1-Year Anniversary...!
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:37 amI don't know what everyone was up to last December 23rd at 10:59pm, but at that moment I made a great decision by joining the Holy Land of Hoops.
Based on threads back then, our group of schools had a series of difficult hurdles (kind of like jumping the width of the Grand Canyon-- if we struck out we'd be bobbing lifeless on the Colorado River rapids down below-- or probably by now we'd be caught in a Hoover Dam turbine downstream) and an amazing amount of work (ok, I'm thinking on a level of James Madison 1787 in Philadelphia here). Looking at where we are now, I would say the Big East hit a grand slam.
Looking at the threads from last December, the one that strikes me the most is about how we were trying to start the league up in July 2014 rather than July 2015. Just incredible that we were up and running in the Summer of 2013.
Accomplishments:
- Invited and locked-in 3 excellent schools to form a 10 team league.
- Partnered with Fox Sports on a $500 million contract.
- Have tons of games each week televised nationally, including with heavyweights Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery, Gary Thorne, Dick Stockton, and new analysts and Big East alums Austin Croshere and Tarik Turner.
- Secured the "Big East" name.
- Negotiated an amicable early breakaway with the AAC.
- Officially kicked off the league in July 2013, two years ahead of time.
- Secured Madison Square Garden as our Big East Tournament site thru 2026.
- Hired an accomplished and well-respected commissioner.
- Maintained our standing as one of the top, most-respected conferences in the country.
- Recruited at an unbelievable rate with a ton of Top 100 and Top 150 players.
This has been an amazing year. With sensible planning by the 10 schools, lack of bragging and bluster (yeah I'm looking at you ACC), maturity and respect, we are way ahead of where anyone could have reasonably expected us to be, even me, and I'm a huge BE homer...!
Thanks to the Admins of this site, who have done an outstanding job, and a fantastic group of posters here, we've had great, civil and respectable threads.
Based on threads back then, our group of schools had a series of difficult hurdles (kind of like jumping the width of the Grand Canyon-- if we struck out we'd be bobbing lifeless on the Colorado River rapids down below-- or probably by now we'd be caught in a Hoover Dam turbine downstream) and an amazing amount of work (ok, I'm thinking on a level of James Madison 1787 in Philadelphia here). Looking at where we are now, I would say the Big East hit a grand slam.
Looking at the threads from last December, the one that strikes me the most is about how we were trying to start the league up in July 2014 rather than July 2015. Just incredible that we were up and running in the Summer of 2013.
Accomplishments:
- Invited and locked-in 3 excellent schools to form a 10 team league.
- Partnered with Fox Sports on a $500 million contract.
- Have tons of games each week televised nationally, including with heavyweights Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery, Gary Thorne, Dick Stockton, and new analysts and Big East alums Austin Croshere and Tarik Turner.
- Secured the "Big East" name.
- Negotiated an amicable early breakaway with the AAC.
- Officially kicked off the league in July 2013, two years ahead of time.
- Secured Madison Square Garden as our Big East Tournament site thru 2026.
- Hired an accomplished and well-respected commissioner.
- Maintained our standing as one of the top, most-respected conferences in the country.
- Recruited at an unbelievable rate with a ton of Top 100 and Top 150 players.
This has been an amazing year. With sensible planning by the 10 schools, lack of bragging and bluster (yeah I'm looking at you ACC), maturity and respect, we are way ahead of where anyone could have reasonably expected us to be, even me, and I'm a huge BE homer...!
Thanks to the Admins of this site, who have done an outstanding job, and a fantastic group of posters here, we've had great, civil and respectable threads.
