I am guessing you are in your late 50's early 60's.
If you want to hold on to the notion that SJU is still thought of as a big time program I wont burst your bubble for the same reason I don't tell my son there is no Santa Claus.
The last 10 years though SHU has been a better program than us. That is really not disputable. 10 years isn't a down period. That is pretty substantial. Hopefully we can get back close to where we were but it is not a given and the longer it takes the more a darker reality will eventually come to play.
This year we should be better than SHU. How about the year after when they have Whitehead and we lose Sanchez and probably(hopefully-he plays well enough to go pro we will have been in tourney) Sampson?
I'm 28, but I'll take that as a compliment I suppose.
SJU doesn't have to be considered a big time program to be bigger than SHU which was your point that I was arguing.
Your 10 year position is somewhat arbitrary. There's our overall history, of which ours is stronger; and there's the current roster compilation, of which ours is stronger. I could pick any random group of years and make a case that this team is better than that team (i.e. Iona has had a better team the last two seasons, therefore they are a better program than SJU).
If you would like it to be considered relevant, let's make it 15 years and your case is broken as the previous five years went like this: 3 NCAA appearances and an NIT finals appearance for SJU, compared to 3 NIT and 1 NCAA appearance for Seton Hall in those same 5 years.
My point is, while not wholly evident by looking at a small sample size of a specific decade, St. John's has been a stronger program historically (1724 wins vs. 1394 wins) and is currently the stronger program as the rosters are currently constituted. Maybe the issue is our differing opinion of how to judge a program?