The Holy Land of Hoops

Saw this 1-liner in a recent recruiting article from ProJo:

A New Year’s TV day for Big East

"The Big East is again planning a New Year’s Eve Marathon, with all 10 schools playing the same day on Fox Sports 1. No word yet on who or where Providence might play. … "

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/college/content/20140805-college-basketball-journal-terance-mann-comes-to-r.i.-to-live--and-play.ece

I'm not certain if that's been announced already, but I like it!

Nice find. Love it as well!

the closest we've seen to official word. Will be interesting to see the ratings for it this year going up against college football. This is the easiest of the next 3 years, as the next 2 years, the semifinals are on NYE.

Awesome. If the football tournaments coincide I am sure they will move it around. Still, keeping the marathon to open conference play is awesome. Hope they keep it.

DudeAnon wrote:Awesome. If the football tournaments coincide I am sure they will move it around. Still, keeping the marathon to open conference play is awesome. Hope they keep it.

That's the thing- I feel like the fact that they have the marathon is the important thing- NOT having it on NYE.

I'm a big fan of having and keeping it on New Years Eve. Last year was great (except PC lost).

The goal should be to have college hoops fans associate New Years Eve with the Big East, the same way Thanksgiving is associated with the Lions and Cowboys. This is a really brilliant idea by the conference. New Years Eve = Big East Opening Day Marathon.

billyjack wrote:I'm a big fan of having and keeping it on New Years Eve. Last year was great (except PC lost).

The goal should be to have college hoops fans associate New Years Eve with the Big East, the same way Thanksgiving is associated with the Lions and Cowboys. This is a really brilliant idea by the conference. New Years Eve = Big East Opening Day Marathon.

The problem is though that most college sports fans will be associating New Years Eve with the football playoff. Basically only the most hard core basketball fans would be watching(especially in years 2 and 3 where it's going to be going up against semi finals). You may not like college football, but to think it's not going to just envelop that day is a joke. Going to have a lot of folks not even give it a thought of watching because they're watching the football. Plus, it's going to make the Big East look bad when ratings come in and they're extremely low because everyone is watching the football. Until the football playoff gets off of New Years Eve, it's going to be a HUGE gamble.

here's the next 12 years(as long as the football playoff goes on first contract)-
2 times it's like this year- going up against 2 access bowls and Orange Bowl- best chance for success but still an uphill battle)
8 times it's up against the football semifinals
2 times it's on Sunday- going up against the NFL

billyjack wrote:I'm a big fan of having and keeping it on New Years Eve. Last year was great (except PC lost).

The goal should be to have college hoops fans associate New Years Eve with the Big East, the same way Thanksgiving is associated with the Lions and Cowboys. This is a really brilliant idea by the conference. New Years Eve = Big East Opening Day Marathon.

I agree. It will be great if every year's opening games of conference play begin on NYE as this will make for a fun all day event for college hoops fans. Those who want to focus their evening time on football, so be it.

admin wrote:

billyjack wrote:I'm a big fan of having and keeping it on New Years Eve. Last year was great (except PC lost).

The goal should be to have college hoops fans associate New Years Eve with the Big East, the same way Thanksgiving is associated with the Lions and Cowboys. This is a really brilliant idea by the conference. New Years Eve = Big East Opening Day Marathon.

I agree. It will be great if every year's opening games of conference play begin on NYE as this will make for a fun all day event for college hoops fans. Those who want to focus their evening time on football, so be it.

The thing is though- the 2nd football game(and 1st semifinal in 8 of the 12 years)- will start at like 4:30 or 5. So, only 2 of those games would get to go up against only an access game.

And, i'm sorry, but the 2 years where it's up against the NFL- that's just a complete non starter.

One thing that will be interesting to see is when it's announced, will they say the annual New Years Eve Marathon, or just Once again, the season starts with a New Years Eve Marathon. This year is one of the 2 years where it would work where most the games aren't going up against semi-final games- or even worse, the NFL. If they say 2nd annual than we can pretty much assume it's a permanent thing. If it's just a once again, you really wonder about the other years where the football is a lot tougher competition. Next year would be the telling year at that point.