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https://theathletic.com/231793/2018/02/ ... asketball/

Some great stuff by Ken Pomeroy. I will just quote this snippet.

To this point, we can at least say that top to bottom, the current version is better than its predecessor.

The conference isn’t going get more respect until other teams rise to challenge Villanova. But three decades from now, fans may well be defending this era of the league just as many now argue for the original Big East.

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No. Final Fours, tv ratings, and buzz of the Big East Tournament. The biggest drop off in the league is the lack of excitement around the Big East tournament. I mostly blame Georgetown and St. John's for that.

Hoya33 wrote:No. Final Fours, tv ratings, and buzz of the Big East Tournament. The biggest drop off in the league is the lack of excitement around the Big East tournament. I mostly blame Georgetown and St. John's for that.

Which basically proves the point that its emotion not fact when people say the OBE was better. Fact is, ESPN hyped up the conference and everyone bought in. Statistically, they were an average high-major conference.

DudeAnon wrote:

Hoya33 wrote:No. Final Fours, tv ratings, and buzz of the Big East Tournament. The biggest drop off in the league is the lack of excitement around the Big East tournament. I mostly blame Georgetown and St. John's for that.

Which basically proves the point that its emotion not fact when people say the OBE was better. Fact is, ESPN hyped up the conference and everyone bought in. Statistically, they were an average high-major conference.

I think the Big East had some impressive years like that year they had three Final Four teams or 2011 when they had 11 enter the NCAA tournament. However, I agree with you. I think people tend to lump 1985 and 2011 and make it seem like the Big East was like this every single year. The league had some down years that have been forgotten thanks to the benefit of time. But whether the reformed league is better or not than the past league is not important. It's a narrative that has been pushed by the media (ESPN) to diminish the value of a league they no longer have a business stake on.

Why does the current league need to be better than the past league? Who cares... It makes no sense really... At the end of the day the Big East is at the very least a Top-3 conference which places it in the top 10% of all Division I leagues.

What the league needs to ensure is that potential recruits don't buy into this narrative. So far, they haven't and the league has performed outstanding.

What a lot of people forget is how poorly the Big East performed when measuring Final Four appearances in the 1990s compared to the 1980s:

1980s:
1982 - Gtown
1984 - Gtown (Natl Champs)
1985 - Gtown, SJU, Nova (Natl Champs)
1987 - Providence, Syracuse
1989 - Seton Hall

1990s:
1996 - Syracuse
1999 - UConn (Natl Champs)

You’re going to get pretty polarizing opinions on this matter depending on which fan base you ask. I think that’s the only real takeaway from all of this.

ecasadoSBU wrote:

DudeAnon wrote:

Hoya33 wrote:No. Final Fours, tv ratings, and buzz of the Big East Tournament. The biggest drop off in the league is the lack of excitement around the Big East tournament. I mostly blame Georgetown and St. John's for that.

Which basically proves the point that its emotion not fact when people say the OBE was better. Fact is, ESPN hyped up the conference and everyone bought in. Statistically, they were an average high-major conference.

I think the Big East had some impressive years like that year they had three Final Four teams or 2011 when they had 11 enter the NCAA tournament. However, I agree with you. I think people tend to lump 1985 and 2011 and make it seem like the Big East was like this every single year. The league had some down years that have been forgotten thanks to the benefit of time. But whether the reformed league is better or not than the past league is not important. It's a narrative that has been pushed by the media (ESPN) to diminish the value of a league they no longer have a business stake on.

Why does the current league need to be better than the past league? Who cares... It makes no sense really... At the end of the day the Big East is at the very least a Top-3 conference which places it in the top 10% of all Division I leagues.

What the league needs to ensure is that potential recruits don't buy into this narrative. So far, they haven't and the league has performed outstanding.

Excellent post ecasadoSBU.

You're absolutely correct...that debate is not important. (like saying I was better at 20 than 30...nah, just dumber at 20.) It's fodder for writers and wannabe writers, whether paid, biased, unbiased, volunteer, in college, @ESPN, CBS, etc. Such fluff gives them something to do and job security.

Your final point is spot on. What have you done for me lately? ...and the league is performing at a top level. Is there room to grow? Yes. Can we improve on what we have now? Yes. Will Creighton ever win the Hoops Natty? Yes, probably after they burn me and feed the fishes in the Western Pacific. (such is life)

milksteak wrote:You’re going to get pretty polarizing opinions on this matter depending on which fan base you ask. I think that’s the only real takeaway from all of this.

Agree.

Though I will say that over a 30 year period it had 7 NC’s: G’town, Nova, Cuse, UConn (3), L’ville. Contrast that with the B1G10’s current drought. In addition to these schools PC, WVU, SJU & SHU all made FF appearances. 9 different schools with a FF is pretty damn impressive. 16 or 17 total over 30 years is ridiculous. We’ve had 1 in our first 4 seasons.

I think the biggest difference is simply the # of schools in the conference. So many teams in that old conference. So more opportunities for someone to make a run when there are 7-11 teams in the tourney every year. It’s sort of like the ACC is now. Success born through volume of opportunity.

DudeAnon wrote:

Hoya33 wrote:No. Final Fours, tv ratings, and buzz of the Big East Tournament. The biggest drop off in the league is the lack of excitement around the Big East tournament. I mostly blame Georgetown and St. John's for that.

Which basically proves the point that its emotion not fact when people say the OBE was better. Fact is, ESPN hyped up the conference and everyone bought in. Statistically, they were an average high-major conference.

An average high major conference. To coin a phrase, eh? You better elaborate on that one. I really don’t know how that distinguishes that from where they are now during the regular season.

The fact is that the OBE was not a product of hype. 8 F4’s and 2 NC’s in the ‘80’s. Plus 3 other cases where a BE team lost the NC by just a point. They were that close to having 5 NC’s in the same decade. Not to mention numerous E8’s and S16’s that aren’t even mentioned because the success at the highest levels was so staggering. A historic season in 1985. Multiple National Players of the Year. A Georgetown team that changed the way defense has been played ever since. A conference that kept getting better and better so that league doormats to start the decade we’re battling for NC’s and Final 4’s by the end of the decade. It would have been an incredible run for any conference, but given that this was a fledgling enterprise and the fact that the Northeast had gone 30 years without producing a national champion before Georgetown won, it was a tectonic shift.