While the Big East has several solid teams, the issue is that it only has 2 top tier teams, wins against which are going to be held in high regard by the committee. We currently have no signature wins. As Dave said, we only have 2 opportunities to get them, and we need to win both to ensure a spot in the tournament.
The larger problem is whether this becomes a trend in future years - the Big East only having 2 top 25 teams at any one time.
If the trend continues, then the athletic department is going to need to aggressively schedule 3 traditional top-level out of conference opponents each year - Duke, MSU, Cuse, Louisville, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, etc