The new Big East

So y'all know I think the breakup in the Big East went about as well as it could have for the basketball schools.  Wins include:

1. Getting to retain the Big East brand (colossal failure of leadership by the American whatever-they're-now-called in selling the Big East name AT ANY PRICE),

2. Keeping the basketball-rich traditions of schools like Nova, GTown, Marquette, now in a league focused on roundball, and

3. Getting to a smaller # of schools to allow for a double-round-robin format.

Two nit-picks though, which have been bothering me.

Point #1.

They should have kept the league to 9.  With 10 teams, there will be 18 league games.  That's  a lot, and will prevent teams from scheduling stronger non-conf schedules, perhaps needing to pass on some early season tournaments.  A high non-conf SOS helps big time on Selection Sunday, so it's a consequential decision.  If the league decides to shorten the conference schedule to 14 games, and play an unbalanced schedule, I will officially drop flaming bags of dog feces on their face.

Point #2.

If the league was intent on going to 10, adding Creighton was a myopic decision.  They've been a bit stronger in hoops than some other candidates over the past few years.  But they have no-long term structural advantages over those other schools.  In fact, they have a major structural detraction.

Simply put, they are FAR EFFING AWAY.   Keep in mind, this doesn't just affect basketball.  Providence will have to send their field hockey team 1400 miles to Omaha, which is about 600 miles further than Xavier, one of the new "Western" (i.e., far away) teams.

They also don't fit the "brand" of the new Big East as a "big city, Rust Belt + Northeast" conference.   The Great Plains is just a different region and culture.

Then there's the question of "Big" in Big East, as in "big time," and "big money".  The TV market in Omaha doesn't have as many eyeballs as some of the bigger cities they passed over (see here with respect to the other cities I mention below).   This short-sighted decision will impact future TV contracts.  And the financial viability (I'll use endowment size as a proxy) and alumni donor base of Creighton ($375M endowment - 7,700 undergrads) are reasonable, but not a clincher--especially when compared to my option #1.

So assuming St. John's and Nova simply blackballed other NYC and Philly schools (esp. St. Joe's and LaSalle), who could the conference have gone after?  My list would've looked like this:

1. St. Louis, $852M, 14K undergrads. Catholic school, same distance as DePaul and Marquette from NE schools, which means it's at least not further.  Largest school of my alternatives, with the biggest city (i.e. TV market), and richest endowment.  From a regional perspective, St. Looey is traditionally the end of the East and the beginning of the Plains, hence it's "Gateway to the West" moniker.  A natural boundary city that would have made sense for the Western edge of the Big East conference.  Think of the Cards, Pirates and Cubs in the old NL East, and the Big East would've looked exactly like the old NL East from the Senior Circuit's 2-division days (especially since the Braves were in the West back then).

2. Duquesne (Pittsburgh), $171M, 10K undergrads.  Another Catholic school, this one is just about dead-center of the new conference's footprint.  It's also about the same size as Creighton, though the school is not as well established financially.  However, Pittsburgh is undergoing an economic renaissance that will allow it's donor base to growth in wealth over time, and should give their athletic programs the ability to keep facilities and recruiting on par with the big boys (esp. if they got an infusion of Big East TV $).  It's also got a big city rust belt feel that fits the conference's brand.  Pitt, for instance, always seemed like a great fit, culturally.

3. Dayton, $415M, 8K undergrads.  Comfortably within the new conference's geographical footprint (even ex Creighton), this Catholic school is similar in many ways to Creighton, except for not being so damn far.  Dayton gets some play in the Cincinnati market as well from a TV perspective.

Whatevs.  The ship sailed.  Someone in the Big East's HQ probably has a sister-in-law working for the AD at Creigthon or something.   Regardless,  the conference is about 90% of the way to a great product, as long as they don't mess up the scheduling.