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As we all know, the league is heading to 20 games next year. I think it's a no-brainer as it keeps the double round robin in place, and also the ACC/B1G are doing it. If all 3 of those leagues are doing it, I'll certainly trust their judgement. Essentially we're just adding a H&H with UConn each year. Number of wins isn't as important, it's all about overall resumes, Q1 wins, etc. Hasn't happened yet where a deserving team didn't make the Dance due to this scheduling arrangement.

Given that this arrangement is already confirmed, this topic is more about ideas rather than whether it's a smart decision to go to 20. A few things:

1. With the B1G and BXII challenges in place, some of us may need to limit OOC F5 games. For instance, DePaul and Butler probably won't be scheduling 5-7 F5 games each. For my team (St. John's), we probably wouldn't change much given we're only playing 3 F5 teams this year. UConn is a great replacement for the vast majority of F5 teams anyways, so I see this as a good thing.
2. Nova should end the Big 5 games- or at the very least limit them to 2 games. They have done a very good job beating those teams, but given that Nova is already the best/biggest brand brand in Philly there isn't much upside for them. They'd be better off dropping those games and adding a high exposure ACC team and a cupcake.
3. We should do what the ACC did this year- have some conference games played the first DAY of college basketball. Really make a statement. I personally tuned in to those ACC games even though I didn't really care, simply because all the other games were boring (Power vs cupcake). Something I think would be awesome- and there are some rumors about this- would be a double header at MSG featuring St. John's and 3 other teams. Not sure if the rumor is for opening weekend or later, but imagine an opening night with say St. John's vs UConn and Xavier vs Villanova. For the first year UConn should be a part of it, but doesn't need to include UConn every time. Lots of teams that would help fill up the stadium, including Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, maybe even DePaul (lol). Another option would be a Big East team vs St. John's for game 1 and a Big East vs F5 team for game 2. Even if it isn't held at MSG, we could just have 4-8 teams on opening night playing at their own arenas.

Any thoughts?

UCONN nation would be in favor of #3. Not sure Hurley (or any coach really) wants to open the season with a conference game tho.

1. As long as the NET favors stockpiling double digit wins, and as long as people care about raw number of wins, yes it's no brainer.

2. Yea please! At minimum reduce it to two games. It's almost unworkable with 20 conference games.

3. Agreed again, but maybe after 1 warmup cupcake.

I like the MSG idea except for that it would involve anyone other than St. John's sacrificing a conference home game for a neutral court game. Of course, depending on how it's ticketed, SJU might lose a home crowd too - in the case that it's a single ticket event with tickets distributed evenly to the schools. If it's ticketed as 2 separate events with each "home team" getting control of tickets to its game, then I'd guess that UConn, Seton Hall, and maybe Villanova could pull it off in addition to SJU. It would be a cool event, but there's definitely a lot of logistics to figure out, especially to make it worthwhile to those schools who would be giving up a true conference home game.

adoraz wrote:As we all know, the league is heading to 20 games next year. I think it's a no-brainer as it keeps the double round robin in place, and also the ACC/B1G are doing it. If all 3 of those leagues are doing it, I'll certainly trust their judgement. Essentially we're just adding a H&H with UConn each year. Number of wins isn't as important, it's all about overall resumes, Q1 wins, etc. Hasn't happened yet where a deserving team didn't make the Dance due to this scheduling arrangement.

Given that this arrangement is already confirmed, this topic is more about ideas rather than whether it's a smart decision to go to 20. A few things:

1. With the B1G and BXII challenges in place, some of us may need to limit OOC F5 games. For instance, DePaul and Butler probably won't be scheduling 5-7 F5 games each. For my team (St. John's), we probably wouldn't change much given we're only playing 3 F5 teams this year. UConn is a great replacement for the vast majority of F5 teams anyways, so I see this as a good thing.
2. Nova should end the Big 5 games- or at the very least limit them to 2 games. They have done a very good job beating those teams, but given that Nova is already the best/biggest brand brand in Philly there isn't much upside for them. They'd be better off dropping those games and adding a high exposure ACC team and a cupcake.
3. We should do what the ACC did this year- have some conference games played the first DAY of college basketball. Really make a statement. I personally tuned in to those ACC games even though I didn't really care, simply because all the other games were boring (Power vs cupcake). Something I think would be awesome- and there are some rumors about this- would be a double header at MSG featuring St. John's and 3 other teams. Not sure if the rumor is for opening weekend or later, but imagine an opening night with say St. John's vs UConn and Xavier vs Villanova. For the first year UConn should be a part of it, but doesn't need to include UConn every time. Lots of teams that would help fill up the stadium, including Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, maybe even DePaul (lol). Another option would be a Big East team vs St. John's for game 1 and a Big East vs F5 team for game 2. Even if it isn't held at MSG, we could just have 4-8 teams on opening night playing at their own arenas.

Any thoughts?

Good stuff.

Re: #3 - - if it means that Xavier can occasionally avoid the House of Horrors that is the Pavilion, then, by all means, take it up I-95 to the Garden.

Hall2012 wrote:I like the MSG idea except for that it would involve anyone other than St. John's sacrificing a conference home game for a neutral court game. Of course, depending on how it's ticketed, SJU might lose a home crowd too - in the case that it's a single ticket event with tickets distributed evenly to the schools. If it's ticketed as 2 separate events with each "home team" getting control of tickets to its game, then I'd guess that UConn, Seton Hall, and maybe Villanova could pull it off in addition to SJU. It would be a cool event, but there's definitely a lot of logistics to figure out, especially to make it worthwhile to those schools who would be giving up a true conference home game.

That's actually a good point regarding a lack of home court advantage for St. John's. How about something like this:

Game 1: St. John's (home- would have to count as home regardless) vs mid-western BE team without a big NYC presence like Xavier, Butler, Marquette, or Creighton. Teams we typically play at Carnesecca Arena anyways. I know those fan bases represent us well during the BET, but I don't think too many would show up in early November. OR we could play a F5 team. Maybe Syracuse or Duke again. Syracuse seems more practical, but really any F5 team would be fine.
Game 2: Big East vs Big East. For year 1 UConn should be one of the teams. Regardless, these 2 fan bases should be rooting for St. John's during game 1 if we play against a F5 school. Even UConn fans I'm sure would root for us against Syracuse or whoever else. That'd certainly give St. John's a nice crowd advantage for game 1.

With this arrangement there should be no issue selling out MSG. St. John's vs Nova sold out last year, and our other MSG home games were 16-19K. For that reason St. John's could play a team like Creighton game 1 and still sell out with a desirable game 2. Opening and ending the season at MSG would be awesome.

2. Nova, please don’t stop playing the Big 5. That’s a cool tradition and part of what makes college sports special.

1. When the Gavitt games are up, we need to make a serious push to get a scheduling agreement with the ACC. If memory serves me right, the Big 10/ACC challenge replaced the old Big East/ACC games. Need to bring that back. Would be great for the conference and college basketball. Syracuse and BC should always be playing one of: UConn, Nova, G’town, SJU, Hall, PC every year. Not to mention a 40 yr anniversary Carolina-G’town matchup with Ewing and Jordan present. Hell they should schedule that anyway if they haven’t.

So based on that I assume you're thinking a single ticket, 2 game event. The issue it doesn't solve is how do you convince one of the "game 2" teams to give up a Big East home game for it? Maybe UConn or Seton Hall would do it if you can guarantee enough tickets to cover their STH base and a regular home game worth of revenue - but SJU season ticket holders are going to want to be taken care of as well - and even if they get a ticket it likely won't be in their regular seats. Also, the SJU fans in the building (if they hang around for game 2) would likely root against them (especially against SHU) so they certainly wouldn't get a home crowd in that arrangement.

OmahaUberAlles wrote:2. Nova, please don’t stop playing the Big 5. That’s a cool tradition and part of what makes college sports special.

1. When the Gavitt games are up, we need to make a serious push to get a scheduling agreement with the ACC. If memory serves me right, the Big 10/ACC challenge replaced the old Big East/ACC games. Need to bring that back. Would be great for the conference and college basketball. Syracuse and BC should always be playing one of: UConn, Nova, G’town, SJU, Hall, PC every year. Not to mention a 40 yr anniversary Carolina-G’town matchup with Ewing and Jordan present. Hell they should schedule that anyway if they haven’t.

Unless data shows that the NET rankings favor 30+ point blowouts over SOS, then we can start a challenge with the AAC instead

OmahaUberAlles wrote:2. Nova, please don’t stop playing the Big 5. That’s a cool tradition and part of what makes college sports special.

1. When the Gavitt games are up, we need to make a serious push to get a scheduling agreement with the ACC. If memory serves me right, the Big 10/ACC challenge replaced the old Big East/ACC games. Need to bring that back. Would be great for the conference and college basketball. Syracuse and BC should always be playing one of: UConn, Nova, G’town, SJU, Hall, PC every year. Not to mention a 40 yr anniversary Carolina-G’town matchup with Ewing and Jordan present. Hell they should schedule that anyway if they haven’t.

The last pre-split Big East Challenge was with the SEC. I think the Gavitt games make a lot more sense than the ACC given the current set-up of the Big East. Renewing it would be my preference.