If Big East Wants to Reach its Ultimate Potential, then.....

[LeMoyne00]

I don't think that would be worst-case scenario, as Xavier and Providence would both probably be in the tournament at that point. Worst-case scenario would be Marquette and St. John's winning, then Creighton beating up Villanova in the final.

UGH that would be bad for Big East bids and seeding...

From a personal tourney experience, I just want exciting close games to prove to my wife that us getting tickets again wasn't a waste.

[notkirkcameron]

Chicago is a terrible college sports town.

Listen to this all day long, Ill give you a cookie if you can string together 1 hour of college sports talk in 24 hours.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/station/670-the-score/

I'll disagree with this. Chicago is a great college sports town....just none of the teams happen to be in Chicago. Chicago is kind of like Boston where there's a lot of colleges, but none are really that great at anything. When your city's D1 teams are DePaul, UIC, Chicago State, Loyola Chicago, and Northwestern (Evanston), then can you really blame people for not turning out?

Chicago is, and always will be a Big Ten expat and alumni town. Walk around the north side on any given Saturday afternoon and you'll see the Buckeye alums stumbling out of their packed bars and the Wolverines, Spartans, Hawkeyes, Illini, and Hoosiers stumbling out of theirs. Notre Dame of course is a beast all itself. Billboards all around town bill Northwestern as "Chicago's Big Ten Team"...



However, the stands at any Northwestern game tell a completely different story. They've been derisively nicknamed the "Purple People-Seekers" for good reason.

Northwestern vs. Nebraska


Northwestern vs. Wisconsin


Northwestern vs. Ohio State


Ask me where you want to go in Chicago and I can point you in the direction of at least one Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Nebraska, Maryland, Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Ohio U, Miami (OH), Miami (FL), Xavier, Marquette, Saint Louis, Oregon, Wake Forest, Florida State, Alabama, Notre Dame, LSU, Nebraska, Butler, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Mizzou, and Florida bar, and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[billyjack]

I don't think that would be worst-case scenario, as Xavier and Providence would both probably be in the tournament at that point. Worst-case scenario would be Marquette and St. John's winning, then Creighton beating up Villanova in the final.

UGH that would be bad for Big East bids and seeding...

From a personal tourney experience, I just want exciting close games to prove to my wife that us getting tickets again wasn't a waste.

With your LeMoyne avatar, I'd guess you guys have Syracuse ties. So I can understand missing the Orangemen. As far as close games, the BE has had a ton of last minute and OT games this year. As far as the experience, if you guys used to go in the early 90's, and loved it back in the day, then this week will still feature half of those teams and fanbases. Plus National POY DMcD, teams fighting for NCAA bids, #3 team in nation, Semaj, JT3, Cotton, Buzz, Sampson, local recruits, Dunham, etc, what's there not to like...?

[stever20]

have to say it seems SO strange to be Tuesday of conference tourney week and there's no BET game going on right now.

[senditinjerome]

New York is and always will be a terrible college sports town for 2 reasons:

1. 8 pro teams (counting the Islanders because they're moving to Brooklyn). Soccer is very popular in NYC as well, further crowding the marketplace.
2. Very transient - College grads who move to NYC aren't going to suddenly start rooting for St. John's; they're gonna maintain their allegiances to their own alma mater.


When Rutgers FB had their one (and only) magical season about 5 years ago, it was a blip on the NYC sports landscape. 'Cuse tries to bill itself as "New York's college team"...b-ball maybe, FB def not. at that Penn State/Cuse game at the meadowlands last year, there were more Penn State fans than Cuse fans.

[ChelseaFriar]

I don't think that would be worst-case scenario, as Xavier and Providence would both probably be in the tournament at that point. Worst-case scenario would be Marquette and St. John's winning, then Creighton beating up Villanova in the final.

UGH that would be bad for Big East bids and seeding...

From a personal tourney experience, I just want exciting close games to prove to my wife that us getting tickets again wasn't a waste.

Suggestion: If she doesn't want to go next year, buy tickets with a friend.

[Chalmers0]

If the Big East wants to reach its ultimate potential it, IMO, it needs to do 3 things.

1. Win out of conference games, specifically big match-ups against other "power" conferences, national television (CBS etc) games and exempt tourneys

2. Win in the NCAA Tourney. I don't think anything is more important than this.

3. FS1 needs to gain popularity. You can downplay it all you want, but the lack of ESPN coverage has hurt Big East perception this year big time and will continue to hurt us going forward if FS1 can't gain more eyeballs.

I think 3 is slightly less important, just because I think winning can cure all, but I still think it's crucial to the Big East going forward.

[SJU87]

Fox sports channel should be 1 channel ahead of ESPN. In the NY area , St. John's and the Big East games were on the same sports channel (SNY) last year as the NY Mets and other Pro teams in the area. You had a lot of people without Big East ties watching SNY last year and many tuned into the big east game because it was on. Those same people won't see the Big East on Fox this year. The newspapers have to write more stories about the Big East. The NY Post does a great job covering St. John's , they even have St. John's in the TV sports listings with the Pro teams showing what day they play and what time.
If St. John's ever went to a National championship, Every TV in the NYC metro area would be tuned into the game and if they won they'd have a parade down Broadway. NYC has never had a National champion in basketball in modern times and it would lift the Big East to new heights. Same with DePaul in Chicago.

The original poster said St. John's has to pick up it's program ? Coach Steve Lavin turned the program around and now we're respectable. Lavin got his contracted extended and he'll be here for many years. Great recruiter and that's what we needed and got.

[FormulaX]

If the Big East wants to reach its ultimate potential it, IMO, it needs to do 3 things.

1. Win out of conference games, specifically big match-ups against other "power" conferences, national television (CBS etc) games and exempt tourneys

2. Win in the NCAA Tourney. I don't think anything is more important than this.

3. FS1 needs to gain popularity. You can downplay it all you want, but the lack of ESPN coverage has hurt Big East perception this year big time and will continue to hurt us going forward if FS1 can't gain more eyeballs.

I think 3 is slightly less important, just because I think winning can cure all, but I still think it's crucial to the Big East going forward.

I agree with your points. It will take time for FS1. At least 3 years to get fully known. The BE needs 3-5 teams ranked in the top 25 from the beginning of the season. People will seek out games of the ranked teams.
I'd watch a lasalle vs #24 umass game before an unranked ucla vs unlv game.

[notkirkcameron]

3. FS1 needs to gain popularity. You can downplay it all you want, but the lack of ESPN coverage has hurt Big East perception this year big time and will continue to hurt us going forward if FS1 can't gain more eyeballs.

Agree to all three, but this is exceptionally key. I've never understood why networks wanting to create an "ESPN-challenger" all try to go it alone. NBC/Universal, Fox, and CBS all have their own sports networks. If you include NBC/Universal Sports, Golf Channel, Big Ten Network (owned by Fox 51% and the Big Ten Conference 49%), and Fox Sports 2, that makes seven sports networks not based in Bristol. While BTN and Golf appeal to niche audiences by design, what if even TWO of those were to combine their portfolios?

If FS1 and NBC Sports Network merged their portfolios, you would have one channel that could be your home for live...

Big East Basketball
Big 12 and Pac-12 Football
Big 12 and Pac-12 Basketball
The NHL (including the Stanley Cup Playoffs)
NASCAR
UEFA Champions League
Notre Dame Football
Formula 1
The Olympics in 2016, 2018, & 2020 (and presumably qualifers)
The World Cup in 2018 & 2022 (and presumably qualifiers)
Major League Soccer
Wimbledon
The French Open
The US Open (Golf)
Major League Baseball
Select NFL games
English Premier League
The FA Cup
Misc. college football, hockey, and basketball (Colonial, Ivy, A-10, etc.)

Get a decent studio show and THAT could be an ESPN Challenger.