Instead of focusing on football, the Big East should reinvent itself by recruiting the best Catholic basketball schools in the land

SHANE SMITH

My last article discussed the very real reality of losing the Big East as a whole, but really the only thing anyone would really miss out on would be the amazingly competitive basketball of this conference.

While the ACC or Big 12 may try to claim the rights as the best basketball conference in the nation, they aren’t: plain and simple. The Big East has a total of 15 teams with Final Four appearances and a combined 11 national champions. The Big East set the conference record for teams entering the NCAA Men’s Tournament in 2006 with 8 selections. They then broke their own record with 11 this past season. The Big East is not only a farm system for countless lottery picks, but it is also home to some of the best and most exciting unsung heroes in basketball.

It’s not the loss of seeing future NBA players playing college ball that will be sad to see when the Big East starts to fade.  It will be the loss of seeing ultra competitive programs beat those future millionaires with toughness, heart, and precision (see Jeremy McNamara, Scotty Reynolds, Khalid El-Amin, etc).

So what is the solution after losing Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, and probably UConn?

Create a new league that is solely comprised of smaller sized Christian colleges throughout the country. No, this is not intended to be some religious segregation ideal, but a reason to unite some of the most exciting and successful college basketball teams in the country. The level of Division 1 play by Christian schools is top-notch. They do not have the funding of the Kentuckys or Kansas’ of the world, but they still put together teams that not only compete, but succeed at every facet of the game.

In this hypothetical scenario the Big East retains all current teams except Rutgers (who has also been in talks with other conferences about leaving), Louisville (the only team that I’d be sad to see go), Cincinnati, and South Florida. The Big East would no longer exist as the Big East. Those defections would leave the conference with eight basketball schools:

1)       DePaul
2)      Georgetown
3)      Marquette
4)      Notre Dame
5)      Providence
6)      St. John’s
7)      Seton Hall
8)      Villanova

Those 8 schools would keep the heart of the Big East alive. Teams like Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Villanova would continue to be a powerhouse for future NBA players, while teams like St. John’s, Providence, and Marquette hope to rebuild the talent repertoire they once supplied on draft night.

To fill out the conference we would then look across the country at the nation’s top religiously affiliated basketball programs.  Just like that, there’d be no trouble in creating a powerhouse basketball conference once again:

9)     Gonzaga
10)   Saint Mary’s College
11)    BYU
12)   Xavier
13)   Temple
14)   Creighton

This idea may be far-fetched, and may be unrealistic, but wouldn’t it be interesting to bring back the days when the best fights on the hardwood could be found at the local catholic high school. The days when the Patrick Ewings of the world chose Georgetown because that’s where the highest level of competitive play was. The spirit of the basketball world is at its purest right now in the Big East and with the inevitable causality of Big East basketball inching closer everyday, it couldn’t hurt to explore this possibility.

Personally, I’d love to to see those 14 schools battle it out every season.

Photo: AP

Popularity: 2% [?]