by MullinMayhem » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:40 am
ESPN wants to cater to the gigantic football-centric schools which we are not. We are a major conference that only plays basketball as a group of smaller private schools in major metro areas. As if that were not a leap of faith, we are on FS1/FS2 which is brand new and most people still don't know exists. We are novel...we are not traditional and that's why no one really knows what to make of us. As someone who caught the tail-end of the old Big East, I remember ESPN's lovefest constantly raving about the conference and what a monster it was. Funny how that turns around immediately after the big football schools leave and we are off their channels.
The only critiques you can have about the conference at this point:
1) Let's be real...it has been Villanova and everyone else. Others are right on their tail, but no one can dethrone them.
2) We have programs in some of the biggest cities in America i.e. DePaul, G'Town, St. John's who have not been truly nationally-relevant on a regular basis in 10, 20, 30 years. At least from my perspective I know for a fact SJ would be getting tons of hype if we were truly nationally-relevant in the top 25 every year. The Knicks are never going to be good and they sellout every game. That should give you an indication. This would be a completely different conference if SJ and G'Town were in the top 25 at the same time every year to join Nova and others.
3) We will almost never have many top 25 teams since we beat up on each other and the conference is too strong from top to bottom. In the ACC, B1G, Big 12, etc. there's a soft underbelly to feed the top teams and keep them all ranked. We don't have that. Thus, good teams like Seton Hall, Creighton, Butler, etc. aren't ranked.
4) In March Madness, we don't get enough teams deep. Simple as that.
Let's be real, we will never have the resources state football schools have and we will never have the size. That's why it's so important that we harness the power of our major markets. To do that we need SJ and G'Town in the thick of things. I know everyone can't be good at the same time, but to me (and yes I have bias), without those 2 programs playing well, this conference will never reach its true potential.