Uconn and SU will play during rivalry week. The only conference foes to play on rivalry week that only play each other once. That in itself is a travesty. Its pretty dumb that ESPN is smart enough to realize the importance of Uconn-SU but our own league office doesn't.

Big East has to set up a system where certain teams have to play each other twice a year.

Uconn - SU
Pitt - WVU
Nova - GT
Marq - ND
Cincy - UL
RU - SH
St Johns - Providence
USF - Depaul (This was more because there was no other teams to match)

Scheduling in a 16 team league is very difficult.

My preference would be this: split the football and non-football teams into two divisions of 8.

Home and home against your division, and 1 game against 4 teams in the other division on a rotating schedule. 2 home, 2 away.

That's 18 league games. 14 against your division, 4 against the other division.

It will allow the league to stay together under the same umbrella, but would also strengthen the identity of the football league and help maintain the rivalries more like a regular all-sports conference.

It would mean that WVU, for example, would only host Georgetown once every 4 years, which sucks - - but I'd rather have all of the football schools twice a year than all the non-FB schools once a year.

Big East Football Division
UCONN
Syracuse
Rutgers
Pittsburgh
WVU
UC
UL
USF

Big East Non-Football Division
Providence
St. John's
Seton Hall
Villanova
Georgetown
DePaul
Marquette
Notre Dame

I think that was thought of, but some bitched about not getting to play everyone (pitino). But maybe possible now with all teams making the be tourney.

** Note that I don't know whether the 3 teams that are played twice will rotate over the length of the TV contract or not. Maybe someone else does (Omnicarrier?)?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2935460

The Big East Conference will play 18 conference games this season (2007-2008) for the first time since 1988-89, meaning each school will play all of the other conference schools once and three schools twice.

The 16-team league has been playing 16 conference games for eight years. That meant that some schools didn't play each other when the conference expanded to 16 teams two years ago.

"It's good that each team is playing every other team," Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese said in a statement. "It makes the conference schedule more balanced and we are still able to make some very attractive and intriguing matchups a second time."

The conference said that the opponents a school plays twice were based on "natural interest, geography, rivalries and television contractual obligations."

The schools and their "repeat opponents:"

Cincinnati: Connecticut, Pittsburgh, St. John's

Connecticut: Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Providence

DePaul: Notre Dame, Providence, Villanova

Georgetown: Louisville, St. John's, Syracuse

Louisville: Georgetown, Marquette, Rutgers

Marquette: Louisville, Notre Dame, Seton Hall

Notre Dame: Connecticut, DePaul, Marquette

Pittsburgh: Cincinnati, Villanova, West Virginia

Providence: Connecticut, DePaul, West Virginia

Rutgers: Louisville, Seton Hall, USF

St. John's: Cincinnati, Georgetown, West Virginia

Seton Hall: Marquette, Rutgers, USF

USF: Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse

Syracuse: Georgetown, USF, Villanova

Villanova: DePaul, Pittsburgh, Syracuse

West Virginia: Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John's

Hoquista Wrote:The conference said that the opponents a school plays twice were based on "natural interest, geography, rivalries and television contractual obligations."

There must be a lot of contractual obligations because the other factors don't seem to be there for many of the matchups.

LaRue777 Wrote:

Hoquista Wrote:The conference said that the opponents a school plays twice were based on "natural interest, geography, rivalries and television contractual obligations."

There must be a lot of contractual obligations because the other factors don't seem to be there for many of the matchups.

I think one of the contractual obligations remains that the pre-season top two teams meet twice - which would explain GT-Louisville.

Other than that, it is idiotic not to have Cincinnati and Louisville play each other twice every year as well as UConn and Syracuse.

BE schedule makers are

Cheers,
Neil

I'd say UC should play WVU 2 times a year as well... makes for compelling TV. WVU fans hate Cronin, and we all know the Huggins connection, thus is should equal good ratings and fun games.