The Holy Land of Hoops

Had a conversation about whether or not we would've been better off with a new name because people will always compare us with the old Big East.

I disagree with this for a couple of reasons:
1) The old association will die off pretty quick
2) Our league most resembles the original BE
3) Maybe it is awkward for a year or 2, but name recognition is worth it
4) Frankly, it helped secure our financial viability for hte next 10 (12?) years

But for discussion. If the AAC got our name, what would we have called ourselves? I really can't think of anything. "The Big Atlantic Americans"?

The Bigger East
The Big Midwest
The NorthEastern Athletic Conference
The Big Parish

The Big Basketball

"The Gavitt".

I would kinda have liked "The BBC," or Big Basketball Conference (even though it would have sponsored a myriad of other sports). Thus, we would have been the only such Conference to be truthful about which sport is the most "fund-worthy" sport of all among those it sponsors. And, of course, we would also be playing off the well-known British media giant.

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.

I also like Metro Conference or Metro East Conference as a name however Eastern Collegiate Conference would have done as well except perhaps for Creighton.

The Big City Conference

The Kennedy Conference..... Nine Catholics and a Butler

ballyhoohoo wrote:The Kennedy Conference..... Nine Catholics and a Butler

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!