From redmen.com
"I think that our conference is the strongest in the country, bar none. Now, I watched St. John's at Duke a couple of days ago, and our league did not put its best foot forward in that game. As I've said before, you cannot hire a career assistant in our league and hope to survive. I have had that conversation with officials at several of our league members, and they understand that there are certain requirements to participate in Big East basketball.
Our BCS football members are fully familiar with the requirements that they must meet in order to continue to participate in the league. We have facilities requirements, attendance requirements, and competition requirements for football participation, and there is precedent for removing teams that do not meet our requirements.
There is no reason why a similar standard cannot or should not be applied from a basketball perspective. Certainly we honor and respect those programs that have been with us since the time the league started. However, as a league we have to maintain certain standards and we expect our member institutions to conform their behavior to those standards. If a particular institution is out of compliance with all applicable league standards, longevity of membership does not trump lack of compliance."