Big Problem with the Big East
When the Big East expanded to sixteen teams this year, fans of Marquette, DePaul, and South Florida were worried that their teams wouldn't stack up to the likes of Connecticut, Villanova, and Pittsburgh. While DePaul and USF have been the two worst teams in the conference, Marquette has been consistent, putting up a 9-6 conference record going into Saturday's final game against Providence. So as far as Warriors fans are concerned, there's no problem, right? Wrong. The problem goes back to that magic Big East number. Sixteen.
The Big East has become too big for its own good. In football it has a managable-small even- eight teams as seven member schools don't have football programs and Notre Dame remains independent. But all sixteen schools have basketball programs, and this has created quite a problem. First of all, four teams aren't allowed to go to the conference tournament in New York. Now granted, these are the bottom four teams, but other conferences allow all of their schools into the tournament. The conference tourney is the last ditch effort to make it to the big dance, or if things are bad enough, to earn your bid to the NITs. True, allowing all sixteen teams in would create the NBA playoffs, but the Big East should have thought of that before they expanded to sixteen teams. It would also eliminate the bye that is given to the top four teams, but currently that is only done because if all twelve teams had to play in every round, at the end there would be three teams left instead of two. The conference tournament, however, is the least of worries, because the Big East won't let the last four teams in, and they certainly won't kick four teams out. The problem that is bigger, but thankfully, can be somewhat fixed, is scheduling.
Currently, each team plays thirteen of the other fifteen teams, three of them twice. The two teams that are not played will presumably be on the schedule the following year. But this means that every year, some matchup is left out. This means that records are not truly equal, since Marquette didn't get the opportunity to beat up on South Florida. And what if one year the Big East makes the biggest scheduling blunder of all, and fails to schedule Marquette vs. DePaul? This is a problem that must be avoided. One way would be to scrap the three mirror games and just make every team play every other team once. If the league is hesitant about dropping to fifteen conference games, they can keep one mirror. This would be easy in several cases, as naturally Marquette would play DePaul and Pitt would play West Virginia, among other noted rivalries. But this would eliminate the mirror games of other rivalries, and new rivalries that are just beginning to brew.
So a situation in which the mirror games are kept while still allowing every team to play each other is needed. The Big East could, as has been discussed, expanded to an eighteen game schedule, although the conference has said it would be reluctant to be the first major conference to do so, and would wait for another conference to do it first. If they did do this, however, it would allow teams to play every team in the conference as well as keeping the three mirror games. How the mirror games would be scheduled is something that still needs to be worked out regardless of how the scheduling is done in the future. The same three mirror games could be done each year. This would be good in the case of Marquette, who face two rivals in DePaul and Notre Dame, as well as Pittsburgh, which appears to be well on its way towards becoming a rivalry itself. But other matchups could be perfect for mirror games as well, so perhaps they could change every year. But certain rivalries need to played out with two games a year, and Marquette vs. DePaul is one of them. So the best situation might be one in which one mirror game is kept constant, while the other two change from year to year. Marquette would always play DePaul, and Pitt would always play West Virginia.
A final possibility would be to create two divisions, but that would ultimately just formalize the current system of two teams not being on the schedule each year. Eighteen conference games each season is tough, especially in a league as competitive as the Big East. The best solution would have naturally been to have not expanded to sixteen teams in the first place. But as the situation currently stands, this is the best that can be done. The conference schedule should be expanded to eighteen games, with three mirror games for each team, with one mirror matchup being constant. Great rivalries will continue, and new ones will grow. Additionally, fans will get to enjoy two more games every year. This also means that ESPN can add eight extra games to its broadcasting contract. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the tournament (Other than to rotate the site every year, that is. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that St. John's should get to play on their home court every year), but that is something that fans will just have to get used to. Hopefully Warriors fans won't have to endure a conference tournament-less season anytime soon. With an eighteen game schedule, at the very least they'll get a trip to South Florida every other year.
The Big East has become too big for its own good. In football it has a managable-small even- eight teams as seven member schools don't have football programs and Notre Dame remains independent. But all sixteen schools have basketball programs, and this has created quite a problem. First of all, four teams aren't allowed to go to the conference tournament in New York. Now granted, these are the bottom four teams, but other conferences allow all of their schools into the tournament. The conference tourney is the last ditch effort to make it to the big dance, or if things are bad enough, to earn your bid to the NITs. True, allowing all sixteen teams in would create the NBA playoffs, but the Big East should have thought of that before they expanded to sixteen teams. It would also eliminate the bye that is given to the top four teams, but currently that is only done because if all twelve teams had to play in every round, at the end there would be three teams left instead of two. The conference tournament, however, is the least of worries, because the Big East won't let the last four teams in, and they certainly won't kick four teams out. The problem that is bigger, but thankfully, can be somewhat fixed, is scheduling.
Currently, each team plays thirteen of the other fifteen teams, three of them twice. The two teams that are not played will presumably be on the schedule the following year. But this means that every year, some matchup is left out. This means that records are not truly equal, since Marquette didn't get the opportunity to beat up on South Florida. And what if one year the Big East makes the biggest scheduling blunder of all, and fails to schedule Marquette vs. DePaul? This is a problem that must be avoided. One way would be to scrap the three mirror games and just make every team play every other team once. If the league is hesitant about dropping to fifteen conference games, they can keep one mirror. This would be easy in several cases, as naturally Marquette would play DePaul and Pitt would play West Virginia, among other noted rivalries. But this would eliminate the mirror games of other rivalries, and new rivalries that are just beginning to brew.
So a situation in which the mirror games are kept while still allowing every team to play each other is needed. The Big East could, as has been discussed, expanded to an eighteen game schedule, although the conference has said it would be reluctant to be the first major conference to do so, and would wait for another conference to do it first. If they did do this, however, it would allow teams to play every team in the conference as well as keeping the three mirror games. How the mirror games would be scheduled is something that still needs to be worked out regardless of how the scheduling is done in the future. The same three mirror games could be done each year. This would be good in the case of Marquette, who face two rivals in DePaul and Notre Dame, as well as Pittsburgh, which appears to be well on its way towards becoming a rivalry itself. But other matchups could be perfect for mirror games as well, so perhaps they could change every year. But certain rivalries need to played out with two games a year, and Marquette vs. DePaul is one of them. So the best situation might be one in which one mirror game is kept constant, while the other two change from year to year. Marquette would always play DePaul, and Pitt would always play West Virginia.
A final possibility would be to create two divisions, but that would ultimately just formalize the current system of two teams not being on the schedule each year. Eighteen conference games each season is tough, especially in a league as competitive as the Big East. The best solution would have naturally been to have not expanded to sixteen teams in the first place. But as the situation currently stands, this is the best that can be done. The conference schedule should be expanded to eighteen games, with three mirror games for each team, with one mirror matchup being constant. Great rivalries will continue, and new ones will grow. Additionally, fans will get to enjoy two more games every year. This also means that ESPN can add eight extra games to its broadcasting contract. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the tournament (Other than to rotate the site every year, that is. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that St. John's should get to play on their home court every year), but that is something that fans will just have to get used to. Hopefully Warriors fans won't have to endure a conference tournament-less season anytime soon. With an eighteen game schedule, at the very least they'll get a trip to South Florida every other year.
posted by Rob Stack @ 12:30 AM
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