I was not much of a college sports fan growing up. When it came to college sports, there were two things that I paid a little attention to (emphasis on little): Notre Dame football and Big East basketball. One of those things came back to life this year and the other one died today. The Big East is dead.
The Big East was St. John's, Georgetown, Syracuse, UConn, etc. Now that the Catholic schools are leaving, this is what the Big East is going to be if it continues to exist: UConn, South Florida, Cincinnati, Temple, Houston, SMU, Memphis, Central Florida, Tulane. Yikes. Throwing in Boise State, San Diego State, East Carolina, and Navy for football doesn't help much. The Catholic schools have the power to dissolve the conference. I hope that's what they do. It's over for the conference that I grew up with. It makes me really sad. Madison Square Garden said this week that it could get out of it's deal with the Big East. It's hard to see them not wanting to get out of it now. The only fans that will show up are UConn fans. So yeah, I really want the Catholic schools to dissolve the conference because the Big East shouldn't exist without St. John's and Georgetown (anything can exist without Syracuse and Jim Boeheim and I'm fine with that).
I really think this year will be the last year of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. It's about as great as a meaningless event could be (it only matters for seeding and for teams that aren't going to make the real tournament as an at large team). But it's Madison Square Garden, classic basketball teams, and four games in a day. You can't beat that. Last year I went for the first time in a while. I went one night with my friend Vin and the other night with my dad. It was great. I would have gone the next night also to see Notre Dame in the semifinals, but I was flying to Las Vegas. I was planning to go to every session this year if I didn't get a job. Of course, that's out. But I will go to every night session that I can. I think I might have to stay late at work one of those nights, but I still might be able to go that night, just a little late. So I hope to get there for at least two nights again this year, even if Notre Dame isn't playing at night.
I'm curious to see what the future holds for Madison Square Garden. I would love to see them get the ACC tournament for obvious reasons. As we can see, Jack Swarbrick made a great move by leaving the Big East and going to the ACC. While I knew it was a good move at the time, I was sad that Notre Dame wouldn't be playing in Madison Square Garden anymore. The ACC has moved their tournament around, but 48 of their 59 tournaments have been in the state of North Carolina. I think they should move into the Garden, but I don't see that happening. I'd be happy with them going to the Barclays Center every so often too (although I'd prefer Madison Square Garden because it's easier to get home from there).
I'm also interested to see what the Catholic schools will do. They could form their own conference and add Xavier and St. Joe's and some other schools possibly. It would be interesting and maybe they could have their tournament in the Garden. That would be cool, but it won't be the same.
RIP Big East.
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