And not only are they OK with it, they're willing to entrust their athletic survival to established hoops programs instead of nouveau football teams.
There is a meaning and a resonance in Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova, St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence and, yes, even DePaul.
Feel free to point out that with the exception of the first three, their last truly great moments came during the 1980s.
Fair enough. But there is still a word association. When I say Providence, you don't say football and you never will. You say 1987 Final Four. You say Rick Pitino. You say Ernie D.
Look around at the roadkill along the side of the road in this latest iteration of As The Conferences Turn. Who stands as the epic losers in this greedy power struggle? Temple and Connecticut, two schools who forgot who they were.
Neither of them have ever been so-called football schools, yet each sold their souls to the gridiron devil, hoping to pocket some of the big money.
Temple once was so bad at football the Big East booted it from the conference.
So what did the Owls do? By golly, they spent gobs of money to build facilities in depressed North Philadelphia, figuring that would somehow miraculously convert Eagles fans into college sports fans.
It didn't. Temple got better, thanks mostly to some expert coaching from Al Golden, but it became a walk-on-coals coaching layover -- if you get good, you get out or risk getting burned by the sure-to-come mediocrity. Steve Addazio lasted all of two seasons before hightailing it out of town.
Meanwhile, Fran Dunphy, whose pores ooze loyalty and continuity, inherited a name-brand hoops program from John Chaney, changed the defense, changed the image and continued the success.
But basketball wasn't good enough for Temple. It had to have big-time football, and so the Owls abandoned the solid Atlantic 10 in exchange for what now is essentially Conference USA.
Then there's UConn. The Huskies built a football stadium on the side of I-84, won enough games to get to the Fiesta Bowl in 2010 and then attracted approximately 11 people to Arizona for the game. Randy Edsall promptly left for Maryland and, since then, Connecticut has been below .500 and desperate to get to another conference.
Saddled now with an FBS football program to find a residence for, UConn basketball -- the real flagship sport in the Nutmeg State -- is no longer part of the hoop-centric equation and consequently living on athletics' Skid Row.
The Catholic 7 never tried to become something that they weren't. Among those that even have football teams at all, their contented FCS programs piggyback on the backs of basketball, a nice little fall diversion until November. The money isn't great -- and in fact can be a fiscal black hole, thanks to the number of scholarships -- but there's always been enough in the coffers to keep the basketball teams not just viable, but competitive.
To be certain, they aren't wide-eyed innocents here. If the breakaway becomes official (hey, nothing is ever certain in the realignment era), the Catholic 7 likely will do to the Atlantic 10 exactly what the Big East did to them: They will steal other schools to pretty themselves up at the expense of others. But if anyone still has the energy to get angry at the mercenary world of college sports, God bless them.
That barn is in Wyoming. The horse in Cabo.
Basically we are back where we started. Thirty-three years ago, Gavitt banked on the inherent appeal of like-minded institutions in geographically companionable regions, convinced that basketball mattered enough to sustain itself.
And now all these years later, a group of brazen schools has killed Gavitt's model to essentially rebuild and duplicate it.
As he was in 1979, they are convinced they are good enough, that they are smart enough.
Now they just have to hope that people really do like them.
Big East breakup: Sorting out the winners and losers
Mike DeCourcy
The first Big East Tournament, all the way back in 1980, didn't mean much. It wasn’t played in Madison Square Garden, the venue that would come to define the conference in later years. It did not convey an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was just about basketball.
For the first time in a long time, what is happening with the Big East this week is just about basketball.
The seven basketball-first members of the Big East — DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova — are on the verge of taking an action that will sever a long-term history with founding member Connecticut as well as relatively recent additions Cincinnati and South Florida — but perhaps not with the league’s automatic bid, its tournament at the Garden, the NCAA Tournament money members have earned and possibly not even the Big East name.
All that figures to be sorted out by attorneys and executives over the coming months, once the basketball schools make up their minds to strike out on their own.
Many have suggested these basketball schools have been mistreated for years as the league twisted itself in various directions to invent and then support and then attempt to maintain football competition within the league.
The truth is that ever since football was introduced in the Big East, the basketball-firsters have benefited from the relative largesse it provided. They had money from television and political power within the NCAA structure they would not have possessed if not connected to high-level football.
That began to change when they were asked to accept distant TCU as a full member. It changed dramatically when Syracuse and Pitt bolted to the ACC, West Virginia to the Big 12 (and TCU elected never to arrive) and those losses were addressed through the additions of Houston, Central Florida and SMU. It changed irrevocably when Tulane was invited as Louisville’s departure became inevitable.
It felt rushed at the time. It felt wrong to those who understood that Tulane never has enjoyed a deep bond with New Orleans sports fans. Who was in a position to understand this? Those who had competed against the Green Wave before.
“I was not pleased that we issued an invitation to Tulane without any diligence to what effect that would have on our basketball product, the draw on our RPI and other such things,” Marquette athletics director Larry Williams told WAUK-AM this week.
It has been said the report by CBS’ Dennis Dodd that television negotiations for the Big East were unlikely to be as fruitful as expected led us here, to the brink of another revolutionary change in college athletics. It only played a part in accelerating things, because the basketball schools would have been just as likely to revolt when they eventually heard the numbers from new commissioner Mike Aresco.
In some ways, the pending breakup of the Big East is the most profound of all the conference maneuverings we’ve observed the past few years. However, because it mostly is about basketball, it will be viewed as the least consequential.
Except to those who stand among the winners and losers. As ever in conference realignment, it would seem there are more losers to be found:
Loser: Connecticut
When the initial barrage of conference realignment discussion began, there was a lot of weeping about the possibility a program with Kansas’ tradition might become a sort of orphan program, with no viable league to call home. Well, that’s where UConn stands now and the Huskies have won as many NCAA titles since 1999 as KU has in the tournament’s 74-year history.
At least Cincinnati has a bit of rivalry with Memphis. The Huskies are removed from the programs it appears they’ll be forced to play both geographically and competitively. And this arrives at a time when the national power that was constructed by Jim Calhoun already is imperiled by his retirement.
If UConn is not in the Big East, it’s in a world of hurt.
Winners: DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence
In the seven full seasons since the Big East added five former members of Conference USA, the league has earned 57 NCAA Tournament bids. These three schools are responsible for one of those: Seton Hall’s fortunate inclusion in 2006.
And yet all three will be a part of this new configuration. Seton Hall appears to be improving both culturally and competitively under Kevin Willard, and Ed Cooley is a dynamic coach who could turn around the Friars if his best recruits get on the floor. DePaul enjoyed a big victory on the road at Arizona State late Wednesday, and now this. For the Blue Demons, that constitutes a long winning streak.
Seton Hall basketball could be one of the big winners out of the latest Big East changes. (AP Photo)
Loser: Boise State
At one point, it appeared the Broncos were poised to join a football competition that would bring greater credibility to their success, one that would put them on the field against greater competition on a regular basis. Whatever one thinks of what the Big East has been in football, and most thought less of it than it merited, Boise-Cincinnati and Boise-Louisville were more appealing games than Boise-Utah State.
Because Boise was not joining for basketball, it’s possible the football conglomeration will remain intact. But the mechanics of the separation agreement could make whatever we call this group even less appealing to television executives, which would make transcontinental competition less inviting to the Broncos.
Winner: Xavier
Butler and Dayton likely will be invited to join the Big East Seven in a new league, but it’s certain the Musketeers will get the call. Of all potential candidates, Xavier’s success has been the most consistent over the years, its facilities are the freshest and it has built something of a national brand.
The Musketeers have lost more than a few top recruits over the years because someone — the player, a family member, perhaps even a friend of the prospect — balked at the notion of that young man competing in the Atlantic 10. Especially if these schools can maintain the Big East name, Xavier won’t face that problem as often.
Loser: Aresco
He was the right hire at the wrong time. Had he been in place five years ago, it’s possible the Big East could have avoided being picked apart like a roast turkey. Once the Big Ten made a move to grab Rutgers (and created a vacancy for Louisville in the ACC), Aresco had no chance. There was no way he was going to be able to command a significant TV contract for what was left of the league.
Winner: Butler
Only 15 years ago, the Bulldogs were a 14 seed out of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference and viewing that as significant progress. Now, Butler has two national championship games on its resume and figures to become part of the nation’s most significant basketball-centric conference.
Loser: Cincinnati
The Bearcats have a big market, a football program with four league titles in five years, a basketball program with six Final Fours, two NCAA titles, a fresh Sweet 16 appearance and a No. 11 national ranking — and now they have no viable home.
Loser: Atlantic 10
The notion that the A-10 might invite the seven departing Big East schools to join their league was partly good PR — shows the league being progressive — but mostly comedy. There was no way Georgetown & Co. to go through all of these machinations and legal issues to surrender all their newfound power.
There was no way they were going to run away from playing Tulane and run head-long into playing Fordham. Not ever.
Now, the A-10 stands to be cherry-picked of at least three key members, and possibly more.
Loser: Memphis
When the Tigers received their Big East invitation in February after nearly a decade of being separated from longtime rivals Cincinnati and Louisville, the university community celebrated as though the team reached another Final Four. FedEx executive Alan Graf, one of the program’s most ardent boosters, told the Memphis Daily news, “Whether we were lucky or good or whatever doesn’t matter. We’re in.”
Unfortunately, now they’re out. Well, not technically. They’ll still most likely be in with UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida, but most of the company they’ll keep will be the same as it has been recently: Central Florida, Houston, SMU. Oh yeah, and Tulane.
