Big East/Big Ten Press Conference Monday

[NJRedman]

Butler plays Purdue in 2015 so I would guess that we would play IU for the challenge.

Well the articles are saying it wont be based on geography but on who matches up the best. They want a tiered system, the top playisn against each other, the middle and the bottom all doing the same. They don't want one really good team against a really bad team. They want the best TV match ups.

[ChelseaFriar]

Butler plays Purdue in 2015 so I would guess that we would play IU for the challenge.

Well the articles are saying it wont be based on geography but on who matches up the best. They want a tiered system, the top playisn against each other, the middle and the bottom all doing the same. They don't want one really good team against a really bad team. They want the best TV match ups.

Agree, this is about maximizing TV ratings, not trying to pair schools from the same region against each other.

[handdownmandown]

Two teams are getting left out. I wonder how they're going to decide that.

[Hall2012]

The ZagsBlog report on it suggests that it very well may be based on regional rivalries: http://zagsblog.com/articles/big-ten-bi ... ce-series/

"The series will consist of eight games — reports Zach Braziller of the New York Post — and could feature several natural regional rivalries, including Georgetown-Maryland, Marquette-Wisconsin, Creighton-Nebraska, Butler-Indiana, DePaul-Illinois and Xavier-Ohio State."


He goes on to point out that Seton Hall-Rutgers likely wouldn't be included in this since they will already have 8 years left on a head to head series. This leaves me with a few thoughts/questions.

1. Are Seton Hall an Rutgers really the only BE/B1G "regional rivals" with a head to head contract?

2. If they go they go the route of regional rivalries- does that mean the matchups are gonna be the same every year and the schools without a local "rival" in the other conference are just gonna be left out? Even if they ignore Rutgers-SHU since they already play each other, they could easily replace it with Rutgers-St. John's and there's your 8th "regional rivalry."

3. Even for the teams that do have a "regional rival, "wouldn't it be more interesting to play different teams every year instead of the same one? Schedule your "regional rival" on your own if you want to play them and rotate the challenge matchups.

[Irishdawg]

Here's some additional details on the challenge from the Big Ten: http://btn.com/2014/05/04/big-ten-big-e ... off-games/

[NJRedman]

The ZagsBlog report on it suggests that it very well may be based on regional rivalries: http://zagsblog.com/articles/big-ten-bi ... ce-series/

"The series will consist of eight games — reports Zach Braziller of the New York Post — and could feature several natural regional rivalries, including Georgetown-Maryland, Marquette-Wisconsin, Creighton-Nebraska, Butler-Indiana, DePaul-Illinois and Xavier-Ohio State."


He goes on to point out that Seton Hall-Rutgers likely wouldn't be included in this since they will already have 8 years left on a head to head series. This leaves me with a few thoughts/questions.

1. Are Seton Hall an Rutgers really the only BE/B1G "regional rivals" with a head to head contract?

2. If they go they go the route of regional rivalries- does that mean the matchups are gonna be the same every year and the schools without a local "rival" in the other conference are just gonna be left out? Even if they ignore Rutgers-SHU since they already play each other, they could easily replace it with Rutgers-St. John's and there's your 8th "regional rivalry."

3. Even for the teams that do have a "regional rival, "wouldn't it be more interesting to play different teams every year instead of the same one? Schedule your "regional rival" on your own if you want to play them and rotate the challenge matchups.

Well it's already been stated that that each Big East team must take place a minimum of 8 times and that the B1G teams must take place a minimum of 4 times. So that throws out any theory of strictly regional rivalries.

Zags can guess at anything he wants to, but we know from what is being reported that every team must take place in this event and that it's about getting the best possible match ups.

[Jet915]

Two teams are getting left out. I wonder how they're going to decide that.

It's going to be based on how the school is projected to do in the upcoming season. Every Big East school is guaranteed atleast 6 games in the 8 year deal though.

[stever20]

Just looking at the current numbers.....

each team guaranteed 6 appearances in the 8 years- 6*10=60

each B10 team guaranteed 4 appearances in the 8 years 4*14=56

So looks like for Georgetown, Nova, Marquette- would be 1 year of 8 where not in this. We'll get the top Big Ten teams in 5/8 years hopefully- guaranteed to see them 4/8 at least. The dangerous thing though I don't think we're automatically each year going to see Big Ten's 1-8. Penn St has to go 4 times at least for instance. Purdue has to go 4 times at least. There's going to be some DePaul @ Purdue games in there. I actually don't think the rivalry games will be used in this quite frankly.

Tuesday that week will be tough(that's the night of that champions classic with Duke, Kentucky, Michigan St, and Kansas. May be 1 year with this not competing, but the calendar will start to adjust and it will compete again. It'll be similar to the Big Ten/ACC challenge in that it's the same week every year(B10/ACC is always week after Thanksgiving).

I really do not see the New Years Eve Marathon continuing. I think for one, we're going to see the conference season start more like Jan 3- which will help the overall schedule out a lot.

I think for Big East- it's a very good get. For FS1 it's good I think. They'll get 2 of the top games. I suspect of the 4 top games- 2 will be FS1, 1 will be ESPN, and 1 will be BTN. The other 4 will be 2 on FS1 and 2 on BTN. Maybe if we're lucky ESPN will get the 2nd good game instead of BTN.

[stever20]

This is awesome. Aligning with the Big Ten. Long term deal. FS1 gets 4 high profile games. We get 4 games featured on ESPN. Great job Val.

won't be 4 games on ESPN for sure. Big Ten Network will get at least 2 of them almost for sure.

[BillikensWin]

Congrats to the Big East on a great coup.