By the way, I really don't understand how ANYONE can criticize the performance of the Big East.

Even after losing schools like Syracuse and Louisville, it has still has a team that won 2 of the last 3 national championships, had 2 number one seeds this season, and 60% of its conference getting NCAA Tournament bids. This is all from a league that doesn't have any FBS football, much less Power Five revenue, and was thought to be a complete shell of itself 5 years ago (which it literally was after all of the defections). Even without FBS football, they still have a larger TV contract than anyone in the G5. I'm not sure what else the league needs to prove here.

Considering all of this, there has honestly no better run conference in the country than the current Big East since conference realignment has settled down. (That's saying something considering that the old hybrid Big East might have been the *worst* run conference in the country prior to that time.) It has maximized all of its assets and basically disarmed what was perceived to be its biggest disadvantage in conference realignment (a lack of football). The fact that the Big East has done all of this without mega-athletic programs and revenue like Ohio State, Texas, Florida, et. al is honestly a testament to their success and understanding their core product and brand in basketball (as opposed to trying to beat the Power Five at their own game in football that no one outside of that group will ever win).

You can look back at my posts from nearly a decade ago and you can see how much I thought the old Big East was crappily run back then. That's not the case any longer - no one has maximized their own assets over the past several years than the Big East. It's the only conference that has figured out consistent top level success both in terms of on-the-court performance and revenue without being a Power Five member. Other leagues ought to learn from them as opposed to whining about them.