I have mentioned the concept many times over the last few years but never got around to illustrating how each team's actual basketball schedule might look if the Big East were to actually consider my concept of 18 full members.

I prefer Central Florida as the ninth football member, so they are used in my sample schedules for the purposes of this thread. If you prefer Memphis or East Carolina or Temple or Whodaephever, insert them mentally while reading.

SYRACUSE
host Connecticut / visit Connecticut
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

CONNECTICUT
host Syracuse / visit Syracuse
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

PROVIDENCE
host Rutgers / visit Rutgers
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

RUTGERS
host Providence / visit Providence
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

SETON HALL
host St. John's / visit St. John's
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

ST. JOHN'S
host Seton Hall / visit Seton Hall
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

VILLANOVA
host Georgetown / visit Georgetown
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

GEORGETOWN
host Villanova / visit Villanova
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

PITTSBURGH
host West Virginia / visit West Virginia
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

WEST VIRGINIA
host Pittsburgh / visit Pittsburgh
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

CINCINNATI
host Louisville / visit Louisville
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

LOUISVILLE
host Cincinnati / visit Cincinnati
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

ST. LOUIS
host Notre Dame / visit Notre Dame
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host Marquette / visit DePaul
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

NOTRE DAME
host St. Louis / visit St. Louis
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / vist Seton Hall
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host DePaul / visit Marquette
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

MARQUETTE
host DePaul / visit DePaul
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host South Florida / visit Central Florida

DePAUL
host Marquette / visit Marquette
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host Central Florida / visit South Florida

CENTRAL FLORIDA
host South Florida / visit South Florida
host Syracuse / visit Connecticut
host Providence / visit Rutgers
host Seton Hall / visit St. John's
host Villanova / visit Georgetown
host Pittsburgh / visit West Virginia
host Cincinnati / visit Louisville
host St. Louis / visit Notre Dame
host Marquette / visit DePaul

SOUTH FLORIDA
host Central Florida / visit Central Florida
host Connecticut / visit Syracuse
host Rutgers / visit Providence
host St. John's / visit Seton Hall
host Georgetown / visit Villanova
host West Virginia / visit Pittsburgh
host Louisville / visit Cincinnati
host Notre Dame / visit St. Louis
host DePaul / visit Marquette

I should add that for women's basketball, Rutgers and Connecticut would play twice, which leaves Syracuse and Providence to play twice by geographical default. That is how Rutgers ended up with Providence on the men's side.

I do not see a reason to split into divisions. Just play everybody once and your main rival a second time. The idea is supposed to be that it is one united conference and divisions only project a picture of division. Okay. Have at it.

i hope that doesn't happen to tell you the truth... 16 = too many 18 = huge clusterf**k.

Its not worth it to split the pie even more. Not convinced adding those teams (or any mentioned) would add enough to the revenue pot yet.

Would you mind working it out and showing me how a 24 team big east schedule will work with the existing BEast teams plus UCF, ECU, Memphis, UMass, Temple, S. Miss, Delaware, Rhode Island

16 or 18 teams is sorta like 8 or 9 beers...the point of no return passed at 12 teams/6 beers ie you can't blast 18 and be cool with 16... Your concept is better than the present format. Yet, i like:

east
Prov
Uconn
Syra
ST J
Rut
SH
Nova
Gtown
Pitt

West
Dep
Mar
St Louis
ND
WV
Cincy
Lville
Mem
S.F.

Play 4 teams in your division twice, 4 teams in your division once. Play 1 team in the other divison twice, and 4 teams once for 18 games. 16 teams head to MSG for conf tourney.

Bluesox, that would seem to make sense. However, it would take 18 years for one full rotation!
You could knock it down to 4 years if you're willing to have interdivision rivals that play twice every year, but then geographic divisions wouldn't make much sense. USF and St. Louis have no rivals in the east division.

If it looks like a duck...really when your up to 16 or in this case 18 teams, why kid yourself, its not one league so don't bother to make it one, but you can have two de facto leagues with the divisions. Play 12 division games, 4 teams twice, 4 teams once, than pair off each school with a rival from the other division, ie pitt-wvirg and have them play twice. Thus, with the 4 remaining games you could play 4 school's from the other division once and rotate those school's ever two years after a h/a series so you would play each school from the other division twice, h/a, in 4 years. Also, i like putting w.virg in the east and pitt in the west but not sure pitt would go for it. If the big 10 ever picks off somebody, than you add c.flor to the mix...well if they pick off ND than maybe you go with a bball only, say holy cross/umass/bu which fixes the one problem i don't like with this set-up, ie it doesn't have a school in Massachusetts. In the end going up to 18 teams, one hoop and one football is probably the way to go for the short term before a split. For starters, it might work but even if there is a split, each side is better off with 9 teams going off into a post split future than with 8...8 just doesn't work for a football league or a hoop league...so i would expand to 18, set say a 5 year timeframe, than have a get out of jail card at that point for each side.

There is no need to do divisions if you really do not have to. Under my model, each team plays every other team once, and then gets a second game against their fiercest rival. Once a league gets bigger than 10 teams, you can't play everybody twice anyway, so let it go.

Now what is the difference in a 12-team league playing everybody once and seven teams a second time when compared to an 18-team league playing everybody once and their fiercest rival a second time? The end result is 18 conference games no matter how you look at it.

Rick Pitino pointed out at the start of the season that Louisville's schedule was unfair because the Cardinals received tougher opponents in order to create sexier television games. That kind of unfairness is erased under my model because there is only one way to schedule.

The same thing he complained about under the Big East's current scheduling system can happen under any scheduling model where you play a handful of teams, but not every team, a second time. It is better for every team if the chances of such imbalances are nullified.