Two articles about Boeheim's public push for to keep rivalries alive:

Quote:The Johnnies' most prized asset is their home floor, Madison Square Garden, and the rest of the league knows that. By leaving for the ACC, Syracuse is losing an opportunity to have its fans travel to the Garden for road games against St. John's. But Boeheim's looking to avoid that loss.

http://www.rumbleinthegarden.com/st-john...s-st-johns

Quote:We're talking w/ St. John's and Georgetown right now, and Villanova. We're heavily into talks," the coach said during a radio show on a local ESPN radio station. The plan, he says, is for the Orange to play two of their old rivals per year, rotating through the old Big East allies and hopefully retaining some of the old Big East magic despite removing the conference label from the games.

http://www.vuhoops.com/villanova-basketb...-discussed

Personally I believe Cuse, ND & Pitt need these games more than the C7. I think SJU & G'town could sell out their arenas with games against Duke, Kansas, UNC, Kentucky, etc. just as easily as they could with Cuse. And Pitt/ND/Loiuisville games could be replaced with many schools easily: Texas, Arizona, Gonzaga, Florida, Michigan & Mich St. come to mind.

Although it's not without risk, forming the C7 has opened up OCC scheduling to many opportunities and I hope C7 schools don't just give that flexibility away at the expense of recruiting opportunities for the nACC schools.