tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

The Big East Is On Its Death Bed

Back in 1979, the Big East was established as a basketball conference. It soon became a force to be reckoned as evidenced by Georgetown's appearance in 1982 and winning the championship in 1984. In 1985, this relatively new conference had 3 teams (Georgetown, Villanova and St.John's) in the Final Four which resulted in an all Big East Final that saw Villanova upset favorite Georgetown.

The Big East has been one of the dominant basketball conferences in the country but it is currently struggling to survive and for that college basketball fans will suffer. Particularly those in the Eastern part of the country. Soon the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry will be gone. Pittsburgh-Connecticut, St.John's-Syracuse, Villanova-Pittsburgh and the Big East Tournament in Madison Square Garden will soon be a memory. And to me its a damn crying shame!!!

Football runs the show and the Big East's decision to add football to its conference was an attempt to give the Big East more notoriety and also more revenue. Miami was brought along and the conference had instant credibility. But that began to slip away when Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami bolted to the ACC in 2004 and 2005. And that was the beginning of the end for Big East football.

The end is right around the corner with Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia leaving and TCU leaving before they ever played a conference game. What is left are second rate football schools and a basketball conference that may take a greater hit if Notre Dame decides to pull up stakes and go to the ACC or Big 12.

The fate of the Big East is a result of the revenue starved football programs that are looking for more cash by developing super conferences with the television networks, specifically ESPN and FOX, supplying the long green. If you think I'm joking please read the article below.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7149965/espn-middle-college-realignment

ESPN started this debacle by aiding and abetting the University of Texas to create its own Longhorn Network which resulted in Texas A&M bolting from the Big 12. Thanks to ESPN and FOX, college sports as we know it will be destroyed. No more traditional rivalry games. Conferences that were based on geography will be destroyed thus making it harder for fans to attend road games. But what do they care. More money for the schools and more money for the networks. What a damn disgrace. Shame on the NCAA!!! Shame on ESPN!!!