What would the basketball conference structure be with 20 basketball schools?
Northern Div:
Uconn
Syracuse
Rutgers
UCF
USF
ECU
----
Providence
St. Johns
Seton Hall
Villanova

Southern Div:
Pitt. U
W. Virginia
Cincinnati
Louisville
TCU
Houston
----
Marquette
DePaul
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Basketball would have two divisions of Ten teams each or one conference and everyone playes each team once. Tks, Mr.P3242

Four Pods of 5

TexanMark Old School BE Pod

Cuse
Georgetown
Seton Hall
Pitt
St. John's


SF Husky Hey Look at Me Pod

Uconn
Nova (assuming they join for FB)
Providence
Rutgers
WVU


Wilkie CUSA Retro Pod

Ville
Cincy
UCF
Houston
DePaul

Terry/Quo Vadis Newbie Pod

Notre Dame
TCU
USF
Marquette
Memphis or Butler BB Only

This is my first draft...not totally happy yet...trying to balance them but pretty tough.

I don't like that lineup, Mark. It's missing something on all levels...

No divisions. Go to 20 games, play round robin with 1 permanent team you play twice.

4 5 team pods definitely. I think along these lines:
Northeastern:
Providence, UConn, Cuse, St. John's, Georgetown
Mid-Atlantic:
Rutgers, Nova, Pitt, Seton Hall, WVU
Midwestern:
Notre Dame, DePaul, Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati
Southern:
TCU, USF, ECU*, Houston*, UCF*

We'll just assume these three for arguments sake. On the other hand if the expansion is to 18 schools I'd go with two 9 team divisions:
American:
DePaul, Providence, Syracuse, St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, Seton Hall, Notre Dame
National:
Rutgers, WVU, Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn, Pitt, TCU, USF, FB school #10

brista's setup makes more sense. But I'd break up Rutgers and Seton Hall. Swap Seton Hall for Syracuse, and it fits better. Although the Southern Pod will probably be the weak link longer with that setup...

However, brista's setup for 2 divisions of 9 schools each will only serve to separate Syracuse from the other football schools. Let football school #10 be the odd man out. It will help intergrate an outsider...

(06-19-2011 10:29 AM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I don't like that lineup, Mark. It's missing something on all levels...

Who cares about the lineup? I love the names that he chose for the pods. That is hilarious.

I would like to see the Big East get rid of some of their "staple" hoops schools. I know it would stink to do without St. Johns and Seton Hall and Georgetown, but some of these schools don't offer any value. Football is king.

(06-19-2011 02:27 PM)cfb23 Wrote:  I would like to see the Big East get rid of some of their "staple" hoops schools. I know it would stink to do without St. Johns and Seton Hall and Georgetown, but some of these schools don't offer any value. Football is king.

I strongly disagree. The bb schools may not offer as much value as the fb schools, but I would never say they dont have any value. As bad as a school like Seton Hall has been performing, they still help to solidify the BE presence in New Jersey. St Johns and Georgetown bring TREMENDOUS value to the BE. Just look at how much face time St Johns got this season for regaining its bb prowess. This very large tv deal that we are looking forward to the league signing has a lot to do with markets, namely, the markets that the bb schools deliver.

Thinking more about this, if the Big East expanded to 20 and wanted to keep 18 games, the pod system would work very well. You could play the other four teams in your pod twice and then play all the teams in 2 of the 3 other pods, rotating out a different pod each year. That would give you two games against some of your rivals and keep everyone only missing outside teams 1 out of 3 years. The conference probably wouldn't want formal divisions then though, the pods would just be a mechanism for scheduling.

(06-19-2011 11:39 AM)bitcruncher Wrote:  brista's setup makes more sense. But I'd break up Rutgers and Seton Hall. Swap Seton Hall for Syracuse, and it fits better. Although the Southern Pod will probably be the weak link longer with that setup...

However, brista's setup for 2 divisions of 9 schools each will only serve to separate Syracuse from the other football schools. Let football school #10 be the odd man out. It will help intergrate an outsider...

I think it makes more sense to keep Georgetown with Syracuse and Seton Hall with Rutgers in the pod system, that way they play their 2 games every year. Same with WVU/Pitt, Cincy/Louisville, etc.

In the 2 division format, I think you really need to keep the rivalry teams together, then go from there. Maybe something like this:

Div 1 - Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UConn, Villanova, USF, team 18
Div 2 - Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, DePaul, Marquette, Providence, St. Johns, TCU
Someone is always going to be complaining no matter what kind of allignment is come up with tho.

20 is too many freaking teams...no no no

(06-19-2011 10:43 AM)brista21 Wrote:  4 5 team pods definitely. I think along these lines:
Northeastern:
Providence, UConn, Cuse, St. John's, Georgetown
Mid-Atlantic:
Rutgers, Nova, Pitt, Seton Hall, WVU
Midwestern:
Notre Dame, DePaul, Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati
Southern:
TCU, USF, ECU*, Houston*, UCF*

We'll just assume these three for arguments sake. On the other hand if the expansion is to 18 schools I'd go with two 9 team divisions:
American:
DePaul, Providence, Syracuse, St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, Seton Hall, Notre Dame
National:
Rutgers, WVU, Louisville, Cincinnati, UConn, Pitt, TCU, USF, FB school #10

Brista: I like your idea of four pods of five teams each. How about this line up?
Pod 1. Uconn, Providence, St. Johns, Rutgers, Syracuse
Pod 2. W. Virginia, Pitt. U, Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall
Pod 3. TCU, Houston, UCF, USF, ECU
Pod 4. Marquette, DePaul, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Louisville
This might make some of the old BB schools a little happier. Tks, Mr.P3242

Future TV contracts will most likely have a "say" in any conf schedule...as they would WANT to see as many "top" games as possible (i.e. maybe more rematch/feature games...which might mean teams may not play all members every season).

Odds are...whatever TV wants...they will get.

(06-19-2011 10:42 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  No divisions. Go to 20 games, play round robin with 1 permanent team you play twice.

+1

2 divisions the top 6 in each division go to the Big East tourney in the Garden.

Division 1:
1.)Cincinnati
2.)Connecticut
3.)Georgetown
4.)Louisville
5.)Pittsburgh
6.)Rutgers
7.)St. Johns
8.)Syracuse
9.)Villanova
10.)West Virginia

Division 2:
1.)Butler*
2.)DePaul
3.)Houston*
4.)Marquette
5.)Notre Dame
6.)Providence
7.)Seton Hall
8.)Texas Christian
9.)UCF*
10.)USF

I also wouldn't mind round robin.

(06-19-2011 10:42 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  No divisions. Go to 20 games, play round robin with 1 permanent team you play twice.

So, who would the teams be?

Georgetown-Syracuse
Cincinnati-Louisville
Pittsburgh-West Vigrinia
St. Johns-Villanova
Rutgers-Seton Hall
UCF*-USF
Houston*-Texas Christian
Connecticut-Providence?I feel bad for Connecticut...
DePaul-Marquette?
Butler*-Notre Dame?

It would be better if you had DePaul and Providence matched up. They are more evenly matched against each other, as are UConn and Marquette. All teams stand better chances at playing competitive games as a result...

I hope we never see 20 teams. In fact I doubt we will, because if we go to 12 football teams, I am pretty sure one will be Villanova, which leaves 19 teams. Anyway, if you have 19 teams, simply play 18 games, which is one game against every team. Then tell the teams they have the option of scheduling mirror games as non-conference games (the Big Ten has done this before), this way assuring you play every team, and can play round robin against teams you want to.

Then, you have a pre-season conference tournament, that would be similar to the pre-season NIT. The teams would be seeded based on order of finish in the regular season the previous year, with the post season conference tournament champion the host of the final four. This gives the BE a unique way to kick off the season, allows everyone to get some games under their belt to prepare for the OOC season, and allows teams to play extra games against conference foes, but guaranteed to add no more than one loss to their record. Oh, and just for fun, the winner of the pre-season tournament is guaranteed a bye or double-bye (depending on the set up) regardless of finish in the regular season. So for example, using the current tournament set up, the winner of the pre-season tournament is guaranteed to have no worse than the number four slot in the tournament, even if they finished in 12th place.

(06-20-2011 10:16 AM)adcorbett Wrote:  I hope we never see 20 teams. In fact I doubt we will, because if we go to 12 football teams, I am pretty sure one will be Villanova, which leaves 19 teams. Anyway, if you have 19 teams, simply play 18 games, which is one game against every team.

Yep. If we go to 20 and one is Villanova, an 18 game round robin makes the most sense.

Only problem with uneven teams is that two teams will have to schedule a nonconference opponent or day off each week (one for the weeknight games, one for the weekend games). Of course that will happen regardless of the divisional structure or lack thereof if there is an odd number of teams (the league will have to do that when we join in 2012).