The UConn addition

[Xudash]

I'd also add:

The BE has a vastly superior commissioner in Val Ackerman that actually helps provide value to all of the league's membership. She has managed to maintain the Big East's reputation as a power basketball conference without a single marketing campaign, a silly hashtag, or constant pouting in media interviews demanding that we should belong with the big boys because we want to. She wonderfully allows our programs' successes on the court to do all the talking for us, without unnecessarily hosting a comical annual clam bake. She also doesn't torpedo our future exposure and viewership by relegating a mass amount of contests to a streaming platform for pennies on the dollar.

Cannot wait to see what our next TV deal ends up looking like.

A very important point and contribution to this thread. We'll know better where we stand in the world when the new package makes its way into a press release. I think it is reasonable to expect good news.

Otherwise, what will this board come to look like and how will UCONN fans interact here, beyond the good fans that are here now? In the times that I've visited UCONN Boneyard, especially more recently (I haven't gone there too often, but often enough and as recently as today, in order to make a fair post here), it seems that there is legitimate excitement, for the most part, about leaving the AAC and joining the BE for basketball. When the conversation is about basketball, it's perceived to be a good to great move; I'm not interested in UCONN football, as is about no one else.

When you shift the focus to UCONN fans' perceptions about joining the BE and whether or not UCONN will find the conference to be competitive or believe that they'll steamroll it, you seem to get a mixed bag. Imagine an old school BE UCONN fan, watching the Huskies run into the Providence buzzsaw of last year. There is a thread about season ticket sales, which is certainly positive for UCONN and mostly positive for the BE, except one guy chimes in with "so people are going to show up to see Creighton".

The Holy Land has been an enjoyable site. We now officially have a new resident in our beautiful condo tower. Wild noise and parties out the patio doors moving forward or continued civility - it's all relative; as these things go - but with more people in the place? Standby. We'll see.

[sju88grad]

Thought I'd give our new Husky fans a bit of a quick tutorial on the new conference, and how it's changed since the last time your were with us. In no particular order, just some basic observations:

- The conference is BB 24/7/365. The way it should be.
- Fox Sports coverage is terrific. Rob Stone, Lavin, Jimmy Jackson, Casey Jacobson, D. Marshall and of course Gus and Raff. Excellent production value and high def for 90% of all BE games. Can't beat it!
- You'll see your ESPN coverage drop considerably. They promote their own assets only. Only way to overcome that is to make sure they can't ignore us by the play on the court.
- This nBE has adopted an "us against the world" mentality, or more aptly us against the Football P5. The old vitriole of the former BE conference was left at the door and we all genuinely pull for each other OOC. I know I didn't do that for Cuse back when. But it's actually nice. Come tourney time you will see this board rally behind any teams left playing. Even the fans have adopted the we are family approach.
- I think the coaches really set the tone for that Brothers in Arms mentality. The ones that have been around a while (JW, Cooley, Big Mac, Willard) genuinely seem to like each other. That's also kind of nice.
- The new programs--X, Butler and Creighton--are GREAT additions. All 3 programs and fan bases bleed college hoops. The 3 home courts they offer are probably the 3 best in the conference; no lie. Hinkle--iconic/Hooisers. A Saturday afternoon away game there, with the sunlight streaming in through those windows, is about a cool as it comes. Cintas is a really tough place to play; very passionate fans. And the hidden gem is in Omaha (I'll give you time to get look it up on Google Maps, as we all did when they joined). Omaha loves their Jays and they pack that place with close to 20K every night. Hope you don't play your away game there during $1 beer nights. Don't expect to come in and just dominate these programs. They're really good and have been consistently so.
- SHU and PC aren't what you remember them to be. Both still play that hard nosed, northeast, physical BE style of play. But their talent levels have increased significantly. They have had some great talents playing for them for the past 6 years. The new conference re-energized them both. Tough, tough outs.
- Wish I could say the same for G'town… hoping they can figure things out but they've probably been the biggest disappointment over the past 6 years. Just can't get things going. Same with SJU and Marq. to a lesser degree. DePaul has been...well, DePaul.
- Jay Wright gets every call in the books and is a key reason why we've had so much success in conference. I say that with a large scooping of hyperbole but refs seem to give Jay all the calls according to many, and it has less to do with his ability to coach up his team.
- Stever20 is an AAC fan. That's fine. But he is good for some ridiculous statements that can be easily disproved by actual data, etc. As a point of reference, UConn was one the reasons that the AAC was a legit conference, until you guys decided to come home. Now...no big loss over there.
- Fieldhouse Flyer so desperately wants to be part of this great new college BB experiment that we call the BE. He's a good poster albeit provides War & Peace-like submissions. He just wants an invite to the party someday...
- The SJU fans are great because they fight with themselves as often as they fight with other fan bases. Gotta love NYers. It's "must see" HLOH posts if things start going south for them.
- I predict a lot of dust-ups between Husky and X fans--both seem to be cut from the same cloth in many ways. Bothvery passionate about their squads.
- The BET is still the BET. It's the best conference tourney in the land (as you remember). Even the early rounds are highly attended. But Saturday night in the Big Apple, in a packed and raucous MSG for the finals, is about as good as it gets. Interestingly none of the newer additions have been able to capture a BET Title yet. Just the old guard to this point--PC, Nova and SHU.

If anyone else wants to add to this list, have at it.

Fantastic summary Gumby!!....agree with everything and can’t think of anything you missed.....glad UConn is back...I need a villain!!!

I got a kick out of the comment on SJU fans.....I really hope we’re on our way to years of “kumbaya”....we’ve suffered long enough....

[adoraz]

I agree with all the posts on the last couple pages.

The point about St. John's is very fair, but we have had a really rough time. Basically our expectations have been escalated each year and then crushed. Probably more than any other team in the country since 2013.

First couple realigned Big East years (with Lavin): super high expectations due to high ranking recruits who were then juniors/seniors. Senior/final year started strong (we were ranked around #17 by January), and then by the Tournament CO tested positive for weed and we got blown out first round. Only got 1 bid and no wins from that 4 year cycle.

Last 3 years: we had very strong OOC resumes (11-2, 12-1 and 11-2 with wins over Duke, Arizona, WVU, VCU, etc) and then tanked in Big East play (4-14, 8-10 and 5-13) with only 1 First Four exit to show for it.

Go back 20 years and tell our fan base we'd have no Tournament wins despite being ranked plenty of times throughout the regular seasons. If someone told me that now about the next 20 years I'd take 20 years off from college basketball lol. We have had some great wins over the past 5 years, but overall it's been rough.

Anyways, hopefully next year is different. CMA seems like a pretty good coach. Our fan base does have a lot of characters and even the topic of UConn is hotly debated. Personally though I'm glad they're coming back.

[trephin]

SJU has had a bad run and has had some seriously low moments. Having acknowleded that, no SJU fan is asking for sympathy. I'm very high on Anderson. I think he lays the groundwork for getting this program back where we think it belongs.

I'm glad UConn is back for the conference. They make the conference better from perceived prestige and quality. I expect them to be contenders in no time. Make no mistake however, for the fans, UConn and Hurley gives the conference a villain to root against that wasn't needed or present since 2013. We can root for them OOC but i think they are going to be the black hats.

[X-man]

Someone ought to send this picture to Lunardi. He still has UConn in the AAAACCCC in his June Bracketology. I suppose he does that so he doesn't have a prediction showing only one AAAAAAAAAAAAACCC team in his bracket given ESPN's broadcast contract with that league, and he can have the Big East with four instead of five teams. Of course the league will top even five teams if history tells us anything.

[redmen9194]

What UConn fans should really know is that all the predictions of failure for the Big East in it's current version - many coming from the UConn faithful - were not only false but proved to be laughable.

1.) Big East won't get a compeitive TV contract - especially without ESPN. This was false from day one. Under the old ESPN ontract with the football schools, the non-football schools took in around $1.7 million. Now we get $4 million from Fox. Also, the coverage is better. Every conference game is on TV. Every single one - no paywall. And most ofthe non-conference games are on TV as well. DePaul has more games on national TV than Duke. Fox gives a priority to the Big East. And they reference the Big East in their other showings. When Fox covered the World Series with the San Francisco Giants winning, they were interviewing Joe Panik the Giants rookie starting second basement at the time. The info bar below said - Panik is first player from St. John's University to win World Series since Frank Viola. Other than St. John's fans and NYC baseball fans, who cared about that stat? Doesn't matter - Fox is all in for the Big East and the announcers are 100 times better than what’s on ESPN

2.) Big East won't be competitve with the P5. This is really wrong. Let's put aside the HUGE fact that Villanova has won two National Championships beating a host of P5 blue bloods along the way. The rest of the league has done well against what we call the Football 5. The league has a winning reacord against every P5 league. Even teams that have struggled in Big East play have done well out of conference. The league is generally in the top three each year in whatever metric you want to use to measure a conference. We get about half our teams in the NCAA and even with teams like St. John's and Georgetown having struggled a bit, every single team in the league has been to the NCAA tourny and has been ranked in the top 25 except DePaul. That's pretty good for what was derided as a CYO league.

3.) The Big East won't be able to keep the ACC or Big Ten from kicking them out of the Garden for conference tournaments. This was based on the assumption that the Big East would not be able to fill the setas during the Big East Tournament. Big worng here. The Big East has been the best attended conferce tournament in the nation the last few years. Just about every session is a sellout. UConn won't increase attendace at the tourny because it's tough to beat a sell-out. They will definitely make tickets harder to get because they will absoutley be showing up. Both the ACC and the Big Ten went to the Garden about bringing their tournies to there during Championship week and both were told no. Then the greatest commissioner in conference history besides Gavitt himself negotaited an extention with the Garden that shut everyone out for many years to come. We are going nowhere.

The Big East is the same as the one you left as well. It's gritty, it's rough, it's very entertaining, and it's fans love basketball. It still Us against the World and we'll put our money on us every game. You can't play football at the Garden, or at Hinkle, or at Cintas, or at the Dunk - so why even bother. See you soon in New York UConn....GO BIG EAST!

[GumbyDamnit!]

What UConn fans should really know is that all the predictions of failure for the Big East in it's current version - many coming from the UConn faithful - were not only false but proved to be laughable.

1.) Big East won't get a compeitive TV contract - especially without ESPN. This was false from day one. Under the old ESPN ontract with thefootball schools, the non-football schools took in around $1.7 million. Now we get $4 million from Fox. Also, the coverage is better. Every confernce game is on TV. Every single one - no paywall. And most ofthe non-confernce games are on TV as well. DePaul has more games on national TV than Duke. Fox gives a priority to the Big East. And they reference the Big East in there other showings. When Fox covered the World Series with the San Francisco Giants winning, they were interviewing Joe Panik the Giants rookie starting second basement at the time. The info bar below said - Panik is first player from St. John's UNiversity to win World Series since Frank Viola. Other than St. John's fans and NYC baseball fans, who cared about that stat? Doesn't matter - Fox is all in for the Big East and the announcers are 100 times better than whats on ESPN

2.) Big East won't be competitve with the P5. This is really wrong. Let's put aside the HUGE fact that Villanova has won two National Championships beating a host of P5 blue bloods along the way. The rest of the league has done well against what we call the Football 5. The league has a winning reacord against every P5 league. Even teams that have struggled in Big East play have done well out of conference. The league is generally in the top three each year in whatever metric you want to use to measure a conference. We get about half our teams in teh NCAA and even with teams liek St. John's and Georgetown having struggled a bit, every single team in the league has been to the NCAA tourny and has been ranked inthe top 25 except DePaul. That's pretty good for what was derided as a CYO league.

3.) The Big East won't be able to keep the ACC or Big Ten from kicking them out of the Garden for conference tournaments. This was based on the assumption that the Big East would not be able to fill the setas during the Big East Tournament. Big worng here. The Big East has been the n=best attended conferce tournament inthe nation the last few years. Just about every session is a sellout. UConn won't increase attendace at the tourny because it's tough to beat a sell-out. They will definately make tickets harder to get because they will absoutley be showing up. Both the ACC and the Big Ten went to the Garden about bringing their tournies to there during Championship week and both were told no. Then the greatest commisioner in conference history besides Gavitt himself negotaited an extention with the Garden that shut everyone out for many years to come. We are going nowhere.

The Big East is the same as the one you left as well. It's gritty, it's rough, it's very entertaining, and it's fans love basketball. It still Us against the World and we'll put our money on us every game. You can't play football at the Garden, or at Hinkle, or at Cintas, or at the Dunk - so why even bother. See you soon in New York UConn....GO BIG EAST!

A+ post RM9194.

[GoldenWarrior11]

You can devote an entire thread to predictions from the AAC faithful about not only would the AAC be a superior league, but also that the Big East would essentially transformed to another version of the A10. Off the top of my head, I can recall: "the CYO league", "Little Sisters of the Poor Conference", "No one wants to play at tiny Catholic schools for basketball", "No one wants to watch tiny Catholic schools play basketball", "No one watches Fox Sports", "Teams without ESPN exposure are doomed", yadda, yadda, yadda. What was even more hilarious over the years is that, despite the clear success of the league (on and off the court), the successes would be marginalized in incredibly-denied ways: "Total number of bids doesn't matter, what matters is seeds", "Seeds don't matter, it is the number of bids (huh?)", "Only Villanova won a national championship - they won't do it again", "Villanova has won two, but they will never win a third", "No other team has a deep run", "Other than Villanova/Xavier, no team has had a team run", "BE doesn't recruit the 5* prospects", "DePaul hasn't made a tournament in forever! It doesn't matter that every other program has made the tournament!", "They might get high attendance, but no one watches Fox Sports! No one cares about the BE!", "Big East fans are like Fox News, they only care about their opinions, it's what's wrong with the world today (or something along those lines)", yadda, yadda, yadda.

The past twelve months have been particularly satisfying, with UConn returning home. A year ago, I remember reading that the AAC was a power conference because it has UConn Basketball (a program with numerous national championships). However, just weeks later, it was announced UConn was leaving the AAC for the Big East - yet, the AAC was not losing much, if any at all, because it could easily just replace UConn with VCU and still be a power conference. Further more, the Big East will continued to be hurt by the round robin and 20-game conference schedules, so it's not a home run addition as many think! Yadda, yadda, yadda.

UConn Fans, perhaps the biggest change in coming home is that this conference will actually root for you to succeed OOC and cheer for you to go far in the tournament as one of us. We recognize and appreciate UConn's standing as an elite-level men's basketball program, and we hope it will continue to push all of our programs to be better. We are all basketball-first schools, and you will never play in empty, cavernous gyms/arenas again, and you will certainly not be smack-talked by any programs in the BE that have not prioritized basketball. Welcome home. Cannot wait for the official announcement on 7/1. It will be a breath of fresh air with all of the other noise we have been going through the past few weeks and months.

[Savannah Jay]

You can devote an entire thread to predictions from the AAC faithful about not only would the AAC be a superior league, but also that the Big East would essentially transformed to another version of the A10. Off the top of my head, I can recall: "the CYO league", "Little Sisters of the Poor Conference", "No one wants to play at tiny Catholic schools for basketball", "No one wants to watch tiny Catholic schools play basketball", "No one watches Fox Sports", "Teams without ESPN exposure are doomed", yadda, yadda, yadda. What was even more hilarious over the years is that, despite the clear success of the league (on and off the court), the successes would be marginalized in incredibly-denied ways: "Total number of bids doesn't matter, what matters is seeds", "Seeds don't matter, it is the number of bids (huh?)", "Only Villanova won a national championship - they won't do it again", "Villanova has won two, but they will never win a third", "No other team has a deep run", "Other than Villanova/Xavier, no team has had a team run", "BE doesn't recruit the 5* prospects", "DePaul hasn't made a tournament in forever! It doesn't matter that every other program has made the tournament!", "They might get high attendance, but no one watches Fox Sports! No one cares about the BE!", "Big East fans are like Fox News, they only care about their opinions, it's what's wrong with the world today (or something along those lines)", yadda, yadda, yadda.

The past twelve months have been particularly satisfying, with UConn returning home. A year ago, I remember reading that the AAC was a power conference because it has UConn Basketball (a program with numerous national championships). However, just weeks later, it was announced UConn was leaving the AAC for the Big East - yet, the AAC was not losing much, if any at all, because it could easily just replace UConn with VCU and still be a power conference. Further more, the Big East will continued to be hurt by the round robin and 20-game conference schedules, so it's not a home run addition as many think! Yadda, yadda, yadda.

UConn Fans, perhaps the biggest change in coming home is that this conference will actually root for you to succeed OOC and cheer for you to go far in the tournament as one of us. We recognize and appreciate UConn's standing as an elite-level men's basketball program, and we hope it will continue to push all of our programs to be better. We are all basketball-first schools, and you will never play in empty, cavernous gyms/arenas again, and you will certainly not be smack-talked by any programs in the BE that have not prioritized basketball. Welcome home. Cannot wait for the official announcement on 7/1. It will be a breath of fresh air with all of the other noise we have been going through the past few weeks and months.

Feelin' a little salty today...

And one particular AAC school, a former conference mate that shall remain nameless (okay, it's the Turds), had fans proclaim that Creighton was signing it's athletic death warrant and we would become the new DePaul (sorry Demons...they said it, not me).

But the AAC still has East Carolina. AARRGGH.

[gtmoBlue]

Very nice post GW11, very nice indeed.

Not your usual stuff. A well reasoned, measured, and acccurate assessment and it laid out the red carpet in a smooth manner.
Yeah, welcome back UConn. While I don't envision you blazing into the conference this season, with a couple more years of good
recruiting you should be back in the mix in the BE. Welcome home.