GoldenWarrior11
Heisman
Posts: 5,688
Joined: Jul 2015
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I Root For: Marquette, BE
Location: Chicago
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RE: impact of 10 team CCG rule
(09-19-2019 08:59 AM)stever20 Wrote: (09-19-2019 08:50 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote: (09-19-2019 08:42 AM)stever20 Wrote: (09-19-2019 08:32 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote: The C7 still decides to split, especially after Notre Dame departs. Regardless of the basketball quality that was coming in (even without ECU and Tulane), the new "league" was quickly losing its Northeastern-based presence, which would have radically altered the product. MSG was rumored to be pulling the plug on the contract, due to the abundance of teams that were clearly not going to be filling the arena for the tournament. The biggest push for the C7 leaving was learning that their content was more valuable without the football schools than with, and Fox didn't need more football content for the Winter at that time.
Now, Big East Football (AAC) would definitely look different, except I still think ECU gets added (due to football support) and it ends up leaving Tulsa out in the wind. That would make their league look like UConn, Cincinnati, USF, Houston, UCF, SMU, Memphis, Temple, Navy and ECU. They can still add Wichita State as a non-football member for a ten-team, round-robin, conference. Cincinnati would have been bumped to the West, which would have been interesting.
I don't know that you are right. Going back to after the league had lost Louisville/Rutgers- football had 4 schools(Temple, Cincy, USF, and UConn), along with newbies UCF, Houston, Memphis, and SMU. Navy football only. Might have made more of a push to keep Boise/San Diego State- or add 1 more program....
Just think about this.... how crazy would that league have looked right now?
Temple, Cincy, UCF, Houston, Nova, Marquette, St John's, Seton Hall all made NCAA tourney last year- that's 8 teams
Memphis, Georgetown, Providence made NIT last year
USF and DePaul played in the CBI title series last year
only teams to miss anything- UConn, SMU
If said programs like Houston, UCF, Houston, Memphis and SMU have trouble attending basketball tournaments in Memphis, Orlando and Hartford, how in the world will they "begin" to start attending ones in New York City? Again, there was a reason MSG was close to pulling the plug on the BET. It was only from the C7 splitting that the BE was able to maintain MSG as its tournament site.
I get that you are looking purely on the W/L records in a single season, but the split was rooted much deeper than that. It was cultural, it was institutional, it was geographical and it was based on past performance and support.
But here's what I'm getting at. w/o the adds of Tulane/ECU- there wouldn't have been that flash point.... There was the thought that they would keep on going- but then when Tulane/ECU was added- that was too much.... That was the spark.
The spark was Syracuse and Pittsburgh going to the ACC, that started the Big East, as we then knew it, on a collision course for separation. Maryland and Rutgers getting the invite to the B1G, that led to Notre Dame and Louisville both leaving, was simply the final nail in the coffin.
The C7 didn't leave because of just ECU/Tulane; they left like all the other members left - they found greater value elsewhere. The reality was that after the losses of Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers, Notre Dame and Louisville, there was no school or brand that could recoup all of that lost value. The league was moving further and further away from its Northeast-based roots as a basketball-focused league, and the football-driven aspirations were literally killing what value was left of the conference. Foolishly, the (then) members were being sold on how the media markets of new members would easily replace that lost value. Not only was that foolish, it was a blatant lie (as evidenced by the finished contract values).
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