A bunch of goodies from Andy Katz’s blog at ESPN.com (now, apparently a free blog).
The Big East men will mirror the women in scheduling in 2007-08 when the league will have each team face every other school at least once in conference play.
Up for debate at the conference meetings in Florida in two weeks will be how many home-and-home games will occur.
Will it be one? Will it be three? It all depends on whether or not the Big East wants to go to 18 league games or stay at 16. The conference is locked into continuing the schedule from this past season for next season. That means teams will continue playing 16 league games (13 of the 15 other opponents with three home-and-home games).
I’m hoping the Big East goes to 18 games. From both an increase to the strength of schedule to more home-and-homes with the chance for stronger rivalries, it seems better.
The Big East coaches still want to have all 16 teams in the Big East Tournament, but that seems unlikely. BE Commish Mike Tranghese cites the extra costs and logistics.
This past season, things got nasty in recruiting with St. John’s and UConn when a St. John’s verbal reneged at the last minute after UConn decided they needed him. The two teams and coaches kept some little sniping going for most of the season. So the Big East wants to stop that as well.
Tranghese will also review the way Big East coaches should conduct themselves with each other, starting with recruiting and public comments.
“I don’t expect our coaches to be best friends but I do expect them to adhere to protocol,” Tranghese said. “Our league is a bear right now.”
Meanwhile, the coaches will also discuss a proposal from the SEC to do a mini SEC-Big East challenge. The event would match four teams from the SEC and four from the Big East each season. If this flies, each league would mix up marquee teams with lower profile schools so that there wouldn’t be a year where all of the schools are bottom-feeders. Each Big East school would appear in it once in a four-year period.
Well, I suppose it’s better than no challenge. I’d still rather have more of the teams playing every year. Seems more like an formal agreement between the conferences to schedule some games each year than a “challenge” format.
