i think we're likely to see remaining 7 join the A-10. it's the cleanest, easiest route. they'd join a stable league with proper leadership and according to some reports a still pending contract to be negotiated for online usage. i think all the schools at this point are looking for immediate stability, with the confidence that the merge with the A10 will grow to prosper the way the original Big East did.
On top of that, if the 7 are able to take the Big East name with them, there is no doubt in my mind, the A10 would be rebranded. i think at that point, we'd also keep The Garden as the tourney home.
In my mind, it's the best move. Trying to start a new league all your own is a daunting task in today's world.
Disagree. We should keep the name and bring them out of their conference. They have a horrid tv deal right now. We can get a new TV deal, have MSG and have great schools/markets that have been loyal to each other (except Villanova, but we'll forgive them). They will join a potentially major basketball conference. No need to join them.
there are 3 major problems with your scenario:
1. no network is going to give a tv deal until you have a complete, steady league. so you can't go to espn or nbc and say, we are going to add butler, dayton, creighton, etc. they have to already have committed. and the schools on the other hand, will want to see the tv deal before committing. so it's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.
2. who leads this new league? where does the infrastructure come from? it's essentially starting an entirely new organization. it's a ton of work that takes time.
3. instability. instability. instability.
I agree with STH, no way the 7 are joining the A-10. St Johns Georgetown Villanova bring all the value to the table, why would they want to split the tv contract with more schools than they have to? Duquesne and La Salle would cost us real money.
And, it's not clear that they are leaving the BE necessarily. There are a ton of corporate governance issues in play here; and one of the options is to dissolve and to reorganize under a new charter. The Big East's assets and offices etc could be retained if they paid an equal settlement to the other schools at the time of dissolution (UCONN, Cinn, USF). That wouldn't be a prohibitive cost.
Pete Thamel from SI tweeted today that the A-10 teams recruiting the BE basketball schools is like the Sun Belt trying to lure Alabama and Florida. That's not happening.
I'd be surprised if the 7 catholic schools made this move without the ability to retain the BE brand, or take a sizeable chunk of Louisiville, Syracuse, ND etc's exit fees with them.
They're not walking out with nothing. They have the controlling votes, to kick schools out of the current BE, or dissolve the league and split the assets (7/10s of which they would keep)