Non-Big East Conference Realignment Thread v. 2017

[billyjack]

With Notre Dame... are Big East Olympics sports really that bad? In soccer we're in the Top-3. In lacrosse we had a national champion. Before joining the BE in the mid-90's, Notre Dame had its Olympic sports in the Horizon League.

Unless it was gaining access to the auto-ACC Orange Bowl or something?

[Bluejay]

I've always been curious, why didn't Notre Dame stay in the Big East and join their fellow Catholic universities? I know they have football, but their football team doesn't count in ACC standings. Their football team would have been able to keep those long standing rivalries instead of being forced to play ACC competition. I assume the ACC offered more money?

Notre Dame joined the ACC solely because of football bowl tie-ins. Without joining a conference they would have been shut out of the most lucrative bowl games. If they had still been eligible for all bowl games without joining a conference, ND would still be independent.

[trephin]

With Notre Dame... are Big East Olympics sports really that bad? In soccer we're in the Top-3. In lacrosse we had a national champion. Before joining the BE in the mid-90's, Notre Dame had its Olympic sports in the Horizon League.

Unless it was gaining access to the auto-ACC Orange Bowl or something?

LAX never would be a deciding factor but at the time Denver was not on board and even with Denver, the ACC remains the premier Lacrosse conference. And that was without Syracuse. I can't recall if Syracuse was committed to the ACC before ND.

At the time, I think ND was looking out for itself and considers the ACC superior both academically and athletically even more so at the time when the future was uncertain with the Big East and the basketball schools.

Bowl tie-ins were likely the important and likely key reason. Football scheduling wasn't one of them. ND can basically schedule whomever they want.

[Bill Marsh]

Just curious, so finishing 6th three years running in the AAC isn't considered "down years"? I would think given Uconn's previous standards that it would be.

Nope. Not when they went to the conference tournament finals 3 years in a row, won the NC the first of those 3 years and won the conference championship the 3rd of those 3 years.

You're exaggerating UConn's "previous standards". Calhoun's final years included the following:

2007 - (17-14) - 12th in Big East - no postseason
2010 - (18-16) - 11th tie in Big East - no NCAA tournament (NIT)
2012 - (20-14) - 9th tie in Big East - eliminated in 1st round of tournament
2013 - ineligible for both conference & NCAA tournaments in Ollie's 1st season due to Calhoun era violations.

[EMT]

UConn fans on Ollie the last ten days. Bill Marsh should head over to the Bonyard and cheer those guys up.

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/ad-dav ... ie.107946/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/play-f ... no.108090/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/hot-seat-yet.108031/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/next-y ... or.108015/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/do-est ... es.107855/

[Bill Marsh]

Are any of these school relevant in 20 years?

UConn has to see if they can succeed in the AAC in a post Calhoun era.

It's been 5 years since Calhoun retired. How long does it take to see if they can be successful without him? One down year with a bunch of injuries means we're now questioning the entire program? Seriously?

Go over to the Boneyard where there are multiple threads looking for Ollie's head on a platter and see if they are happy. They expected to be dominating the AAC and getting top seeds in the NCAAs. They consider themselves in the same class as Duke/UNC/Kansas. Would those schools accept these recent results?

Who cares what SOME fans say over at the Boneyard. Lots of fans are insane. They go in whatever direction the wind blows. One of the dumbest things for any organization is to panic. Firing the coach reeks of instability. Programs that have gone that route have typically not found that to be the answer.

It's tough to follow a legend. Check UCLA after Wooden. Firing coaches didn't bring back the Wooden years. Same thing after Dean Smith at Carolina. Same thing at Indiana after Knight. Ollie has done a superb job. Firing him would be an awful mistake.

Would these schools accept the fecent results? What recent results?

2013 - (20-10) - ineligible for postseason due to Calhoun era infractions
2014 - (32-8) - National Champions
2015 - (20-15) - AAC tournament runner up, NIT
2016 - (25-11) - AAC conference champions, won 1st round game in NCAA's before losing to 1-seed Kansas
2017 - (16-17) - 5th tie in AAC, injuries derailed season after bringing in top 10 recruiting class

Exactly what is it that UConn fans have had to suffer through?

[Bill Marsh]

I've always been curious, why didn't Notre Dame stay in the Big East and join their fellow Catholic universities? I know they have football, but their football team doesn't count in ACC standings. Their football team would have been able to keep those long standing rivalries instead of being forced to play ACC competition. I assume the ACC offered more money?

I think it came down to getting their Olympic sports in a major conference for those sports had a factor as well as an ease in football scheduling.

It also had to do with getting bowl tie ins and scheduling commitments for their football schedule.

[Bill Marsh]

UConn fans on Ollie the last ten days. Bill Marsh should head over to the Bonyard and cheer those guys up.

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/ad-dav ... ie.107946/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/play-f ... no.108090/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/hot-seat-yet.108031/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/next-y ... or.108015/

https://the-boneyard.com/threads/do-est ... es.107855/

What do you expect?

[Westbrook#36]

Just curious, so finishing 6th three years running in the AAC isn't considered "down years"? I would think given Uconn's previous standards that it would be.

Nope. Not when they went to the conference tournament finals 3 years in a row(2 of which were in Hartford), won the NC the first of those 3 years and won the conference championship the 3rd of those 3 years.

You're exaggerating UConn's "previous standards". Calhoun's final years included the following:

2007 - (17-14) - 12th in Big East - no postseason
2010 - (18-16) - 11th tie in Big East - no NCAA tournament (NIT)
2012 - (20-14) - 9th tie in Big East - eliminated in 1st round of tournament
2013 - ineligible for both conference & NCAA tournaments in Ollie's 1st season due to Calhoun era violations.

Agree to disagree, vehemently.

[Bill Marsh]

Just curious, so finishing 6th three years running in the AAC isn't considered "down years"? I would think given Uconn's previous standards that it would be.

Nope. Not when they went to the conference tournament finals 3 years in a row(2 of which were in Hartford), won the NC the first of those 3 years and won the conference championship the 3rd of those 3 years.

You're exaggerating UConn's "previous standards". Calhoun's final years included the following:

2007 - (17-14) - 12th in Big East - no postseason
2010 - (18-16) - 11th tie in Big East - no NCAA tournament (NIT)
2012 - (20-14) - 9th tie in Big East - eliminated in 1st round of tournament
2013 - ineligible for both conference & NCAA tournaments in Ollie's 1st season due to Calhoun era violations.

Agree to disagree, vehemently.

What are you disagreeing with? The facts that I posted?