Yahoo Article -Death of Big East tournament? Not so fast!

[ge1974]

Good artice regarding the Big East tournament and its greatness by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaab--death-of-big-east-tournament--not-so-fast-004710289.html

Here is a sample:

Maybe, most of all, the Big East tournament is about the honesty.

This might be the most honest event in college sports. It isn't freshly scrubbed. It isn't pretending to be what it isn't. MSG smells like stale beer. The locker rooms are small, the back hallways crowded and concrete. The crowd isn't particularly collegiate. Almost everyone and everything is tied to a city, not some bucolic campus. It isn't trying to be cute. This is basketball.

[CaribouJim]

My favorite part:

Almost everyone and everything is tied to a city, not some bucolic campus. It isn't trying to be cute. This is basketball.

Great recruiting line - I hope and trust that the marketers of the new league play up the urban-ness of it.

[MayorBeluga]

Great column. It tells the story of how incredible the BET is. If you've ever been there, you understand. If you haven't, it's hard to explain.

This is all the more reason to for members of this board to plan on attending the first year of the new Big East in 2014. Well, that and to watch IWB buy multiple rounds.

[TulsaWarrior]

The demise of the old BE in the past years has left me bitter. The targets -- BE Commissioner's office, the President of Pitt, the President of Syracuse and ESPN. The BE Commissioner's office was asleep at the wheel. Those school presidents were looking at dollars rather than student/athletes and ESPN as the mobster would say "this is strictly business."

The good news is the C7 (can't lose that name) have regrouped and with quality coaches at all the schools, an innovative TV partner and quality marketing this will surprise the sports world. It is a bold move.

[MUMac]

The demise of the old BE in the past years has left me bitter. The targets -- BE Commissioner's office, the President of Pitt, the President of Syracuse and ESPN. The BE Commissioner's office was asleep at the wheel. Those school presidents were looking at dollars rather than student/athletes and ESPN as the mobster would say "this is strictly business."

The good news is the C7 (can't lose that name) have regrouped and with quality coaches at all the schools, an innovative TV partner and quality marketing this will surprise the sports world. It is a bold move.

I have moved on. Disappointed, but looking toward the future with the new league. That is why I am happy it starts next year.

[MUfan12]

Great recruiting line - I hope and trust that the marketers of the new league play up the urban-ness of it.

I hope so too, but for very different reasons. I like it mainly because the more urban it gets, the more uncomfortable UW fans get. Fun to watch the swing supremacists squirm.

[BLT]

I have moved on. Disappointed, but looking toward the future with the new league. That is why I am happy it starts next year.

+1. The conference's instability was a constant distraction not just to athletics but to the universities as a whole, with resources. The member schools are partnered around common interests and made a better media deal for themselves. It is also great they kept the name and the history of the Big East, keeping it basic to the original roots/vision.

[TheSultan]

The demise of the old BE in the past years has left me bitter. The targets -- BE Commissioner's office, the President of Pitt, the President of Syracuse and ESPN. The BE Commissioner's office was asleep at the wheel. Those school presidents were looking at dollars rather than student/athletes and ESPN as the mobster would say "this is strictly business."

The good news is the C7 (can't lose that name) have regrouped and with quality coaches at all the schools, an innovative TV partner and quality marketing this will surprise the sports world. It is a bold move.


You can either look in the past and lament that it is not what the future is going to be...or you can be grateful that MU got itself into the best possible situation it could given all that has occurred in college athletics.

And let me emphasize that...this is *the best situation* that MU had available.

[CaribouJim]

You can either look in the past and lament that it is not what the future is going to be...or you can be grateful that MU got itself into the best possible situation it could given all that has occurred in college athletics.

And let me emphasize that...this is *the best situation* that MU had available.

You can argue that MU has got us the "best situation available" post the Midwest Collegiate Conference. The Big East being the zenith in quality and the new Big East will have the TBD status for the short term, but might be the most satisfying when all is said and done.