You guys don't seem to get it.
Schools like Georgetown and St. John's need the football schools. A basketball only league while not necessarily the end of our teams makes it much more difficult to succeed. We would earn less money and have less exposure. Xavier is an exception not the rule. There would not be enough eyeballs in a hoops only league. You need big state football schools with large alumni bases.
We're basketball fans so I can't blame you guys for not being able to see the forest for the trees, but Basketball does not matter. At all. The best basketball game gets out drawn by a crappy football game.
Marinnatto just saved the conference (at the very least for the time being). Football is now stronger than it was before these defections: Boise St> WV(the only actual football loss), Houston> Pitt, SMU>Cuse with regards to football.
Now basketball is worse than it was, but no matter who we added it was going to be worse. You can't lose Cuse and Pitt and replace them with anyone remotely close to them. That school doesn't exist out there. But guess what the Big East goes from the undisputed best basketball conference ever to just arguably the best basketball conference: Uconn, Louisville, Georgetown, Nova, Marquette, St. John's is a great top 6 moving forward. On par with: UNC, Duke, Cuse, Pitt, Maryland, NC State; Michigan St, Ohio St, Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Indiana; Kansas, Texas, Kansas St, Baylor , Texas AM, WV. won't even bother with SEC or PAthetiC.
Houston and UCF are both decent teams that are trending up. Moving to the BE will likely help them. These additions also open up texas to us for recruiting. The Houston area has some of the best talent in the nation.