CBT Exam Week Essays: What to do with the Big East?

For college students and college basketball fans, Exam Week is the worst week on the schedule. For students, this week is the culmination of three months worth of procrastination, cliff notes and Wikipedia. For college basketball fans, it’s the lightest week of hoops action we will see all season.

With so very little going on this week in terms of action, the staff at College Basketball Talk is going back to school. Over the next five days, the CBT Staff will be responsible for answering an essay question in one of five different subjects.

Monday:Sociology
Tuesday: Psychology.
Wednesday: Statistics
Thursday: Physical Education

The final essay of exam week is the dreaded business final. I think you know what that means?

The Big East conference is in a a state of flux never seen before in it’s existence. With the addition of several football-only programs, along with a bevy of former C-USA programs, what can the Big East do to reclaim it’s position as the nation’s premier basketball conference. If you believe this is not an option, detail the best options for the traditional basketball schools.

By Eric Angevine

I know this isn’t the original assignment, but it’s been a really rough week. My grandma died, the dog ate my textbook and my girlfriend broke up with me and started sleeping with my roommate. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Big East went and dissolved on top of everything. So I hope you’ll understand; my original power-point presentation about saving the league is attached just in case, but I decided to pull an all-nighter and create a vertically integrated synergistic marketing portfolio to guide the formation of a theoretical basketball-only super league with the Catholic Seven at its core.

The dissolution of the Big East was handled well, from a business standpoint. The core of basketball-only schools known as the Catholic Seven – Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Providence – took control of the situation instead of waiting to be marginalized. By leaving on their own terms, the seven schools are now bargaining from a position of strength. They can act as a united group of basketball powers, rather than reactive individuals in a football-driven realignment scenario.
An analysis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Catholic Seven will reveal much.

Strengths
• Unity of purpose. By acting in concert, the Catholic Seven have defined their own business paradigm.
• Media markets. New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Philadelphia anchor a powerful nexus of desirable urban media markets.
• History. Thirty-four combined Final Four appearances and three national titles.
• Legislative freedom. The Catholic Seven can literally write their own bylaws and choose their own business partners, free from the non-basketball decisions made by Mike Aresco over the past several months.
• Coaches. From Steve Lavin to Buzz Williams, this is a very marketable group of motivated men who will provide a face for the new league that emerges.

Weaknesses
• Money. Football has been driving realignment because football makes the money.
• Negotiating power. Without football money, media rights deals will be more difficult to value, which gives the Catholic Seven and any future partners limited negotiating strength.

With these factors in mind, the Catholic Seven can properly assess risk and reward. They can form a new basketball-centric super league that will redefine the sports landscape. If they act from their strengths rather than their weaknesses, this league can be a boon to all stakeholders.

New members should be invited based on their ability to fit in with the aforementioned strengths, with one caveat: the league should have a reasonable geographical footprint, extending no farther west than the Chicago/Milwaukee outpost already established in the core group.

With those strictures in place, the following members should be invited:
• Butler. The Indianapolis market, historical and recent basketball success, Brad Stevens and Hinkle Fieldhouse make the Bulldogs a perfect fit.
• Temple. The natural rivalry between Villanova and Temple strengthens the league’s metro base.
• Virginia Commonwealth. Richmond is not the biggest media market, but Shaka Smart and his up-tempo style of play will energize the league, giving it a youthful hipness no other potential member can provide.
• Xavier. Losing Cincinnati to the football-loving crowd hurts. Bringing in the Bearcats’ natural rival is a great basketball decision, and allows the new league to keep fans in the Queen City.
• Detroit. The league’s profile has already extended across the Rust Belt’s biggest cities, so it makes sense to grab this media market as well. Ray McCallum has the team on the right track on Dick Vitale Court, as well.
• George Mason. Another nod to the D.C. metro area, a new rivalry for Georgetown and a strong history make this one a good choice.
• Cleveland State. Locking up an East Coast/Rust Belt core makes the most sense. The Vikings have had some tourney success and bring Cleveland’s TVs into the mix.

This leaves the league with 14 teams, a sensible geographic footprint, and a rich basketball product. For now, teams like Creighton and Davidson, while admittedly high in basketball tradition, do not make the grade. Travel constraints and questionable media markets make them initially unattractive, though their national profile merits inclusion in the discussion.

If the theoretical new league avoids emulating the chaos of football realignment by shortening its reach and making decisions methodically, something new and powerful can emerge from the wreckage of the Big East.
And, best of all, there’s a golden, shimmering opportunity to choose a league name that doesn’t sound stupid. That alone is a pearl of great value.

Professor’s Notes: This is an absolutely tremendous outline on how to form the best possible basketball-only conference. Really, it is. The make-up of your desired conference would be great for the sport and for fans. However, you failed to answer much of the essay topic and provided you’re response in outline form. Then again, much has changed since this topic was issued at the beginning of the week, so you are being given a slight pass. Nonetheless, insert Billy Madison or Animal House quote here.

GRADE: C-