by GoldenWarrior11 » Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:37 am
Thankfully, the correct schools were able to keep the Big East name. And Madison Square Garden. And a portion of the chest with all the tournament units. They were too valuable to relinquish, or give up without a fight. Schools like East Carolina, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, Houston and SMU had absolutely no right to the league name. While they bought into the conference with league fees, they bought into a conference that ceased to exist (due to defections from Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and the Catholic 7 schools).
In an alternative reality, where the football schools kept the Big East name and Madison Square Garden, I would have hoped that the schools would have considered a variation of the "Metro" Conference. All the current member schools would have markets in New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Omaha. Perhaps Saint Louis gets a bigger nod to join, originally, due to the market. The tournament could have rotated around NY (Barclays), Philadelphia (Wells Fargo), Chicago (United Center), Indianapolis (Conseco Fieldhouse) and/or Milwaukee (Bradley Center). The focus, in this case, would not have been an East-coast focused league, like we currently have, but rather a Midwestern/Atlantic feel, with Catholic/Private schools.