So Marquette loses Tom Crean and settles on Buzz Williams after failing to attract a pool of marquee candidates. Providence fires Tim Welsh and gets turned down by both Jim Larranaga and Travis Ford. Syracuse has missed the NCAA Tournament two years in a row. St. John’s has practically surrendered.
Is there anything more inevitable at this point than a major shift in the Big East some time in the near future? How much more evidence do you need that something isn’t working?
No matter how good the TV money is, there has to be some long-term concern about the recent Big East developments. Word is, the Marquette coaching search simply came down to the fact that the administration had a hard time attracting quality candidates because none of them wanted to get involved in the ultimate meat grinder the Big East has become. And this is a school that has great facilities, is located in a big city and was paying Tom Crean more than $1.5 million, according to reports. Providence has now been turned down by coaches in the Colonial and the A-10. That can’t be too comforting for administrators in that league. At some point, a lot of these presidents have to be wondering whether it’s better to be struggling for survival in this mess of a league or to figure out a different way to do business.
in Tiger Basketball
Responses to “Something’s gotta give in Big East”
April 12th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I hope this indicative of the occasionaly talked about split and Memphis finds some love.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
This is a good example of a conference having too many teams. It actually serves as a detriment to some teams that could possibly get into the NCAA tournament if they were in another conference.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see some of those schools seek an alternative. Could a conference survive comprising schools that don’t play football? Yes. See the A-10.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
and so it begins. this exact senario has been bandied about since the great cusa raid.
the d-1aaa schools (or whatever they call it now) depend entirely on basketball for survival. and its not about tv money. its about donations and ticket sales, none of which thrive when you dont make the ncaa tournament on a semi-regular basis. the d-1 schools naturally have a HUGE advantage in resources and media panache over their conference bretheren. it is only a matter of time before they split. a “catholic” conference with notre dame basketball would be a even HUGER media draw than the current big east. notre dame, georgetown, depaul, seton hall, villanova, marquette, st johns, providence et all with maybe even xavier and st louis thrown in for good measure would have espn’s FULL attention
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