Potential divisional lineup in revamped Big East

[Mark Miller]

Mike Aresco appears to be very open to the idea of splitting the Big East basketball into two divisions for basketball with one division loaded with traditional powers.

A league setup that could potentially look like the following would be awesome. You play each team in your division twice and 4 teams from the other division once for an 18-game schedule. You have two division champions each year and then the big tournament at MSG to conclude the year.

Coming up with what to name each division would be a bit of a challenge. Something better than Leaders and Legends, hopefully.

Division
Marquette
St. John's
Georgetown
Villanova
Temple
Memphis
Cincinnati
UConn

Division
South Florida
Central Florida
De Paul
Seton Hall
Providence
Houston
SMU
Tulane

[BLT]

Those are a bit unbalanced in terms of competition for basketball. BE soccer already has a two division break named Blue and Red for Men and American and National for the Women. Why different? Who knows...

[kneelb4zerg]

Those are a bit unbalanced in terms of competition for basketball. BE soccer already has a two division break named Blue and Red for Men and American and National for the Women. Why different? Who knows...


Isn't that the whole point? Why punish the good basketball schools for being stuck in a conference with football schools that stink at basketball (and also DePaul).

[IWB]

Well, here is the only problem I see.... for TV and competition purposes it looks great, but with the NCAAs, if you consistently get 8 teams in the tourney, they won't be from one division - you will likely be trading 3-4 of your better teams for 3-4 of your lesser teams.

[Phantom Warrior]

Providence and Seton Hall would definitely rebel at this particular breakdown, and maybe DePaul as well, but I doubt anyone cares what DePaul would think/feel.

I would guess that it would be the seven present BE basketball schools along with either Temple or Memphis, probably the former.

That would piss off Memphis, but they'd be compensated by playing four of the best programs from the other division - certainly MU due to past affiliations along with GTown, Nova, and maybe St. John's.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

How about 4 divisions of 4 teams each? You play all of your division mates in home and homes, and each of the other teams once. Still comes to 18 games and focuses on rivalries. You can power pack it a bit for the heavy-hitters, but without completely punishing the new guys.

Division A

Cincinnati
Connecticut
Georgetown
Villanova

Division B

Providence
Seton Hall
St. John's
Temple

Division C

DePaul
Marquette
Memphis
Tulane

Division D

Central Florida
Houston
SMU
South Florida

I know it's not perfect, for me Tulane was really the outlier that I didn't know where to put. I wanted Cincy in the Division C, but tried to keep it somewhat sensible geographically and wanted to also keep the Florida and Texas schools together to foster rivalries. At least Tulane was with us back in C-USA. Alternately, Marquette or Memphis could be exchanged with Cincy.

[Goose85]

I prefer this idea of four divisions actually. I'm sure there would be some mixing and matching of teams (tv make dicate some of that).

It would then be easy to seed the conference tourney. A1 v. B4, A2 v. B3, A3 v. B2, A4 v B1 - do the same with the C and D divisions.

[Mark Miller]

Actually, I like BrewCity's lineup better, too. Play everybody once and the teams within your division twice for 18 games. I wish Tulane were in a different division, though.

[BLT]

Well, here is the only problem I see.... for TV and competition purposes it looks great, but with the NCAAs, if you consistently get 8 teams in the tourney, they won't be from one division - you will likely be trading 3-4 of your better teams for 3-4 of your lesser teams.

Exactly...I do like Brew's line-up though. Maybe like the NFL, two of those divisions could make a conference as well...and the BE Tournament brackets would be based on those conference seeds so the championship is a NFC/AFC type Super Bowl bracket.

[Goose85]

Actually, I like BrewCity's lineup better, too. Play everybody once and the teams within your division twice for 18 games. I wish Tulane were in a different division, though.

Road games every year in Memphis and New Orleans - I don't mind the thought of that (of course I'd prefer Louisville, but this is what we have to work with).

[TAS35]

Take Brew's 4 division split, move Cincy to C, St.John's to A, S. Fl to B and Tulane to D and you've got it. I like Mark's original 2 division split way better but I don't see how you get enough schools to agree to it.

[MU88]

Who really cares about ticking off the new guys? You need to maximize revenue. MU, DePaul, Georgetown next want to host Tulane, Houston or UCF, if they can help it. Those schools are attendance killers.

I always believed it would be 8-8, with the 7 hoops teams and UConn in one division and the 8 other football teams in the other. Strength is somewhat balanced, with Temple, Memphis and UC in one division. UConn, GT, VU and MU in the other. I would suspect UConn is next to leave, and a bball school would fit nicely in the hoops division.

[MU/Panther]

Well, here is the only problem I see.... for TV and competition purposes it looks great, but with the NCAAs, if you consistently get 8 teams in the tourney, they won't be from one division - you will likely be trading 3-4 of your better teams for 3-4 of your lesser teams.

That is where the RPI and strengh of schedule will come into play.

Example- USF. They had a great Big East record, but lost many games in the non-conference. RPI wasn't to good.

[MU/Panther]

I don't think the "new teams" (Houston, SMU, Tulane, UCF) would be all that upset. They know they are coming in because of football. The new TV deal will bring those schools way more money. They will still play the Big East powers, not in home & home series. Plus, if they are that good they will have their crack at them in the Big East tourney at MSG.