I posted this in the Big East forum, but the 2005-2012 Big East was an incredibly strong conference in not just men's basketball, but offered elite teams in football and women's basketball too. It was an imperfect marriage, but one that provided beauty and excellence from convenience. It was a mixture of both private and public schools, of urban/metropolitan and rural/state campuses, of football-first and basketball-first institutions, of old/established brands and up-and-coming/developing ones. There was, oddly, both individuality and cohesion. In basketball, you had elite hall-of-fame older head coaches in Calhoun, Boeheim, Pitino and Huggins, with young-up-and-coming coaches like JTIII, Dixon, Crean/Buzz, Wright and Cronin. In football, you top-10-level programs in West Virginia (Rich Rodriguez), Louisville (Bobby Petrino), USF (Jim Leavitt) and Cincinnati (Kelly), with top-25-level programs in Rutgers (Schiano), UConn (Edsall) and Pittsburgh (Wannstedt).

It was nothing short of miraculous that the league was high-level/power despite every single program continuing to have one foot out the door. It provided an edge annually where there was always rivalry and conflict, but there was also respect. It provided great competition and entertainment for not just fans and alumni of these schools, but to the casual viewer as well.

It is a shame that the powers-that-be determined that there was more value in these programs separated than together. When they were united, and I use this term lightly - since there was never really unity - it was historic and special. I will always have fond memories of the 2005-2012 Big East, and wish all programs (both in Big East and elsewhere) success in basketball and football.