With the Big East Conference as we know it all but disintegrating before our eyes, now that Pitt and Syracuse have applied and been granted admission to the ACC Conference, and potentially UConn and Rutgers set to follow suit in coming years, who is to blame for the mass defection out of arguably college basketball’s best conference?
With virtually every current Big East coach chiming in on what the future will bring for the Big East, UConn’s women’s coach Geno Auriemma may have an answer as to the root cause for all of the re-alignment talk.
His answer was very simply, placing the blame on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program for not joining the conference and remaining independent despite the success of it’s hoops program within the Big East.
The Hall of Fame women’s coach went on to claim that if Notre Dame had joined the conference for football as well as basketball, they may have staved off the defections of Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech in recent years and be on the verge of forming their own “superconference” with upwards of 20-24 members.
Here’s Auriemma’s statements:
”They’ve been in our league 17 years, so how long are we going to date before we just decide this ain’t working. And I’m not happy about it.” ”If Notre Dame had come in as a football and basketball school when they came in, we wouldn’t have a problem. Miami wouldn’t have left. Virginia Tech wouldn’t have left. Boston College wouldn’t have left. We probably wouldn’t have any of these issues, would we?” ”We’ve got one school that holds the future of our league in the palm of their hand and they’re not really that concerned about it” ”That’s not the opinion of the University of Connecticut, the Big East Conference. . . . That’s just Geno Auriemma’s opinion.”
The Big East hasn’t exactly set the world on fire in trying to replace Pitt, Syracuse, and especially UConn, the only program in basketball to win 3 National Titles since 1999, by announcing invites to Navy, Boise State, and Air Force in football, and SMU, Houston, and Central Florida in all sports.
In an attempt to make schools change their minds and prevent any further movement, the conference has decided to double it’s exit fees to $10 million($5 million for basketball only schools) and hold steadfast to a rule requiring a minimum of 27 months notice to leave the conference.
While the Big East as we have come to know and love over the past 2 decades will apparently be coming to an end, let’s enjoy the ride over the next 2 seasons and beyond as many top tier hoops programs still reside in the Big East like Louisville, Villanova, and Georgetown.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
