(03-29-2013 10:29 PM)stever20 Wrote:  The problem is that Louisville did more than Providence and Seton Hall did COMBINED. St John's barely resembles the outfit back in the 80's- and is irrelevant today.

To say the Big East next year won't be different means you really lose all creditability. There's no way it will be the same. I'm sorry but Georgetown/Xavier doesn't mean the same as Georgetown/Syracuse. St John's/Creighton doesn't mean as much as St Johns/UConn has. It just doesn't.

It doesn't now, but it will.

Georgetown/Syracuse didn't mean anything when the conference started either.

What exactly did Louisville do for Big East basketball? The Big East was special before Louisville joined and they continued to be special afterwards with or without Louisville.

As for Louisville doing more than Seton Hall + Providence combined, here's the score card during their time in the Big East:

Big East Competition:
Louisville = 2 regular season championships + 3 tournament titles
SHU + PC = 2 regular season championships + 3 tournament titles

NCAA Competition:
Louisville = 4 Elite 8's + 1 Final Four + 0 NC games
SHU + PC = 4 Elite 8's + 2 Final Fours + 1 NC games

Timing in life is everything. Seton Hall's & Providence's contributions in the 1980's & '90's were very important to building the conferences' reputation and the value of its brand. Louisville's contributions in the past 8 years mattered little since the brand was already well established and their were plenty of other conference members having success that the brand didn't depend on them.