(12-28-2012 01:33 PM)TheRock Wrote: 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.
Fine line between NEED and WANT.
Syracuse, mostly to appease fans, WANTS or would like to play its old conference mates. They absolutely do not NEED to play anyone.
As I stated in another thread, based on historical scheduling trends, Cuse is going to give up a home game annually in order to work in Georgetown and the expected St. Johns (MSG)/Villanova (Philly) rotation. While this on the surface does not seem like a big deal a non-conference Cuse home game is 17K-20K in attendance depending on whether or not the students are home. This is a sell-out for just about any C7 school.
Personally I do not see the need for St. Johns. I would rather play Uconn at MSG and the Dome but they would never go for that deal so St. Johns it is. They are not a rival in anyone but Boeheims head. More to the point Syracuse, as they do for the Meadowlands in football, does not need a NYC based team to rent out a venue. MSG is not owned by St. Johns. We can play anyone there and do as well if not better than St. Johns would do without Syracuse. Together it is a nice game.
If Villanova does not want to continue the relationship with Syracuse it would be Temple or one of the other area schools. Villanova will do everything in their power to make sure they remain top dog and part of that is keeping a relationship with the top dogs in Northeast College Basketball; Syracuse, Uconn, etc.
Georgetown and Syracuse are now a non-conference rivalry and that could mean the chance at placing the game where they want on TV. Neither school is stupid enough to blow that opportunity.
I am privately hoping that ESPN gives Cuse enough money to make up losing home games in order to continue games annually with more than just Georgetown. If Cuse was willing to go to 17 home games or at least get us out of that stupid ACC/Big Ten Challenge we could continue playing Gtown, St. Johns, Nova, and Uconn annually.