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A national basketball-only league? I’m listening ...

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I’m just as sick of talking about realignment as you are.

That’s why this is really the only post that I’ve written on the subject since Maryland and Rutgers decided to set this entire process back in motion.

Again.

At this point, however, it’s worthless to bemoan the fact that rivalries have been destroyed, the Big East has been turned into a pile of Conference USA’s ashes and we’ll now have SMU-Providence and Rutgers-Nebraska as intraconference rivalries.

What we should be doing is figuring out a way to make the Big East’s basketball schools salvageable and nationally relevant. And Pete Thamel of SI.com floated an interesting idea in a column this afternoon:

There has been preliminary and very informal discussion about whether a national basketball-only league could be formed if the Big East dissolves, according to a television executive.

Specific teams have not been talked about, but the thought would be to create a power basketball league that spans the country -- think Georgetown to Gonzaga -- that could maximize visibility, profitability and exposure, though it may continue to pale in comparison to football.

“I think there’s been chatter about, ‘Can that exist?’” said one television executive. “It’s going to be hard to justify rights fees for the Big East putting Providence and Central Florida on. There has to be some sort of chatter: ‘Is there anything out there better?’”

The executive added: “I think that would be attractive. It would be naive of me to say that no one has thought of that.”

Big East schools resisted adding San Diego State in basketball because of travel cost and a lack of desire to go that far. But could desperate times open up the door for a national hoops league?


Is that ideal? San Diego State and Georgetown inhabiting the same conference?

Well, no.

But it’s a sign that at least one person is thinking about college hoops as they lay waste to collegiate athletics as we know it.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.