Time to End the Big East

Today it looks like the final blow to the Big East Conference has been absorbed. Unless something screwy happens, West Virginia is leaving for the Big 12. Now you can blame John Marinatto (who is to blame for his horrid leadership), you can blame Mike Tranghese for defending the BCS years back, killing the Big East and making the Big 12 completely dependent on Texas. So it's about time to end the whole thing.


In this instance, I'm not writing about Rutgers, UConn and the football schools. I can careless what they do (though I do love it when Rutgers thinks they belong in the Big Ten; they have as much a chance as DePaul does). I've mentioned this before, but I'm a Seton Hall alum and have become increasingly concerned on what happens to them in this whole school shuffle. But it's not just Seton Hall, it's St. John's, it's Georgetown, it's Villanova; these great basketball programs that will be left behind because they don't play FBS football. What happens to them?


That's why it's time for the basketball schools to be proactive and former their own league. Now who goes into this league? Well, St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova will start the league, and you bring in Seton Hall and Providence because they spent all the years they did in the Big East. Throw in Marquette and DePaul since they are current Big East members. After them, look for all the great basketball schools without major football. Xavier and Butler are obvious ones to pluck. Temple is the interesting case because they're getting better in football. They might not just go into an non-football conference. I also figure Notre Dame doesn't participate in this league, and perhaps join somewhere else for its Olympic sports, but they would be welcome if football independence trumps their plans.


So that leaves us with nine members in a new Big East. Add in UMass, Dayton and Richmond and you have twelve. Twelve is a good number, enough to get multiple NCAA appearances. There, you won't have a round-robin, but with 16 or 18 games, there can be some semblance of rivalry. You can also split into two divisions (say SJU, SHU, GTown, Nova, UMass and Providence in one; Dayton, Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette and Richmond in the other).


We know that the Big East as we know it is done. Louisville and Cincinnati probably follow West Virginia to the Big 12, Rutgers and UConn likely head to ACC and South Florida is the one who probably is forced back into Conference USA. Instead of waiting for this to happen, the basketball (Catholic) schools need to band together like they did once before. Form your own league, play basketball well and more importantly, keep the MSG for your conference tournament, which could be done with St. John's being involved. St. John's is the only college that truly matters in NYC, at least when they're good. If they are back, MSG will host this conference's tournament. It seems ideal for everyone involved.


Not to mention, it makes too much sense.

Realignment Talk, Part II

Yesterday, I gave a more rational idea for realignment of the NHL teams starting next season. Now, I'm going to get creative. I get that it's almost certain that you won't see a true transformation of the divisions, but I wanted to get this out there since I couldn't find any hockey writer/blogger that I know suggest this. Let me start with the division that I find most unique to this plan. Oh, and by the way, I'm doing away with geographical names with updated NHL legends named as divisions.


Howe Division: Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Rangers, Islanders, Devils

That's right, a division with Original Six teams. I hate to include the Islanders and Devils, but what's the point of a division of just Original Six teams if they can't play more often. Since the Islanders and Devils basically are aligned with the Rangers, they are included so we see more divisional play. Besides if/when the Islanders move, they are out of here.

Gretzky Division: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Minnesota, Buffalo

Now here is where the rest of the Canadian teams will join together. And the addition of Minnesota and Buffalo make sense because those are arguably your two most hockey-crazed American cities with the exception of Pittsburgh (obviously no Original Six teams count here) Also, since the division has seven teams, there's room for Quebec City whenever a team comes in.

Lemieux Division: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, Columbus, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay, Nashville

Now this division is more or less based on geography. It more or less pairs all the rest of the teams in the Eastern time zone, as well as Nashville, who while in the Central share a lot more in common with Florida and Tampa, than Dallas and St. Louis.

Orr Division: Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix, Colorado, Dallas, St. Louis

Here's the division that might have the most gripes because it doesn't solve the problem of travel for the Stars and now gives the Blues the same problems. It's made to pair up all the U.S. based teams west of the Mississippi. It has an open slot for a team to move to Seattle, though if the team that moves is someone like the Islanders, then you can move the Blues to the Howe Division to reignite their Red Wings and Blackhawks rivalries.

More than likely, the same split of games will occur as in yesterday's post (8-team divisions would play 5x in the division, everyone else home and away and 3 games against a team in the other 8 division team; 7-team divisions play 6x in the division, and everyone else home and away). We'll add a divisional first round, then reseed for the rest of the playoffs. How's that for creative?

Realignment Talk, Part I

The day is coming when the NHL will realign again as the Winnipeg Jets would have to leave a division that includes Washington, Carolina, Tampa Bay and Florida. However, last night, Bob McKenzie started tweeting that the only realignment that might occur is a swap of the Jets to the Central Division and the Red Wings into the Southeast. I know the Red Wings are desperate to leave the Western Conference, but it seems wrong that they are abandoning their rivals in Chicago and St. Louis (at least without re-energizing their rivalries with the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs). How about the Dallas Stars, still stuck in the Pacific Division, even though they are geographically closer to each team in the Central. Shouldn't the NHL scrap the six-division format in it's entirety? Yes, it needs to be at least 4 divisions (or conferences where Greg Wyshynski called at in this Puck Daddy post). And I have two ways for the NHL to align them. Here's the first one, which does the job, but it seems ordinary:

Western: LA, Anaheim, SJ, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Phoenix, Colorado.

Yes, I'm not leaving the Jets in this division. Travel benefits all these teams and each game can be played no earlier than 9 PM EST.

Central: Dallas, Winnipeg, Minnesota, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville.

Sorry Detroit, you still play in a more Western division, but my plan will have an equal amount of games between non-divisional opponents, so there will be less travel; which is your compromise for staying sorta West.

Northeast: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia

Splitting the East teams was the hardest chore, as it's either the Rangers in the Northeast with the Islanders and Devils, or the Penguins with the Flyers. This is one where I can go either way with.

Atlantic: Rangers, Islanders, New Jersey, Washington, Columbus, Carolina, Florida, Tampa Bay.

Columbus gets to move to the East because of this format. They are another team which I can see in the Northeast instead, in order to start a rivalry with the Penguins, but you can always have Pittsburgh and Philly in this division in order to do so.


Figure that each team is guaranteed to play their division foes 5 times, and a home and away against everyone else. Since that leaves an uneven amount of games (8-division teams are at 79, 7 -div at 76), I figure will use what the NHL does now and add some random games. The 7 division teams will have 6 games against one another. The 8-division teams will fill the last 3 games with games against the opposite 8-team division. As for the playoffs, you do either a 1 vs 16 format, or you start with divisional playoff round, like in the 80s, then reseed at that point. That is probably a sensible way to realign the NHL for the 2011-12 season. However, there are more way to arrange the league and I will have another realignment option that fortunately, I'm not really seeing as of yet and think can work out. This will be done for tomorrow, so comeback for Part II.