THE BIG EAST CONFERENCE

[bonarae]

They will plan to add a few more schools.... to make it to 10.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... -7-10-days

[EPJr]

They will plan to add a few more schools.... to make it to 10.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... -7-10-days

...but FOX Sports want 12; so don't be surprised at 12 eventually

[bluehenbillk]

The Catholic 7 again didn't fare very well this week...Georgetown is the sole team that made the Big East semis.

[GannonFan]

The Catholic 7 again didn't fare very well this week...Georgetown is the sole team that made the Big East semis.

And hence the biggest problem the Catholic 7 will have - even adding Butler into the mix still leaves them several good teams short of what they used to have. There's plenty of dead weight in the Catholic 7.

[Seahawks08]

There's plenty of dead weight in the Catholic 7.

And that's unique?

[GannonFan]

There's plenty of dead weight in the Catholic 7.

And that's unique?

Having dead weight and not having the deep pockets of football to bail you out is a unique situation for any conference that aspires for elite status.

[Seahawks08]

Pretty sure you don't need the deep pockets of football to become elite. All they have to do is get 5-6 teams into the NCAA tournament consistently and it's done. Plus, who watched Big East football to begin with?

[GannonFan]

Pretty sure you don't need the deep pockets of football to become elite. All they have to do is get 5-6 teams into the NCAA tournament consistently and it's done. Plus, who watched Big East football to begin with?

Then why hasn't it happened before? Show me the mid major conference, without football, that has been elite year after year. For some reason, it hasn't happened, and the lack of football dollars is certainly one very big reason.

[UNI88]

Pretty sure you don't need the deep pockets of football to become elite. All they have to do is get 5-6 teams into the NCAA tournament consistently and it's done. Plus, who watched Big East football to begin with?

Then why hasn't it happened before? Show me the mid major conference, without football, that has been elite year after year. For some reason, it hasn't happened, and the lack of football dollars is certainly one very big reason.

I agree with you that football dollars are a big plus for a major conference but I'm not sure it matters for a mid-major conference or that it is a negative factor for an individual school. IMO, part of the reason that Creighton and Wichita State are successful in basketball is that they don't have football and can concentrate their athletic dollars and efforts on basketball.

[EPJr]

It's Official!

New Big East adds three, seals deal with Fox

The "Catholic 7" has grown to the Catholic 10. And Wednesday, they took a major step toward officially becoming the Big East.

As expected, the seven non-football schools that announced a breakaway from the Big East in December officially added Xavier, Butler and Creighton, and celebrated a new media rights deal with Fox during a news conference at News Corp.'s headquarters in New York.

The league, which will keep the Big East name after a negotiation with the football schools, begins play with a 10-team lineup in 2013-14. The league is expected to grow to 12, perhaps as early as 2014-15. The league also will continue to call Madison Square Garden in New York the home for its men's basketball tournament.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/co ... t/2002227/

[dbackjon]

Atlantic 10 just took a huge hit.

[CoachL]

"The 'Catholic 7' has grown to the Catholic 10."



Well, technically that should read:

The "Catholic 7" has grown to the "Catholic 9 + 1"

(since Butler is not a Catholic institution)

But hey...

It's a good move for Butler anyway.

[GannonFan]

This is almost like football recruiting when judging a college's high school recruiting class. You can't really tell how good of a group it is until a few years later when most of them are finally seeing (or not seeing) the field. This group might be able to hang on as an elite conference, and there's a chance they could fall back to being a really good mid major conference that doesn't want to be called mid major. Time will tell.

[EPJr]

Big East Conference,
FOX reach rights agreement


The agreement grants FOX Sports rights to all conference-controlled men’s basketball games, select rights to women’s basketball, all Olympic sports and extensive rights for highlights and to produce ancillary programming.

FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports’ newly minted national multi-sport channel which launches this summer, is slated to televise over 100 men’s regular-season basketball games next season. The network is also scheduled to carry the entire Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament each season, live from Madison Square Garden in New York City, the tournament’s home since 1983, and the longest-running conference tournament played at one venue.

Also included in the agreement is a full array of “TV Everywhere” rights which adds to the robust content already available on FOXSports.com, one of the nation’s leading sports Internet sites and FOX Sports GO, a groundbreaking mobile sports experience for iPhone, iPad and Android devices launching this August in conjunction with FS1. FOX Sports Go offers more than 1,000 live games and events from across FOX Sports, FS1 and FOX Sports’ 22 regional sports networks, as well as scores, highlights, news, stats, and analysis. Live games and events are available to subscribers of participating cable, satellite, and telco providers at no additional cost.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketb ... ent-032013

[clenz]

Atlantic 10 just took a huge hit.

Here it's top hoping slu or dayton see that and join the mvc

Sent from the nexus of the universe

[tribe_pride]

Atlantic 10 just took a huge hit.

Here it's top hoping slu or dayton see that and join the mvc

Sent from the nexus of the universe

Rumor has it that those are the next 2 in line for invites to the Big East (Catholic 10) so assume they'd wait for that if it happens relatively soon.

[EPJr]

Here it's top hoping slu or dayton see that and join the mvc

Sent from the nexus of the universe

Rumor has it that those are the next 2 in line for invites to the Big East (Catholic 10) so assume they'd wait for that if it happens relatively soon.

next year (apparently there is an "under the table agreement" between the A10 and nBE to not take four this year to allow the A-10 time to regroup).
The two main BB conferences did not want any bad blood between them.

[EPJr]

The athletic directors intend to hold weekly conference calls. In addition, each athletic director has been made a liaison for an individual sport. Rasmussen is the liaison for men's and women's tennis.

The A.D.s will also hold conference calls with coaches in their individual sports in an attempt to get input on issues that need to be addressed.

Complicating matters is the fact that the league has not hired a commissioner, that process might not be completed for another month. There is no league office, no constitution or bylaws.

One of the most pressing issues is to finalize schedules for sports that will compete in the fall. Hopefully that could be done by the start of May, but other issues, such as where to play conference tournaments, also must be decided.

“This first year, to simplify things, we might hold championships at conference sites. “That's not to say down the road we might move away from campus sites, but we have so many questions that it might be simpler to say let's go to DePaul with women's basketball and let their administration handle that.

“It might be easier to do that than to try to have a neutral-site conference tournament when we don't even have a conference office yet. We not only don't have a commissioner, but we don't have a staff. We don't have a location for the office.”


“We're all private schools, so you find that there is some commonality. “There are differences — we have some schools that sponsor 14 sports while some sponsor 20.

“For now, we've generated a to-do list and come up with an idea of who's going to do it. If nothing else, we have a lot better structure and foundation to get things done than before we met.”


http://www.omaha.com/article/20130409/B ... -remaining" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EPJr]

DePaul president:
All-Catholic conference 'never part of the plan'


While the presidents negotiated the terms of their departure, fan and media speculation pondered whether the Catholic 7 would seek other like-faith schools to join them in an all-Catholic conference. Holtschneider told NCR that was never the case.

"Never," he said. "That was never part of the intentionality of the group. It was never part of the plan."

Holtschneider and other presidents smiled when they first heard the Catholic 7 moniker, and he admitted his relief that no one tagged them the "CYO League." But when asked if the presidents weighed the pros and cons of an all-Catholic league, he said it never entered the discussion

http://ncronline.org/news/people/depaul ... -part-plan

[EPJr]

Marquette AD Larry Williams:
Big East aiming to have commissioner within six weeks

Besides the search for a commissioner, Williams mentioned other aspects of the reinvention and rebranding of the new Big East:

♦ Big East Conference offices currently are located in Providence, R.I. Some of that staff will come over to the new Big East. But Williams said the long-term, permanent location of the league office will be another city, perhaps New York.

Other cities – Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. – are possibilities. Chicago will get some consideration. The new commissioner will have a say in where the permanent office is located.

"From a practicality standpoint, we just need it in a location that’s easily accessed by airports and trains," Williams said. "New York makes some sense relative to its ease of entry. But it’s expensive. So we are thinking do you just have kind of a beach head in New York. But the reality is so much work can get done in New York."

♦ Getting referees in place for the men’s basketball season is a high priority.


♦ The conference schedule in men’s basketball likely will be a round robin, giving each team 18 conference games.

♦ Williams said discussions between Fox Sports and the new league continue about what regular nights, if any, are the ideal ones to play games.

♦ The presidents of the new league have adopted a set of bylaws "just a few days ago, and we are comfortable with those."

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/202758081.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EPJr]

The Fox Sports 1 Plan:
Bundle Broadcast Rights Deals,
Make Pay TV Customers Foot The Bill


The two national Fox Sports networks should successfully shift the costs of all those sports contracts — including one deal for a game on their over-the-air network — onto every pay TV subscriber in America.

This new national network is more, though, than just a simple money grab. Fox has one reason for thrusting a national sports channel on us now: to consolidate all of its non-NFL sports properties and shift the costs of all those contracts — including that shiny new 12-year, $500 million deal with the reconfigured Big East — to consumers.

http://www.whatyoupayforsports.com/2013 ... ts-1-plan/

[EPJr]

New Big East Commissioner to be Named this Week

The new Big East is still rounding into form, but it is getting closer to becoming a fully functioning body. We know the teams (there are ten of them), the conference has a TV contract (Fox Sports), and we know the conference tournament will remain at the legendary Madison Square Garden in March, but now this whole operation just needs a commissioner.

That should be settled this week.


http://playforthegarden.com/2013/04/29/ ... this-week/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EPJr]

John Cahill to supervise officials



The supervisor of officials for the “new” Big East Conference, which will be officially recognized by the NCAA on August 1, will be a face familiar to many fans who have followed the holdovers for years.

That person would be John Cahill, who makes the move from the floor after forty years as a game official. Cahill’s final game was this year’s national title game between Louisville and Michigan, and in the story by Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times-Union Cahill stated that initially had second thoughts in regards to his decision to retire.

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports. ... -big-east/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EPJr]

NCAA Division I Board recognizes New Big East as a conference


Another significant hurdle was cleared on Thursday, when the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors met and officially recognized the new Big East Conference as a Division I multisport conference, effective on August 1, 2013. The conference, founded by Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall, DePaul, Xavier, Butler and Creighton, will launch for the 2013-14 academic and athletic year.

The Board similarly noted that the current Big East Conference would become the American Athletic Conference ("The American") on July 1, 2013, clearing the way for the new conference to adopt the Big East name. The American will retain the Big East's permanent seat on the Division I Board of Directors and their three votes.

http://www.vuhoops.com/big-east/2013/5/ ... conference" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[EPJr]

St. John's looks like a big fish
in the new Big East Conference


The reconfigured Big East, now with seven teams from the old Big East plus Creighton, Xavier and Butler will begin play in 2013-14. The conference contains some basketball powers, including five N.C.A.A. tournament teams from 2012-13.

St. John's, however, hasn't made the tournament since 2010-11, a drought matched only by Seton Hall, DePaul and Providence.

Seton Hall and DePaul look like bottom-feeders for next season as well. Providence should be better, though they lose guard Vincent Council.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/s ... w-big-east