Great CBS podcast about UConn rejoining

[X Hoops 19]

I listened to the podcast a couple of weeks ago and thought that Parish had some laughable takes on there. I feel like he’s often put out some anti-Big East stuff ever since the split, but it was fun listening in real time to him realizing that these other conferences (Big 12 and SEC) really aren’t any better than we consistently are year in and year out.
As for the “UConn still has to hump it *all* the way out to Omaha” takes. It’s literally a flight that takes a full 40/45 minutes longer than the flight from Hartford to Chicago or Milwaukee. And that’s once a year for a game that every team in the conference already knows that they have to get up for because they’re going to be playing in front of 17,000 rabid Blue Jays fans.

[scoscox]

True, at least when you go to creighton you're gonna play a good team in front of one of the biggest crowds in the country. you go to smu, houston, tulane, and tulsa, which are even further, and have to play bad teams (most of the time), in front of 3,000 fans at the most.

[gtmoBlue]

Even the Creighton thing is overplayed, because the second and third iterations of the Big East both had a team in Florida that was a huge outlier. It just changes the direction that you travel to get to the one team that sticks out.

So according to this list USF is 1116 miles from UConn. NYC is 1285 miles from Miami (older iteration of BE). Same as CU.
So the Outlier stuff is directional crap.

[Django]

Is it Norlander and Parrish? I've been listening to them for a few years now, but I think it's Rothstein that claims the year-round coverage. Could be wrong on that one. Katz also does it all year. Norlander's as fair as it gets, and he's been very bullish on the Big East. Parrish is a Memphis homer.

Parrish is a Memphis homer? No wonder he took shots at the Jays, we ended Penny’s season, poached Antwann Jones (after he saw what 18K screaming basketball fans looks like), and Booker Woodfox stole Gary’s girlfriend (and yours too).

[Bogg]

Even the Creighton thing is overplayed, because the second and third iterations of the Big East both had a team in Florida that was a huge outlier. It just changes the direction that you travel to get to the one team that sticks out.

So according to this list USF is 1116 miles from UConn. NYC is 1285 miles from Miami (older iteration of BE). Same as CU.
So the Outlier stuff is directional crap.

Yea, when you really look at it it's just kind of like "Oh, okay, they're this version's Miami/USF". It's that there aren't a half-dozen of those outlier-type opponents. I mean, more accurately, UConn's going from being the outlier to a conference that has an outlier, which are two entirely different things.

[CPJays]

I suspect we'll become great baseball rivals with Creighton, annually competing for the conference title.

Soccer too. UConn will be the most prestigious program in the conference when they join, but Creighton has a really strong program, a long history of success and likely the best soccer facility in the NCAA. A little history together too, UConn beat Creighton in the title game to win the 2000 ship.

[GoldenWarrior11]

I listened to the podcast a couple of weeks ago and thought that Parish had some laughable takes on there. I feel like he’s often put out some anti-Big East stuff ever since the split, but it was fun listening in real time to him realizing that these other conferences (Big 12 and SEC) really aren’t any better than we consistently are year in and year out.
As for the “UConn still has to hump it *all* the way out to Omaha” takes. It’s literally a flight that takes a full 40/45 minutes longer than the flight from Hartford to Chicago or Milwaukee. And that’s once a year for a game that every team in the conference already knows that they have to get up for because they’re going to be playing in front of 17,000 rabid Blue Jays fans.

Some of the counter-arguments to UConn joining the Big East are simply not based in reality.

"But UConn could've still gotten into the ACC/Big Ten/Big 12 in a few years if they waited"
The Big 12 today said that they are not considering expansion. Multiple P5 commissioners have even said that they do not expect realignment at the P5 level until the next TV deals are up for negotiation. Even then, the only way there is movement is if Texas or Oklahoma decide to make a move, and that is looking less and less likely with each passing year. Even if Texas/Oklahoma do move, the Big 12 would then loss its P5-status, and - IF UConn was invited to yet another Frankenstein conference - they still would incur substantial travel costs while being at a table that sits outside the country club (not to mention once again earning a fraction of what the big boys make). UConn did wait (2013-2020) for an entire realignment cycle in a lesser conference (which was paid less than the Big East and lost its AQ status); it wasn't going to go through another cycle when it didn't have the war chest funds to finance its membership.

"The AAC is identical to the Big East in terms of basketball strength"
With UConn's departure, the AAC does not have a single program that has won a national championship since the 1960's. Power conferences are defined by power programs - teams that are capable of challenging for a national championship year-in and year-out. The Big East now has two, along with many programs that consistently challenge for NCAA Tournament births. In addition, even without UConn, the Big East was multiple spots ahead in KenPom, RPI and NET in every single season since the split. The gap will only widen. This also doesn't even go into attendance figures (regular season or conference tournament) - the Big East has the AAC beat far and away in this category as well.

"The AAC has multiple programs in fertile recruiting areas/markets that have not yet scratched the surface in terms of potential - UCF, USF, Tulane, ECU,SMU)"
Yes, this same line was used in 2013 to justify that these same programs were smart for the previous incarnation of the Big East. Spoiler alert: they weren't. If a program has a similar amount of tournament appearances as fingers on a hand in the past 30 years, it usually means their bread and butter ain't basketball. A historically bad basketball program is still a bad basketball program whether you are in New Orleans or Shreveport.

"The travel in the Big East is still bad, if not worse, than the AAC"
Clearly, many do not look at or read maps. The furthest school in the Big East (Creighton) is still closer than five cities in the AAC (Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Tulsa, Wichita). Additionally, Creighton gets a higher average attendance for a men's basketball game than Tulane, ECU, UCF, USF and SMU do combined. Between the shortening of travel and the increase of historical rivalries/fan interest, the geographic footprint is very much important. And, that doesn't even include the shortening of travel for the men's basketball tournament (which was in Orlando and will be in Dallas) in front of incredibly small crowds to MSG in NYC, which will be in front of sold out 20k each and every game.

[Xudash]

I suspect we'll become great baseball rivals with Creighton, annually competing for the conference title.

Soccer too. UConn will be the most prestigious program in the conference when they join, but Creighton has a really strong program, a long history of success and likely the best soccer facility in the NCAA. A little history together too, UConn beat Creighton in the title game to win the 2000 ship.

For what it's worth, Xavier apparently just landed the #7 ranked recruiting class for men's soccer in the nation:

https://goxavier.com/news/2019/7/15/mens-soccer-announces-nationally-ranked-recruiting-class.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2lA0_A4_RYBFgkRIAgpUqmfqMzzigZIaLUo8JI4J9vZ2BMBJxSwpY87pE

Beat out Creighton for two of the players.

I think UConn will find the Olympic Sports in the BE to be competitive.

[scoscox]

Soccer team had a down year last year, but are usually pretty good. Similarly, we've had a good recent history with baseball, and field good swimming and tennis teams

[NJRedman]

Man was it fun or what listening to Parrish realize in real time he actually has no idea what he's talking about in terms of the Big East. He literally only knew about Nova.