Time for 'basketball' schools to unite?
But what if there was another direction? What if, instead of becoming an Ellis Island for woebegone football, the Big East went back to its roots and formed a basketball superconference?
One man thinks it could work.
"Yes, there's no question it can," said former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese. "If you have schools playing basketball at a high level, you can have success. Can you make money? Yes. Can you be competitive? Absolutely. Can you have as much success as the current Big East? Maybe not, but I'm not sure any league will ever match that success. But you can be successful and be happy."
By Tranghese's count, the league would need only 10 teams to be viable.
"You could separate by divisions, playing within your division during the week and the crossover games on the weekends," he said. "That would minimize expenses, travel time and time away from class."
Of course, it would mean opening up another round of conference raiding. Xavier, Dayton and Butler would be at the tops of the wish list, putting folks at the Atlantic 10 and Horizon League on high alert.
That's just the first of several roadblocks to overcome for this sort of fantastical vision to come to light.
For starters: the conference name. If the football schools and basketball schools from the Big East split, who retains the brand name? That's far more than just a marketing question.
"There is such a rich history and association with the Big East and basketball that I would think people in the television networks would want them to retain that," former television executive Neal Pilson said.
But it is even more critical than mere marketing appeal. For basketball, it could determine just who gets an automatic bid.
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