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Been stewing for the last few hours...

Unless i missed it, and correct me if i'm wrong, but the Big East league office hasn't put out a statement about the joke of getting only 3 bids.

Totally unacceptable. PR wise, we have to work the refs for next year and down the road. Throw a fit. We're relying on our coaches to make statements?

Not to bring up this again, but last March our commissioner joined a champagne ribbon cutting after our coach got poached by a conference member. And she didn't put out any kind of statement to just even acknowledge what happened. So, though i like Kim English better anyway, we Friars were treated like sh-t and completely disregarded, told figurately to go f-ck ourselves.

This March, the signal now goes to the rest of you-- the league won't fight for you, won't work the refs, does not have your back.

By the same token, the league sat passively last Summer when the Big 12 threatened to poach UConn... no warnings, no statements pushing back... just passively watching Yormark threaten and bluster. All of this is absolutely unbelievable to me.

If something is released tomorrow by our BE offices, then i'll re-think this thread. For now, we are getting hosed.

We have Bubba Cunningham, UNC guy, as a Selection Committee spokesman... and he'll be back next year. The ACC has been in a several-decade war against us-- they would like nothing better than for our conference to collapse... they just openly effed our conference brothers royally.

My important old story that i babble about regularly is how when the NCAA effed the Big East in 1981 or so (BET champ Syracuse (borderline deserving, which makes this even more significant) was snubbed before we had an autobid), Gavitt hit the roof, flipped out immediately, let it be known that it wouldnt happen again, and got himself placed on the Selection Committee. Protected us. Had our backs. Used maximum effort to make sure national clowns could not screw with is again.

Also, we can argue numbers and Quads and NET, etc forever, moving goalposts... bottom line, fvckin fight for our conference brothers, holy shit.

Anyway, still stewing... 3 bids is an absolute insult.

Also, several years ago we shouldve added Gonzaga. At this point, it might not be worth it, cuz they might be beyond their peak. But several years ago they shouldve joined with UConn.

Also, this isnt the fault of the round robin. It's the fault of a group of committee members who were not afraid to eff us over as a conference because our leadership is too effin passive.

I better get to bed before i start on crazier rants as the night goes on.

And for g-sakes, support going to a 96-team tournament. I am absolutely certain that we should do this.

Silence is deafening. That’s disappointing.

I’m still not sure about the need for expansion. I think it could be a knee jerk overreaction to a once in a generation oddity having this many bid stealers.

Omaha1 wrote:Silence is deafening. That’s disappointing.

I’m still not sure about the need for expansion. I think it could be a knee jerk overreaction to a once in a generation oddity having this many bid stealers.

I just wonder if we might with the transfer portal around see this year become far more normal with bid thieves. Where it takes teams until Feb. to gel. I mean lets take the Big East as an example. St John's lost to UConn by 5 points. St John's was 14-12 at one point.

Color me skeptical that a "statement" would change anything, either now or in the future.

Do not add Gonzaga. Travel would be a nightmare especially for the smaller sports

Couple more things...

1. If we adjust our scheduling, etc, based on the contradictory justification by the Committee, these pr-cks will just more goalposts next year anyway to justify fvcking us in some other ways.

2. Expansion talk isn't really the point of this thread, and anyway any sizzle of adding Gonzaga has lost its momentum. Shouldve been after the Zags made 2 Final Fours in 3 years or whatever. Mark Few is closer to retirement.

3. A BE League Statement--> would effect nothing for this 2024 Tourney, but it would aim to cement the correct narrative that the Big East got hosed, and we're p-ssed, and that we wont allow it to happen again. Work the effin refs. Flip over tables. Make fvckin noise. The league office absolutely cannot just sit and shrug and throw their arms up like "whaddya gonna do?" I mean, wtf??

4. Big East official statement would re-assure the 11 of us that the league has our backs.

I think this is going to be a huge scheduling lesson for the Big East.

(1) Bids are won in November/December and the league members had a lot of crappy losses early on. To top it off - some of the teams that did crappy in November/December turned it around in the league season and vice versa which is the like the worst outcome for bids.

(2) Is the round-robin even beneficial anymore? Or does it actually hurt teams to play each other twice? Should the league be aiming to play more teams (expand the league by 1 or 2 teams) and get rid of the round-robin? I like round-robin, but I also understand the criticality of getting more bids.

No matter how you slice it - 3 bids is not acceptable for the Big East. It's a terrible year for the league. Even having three high seeds doesn't overcome the lack of bids in my opinion.

This is a serious issue


To me it looks like the power conferences are playing dirty with the whole process. I always complained about the lack of transparency and solid rules in the selection process. It opens the process to manipulation and bias. It looks to me that the FB conferences have guaranteed themselves a certain number of bids and if anyone else crashes the party (Mountain West this year) they will take bids away from leagues such as the Big East.

Yeah, I know I'm falling into conspiracy theories. But there is no logical way for me to explain all three of St. John's, Seton Hall, and providence being left out.

On the ScoutFriars board, someone mentioned that the Committee admitted that they actually downgraded Seton Hall's win over UConn due to Clingan missing the second half. That is unbelievable to me. Wow.

billyjack wrote:On the ScoutFriars board, someone mentioned that the Committee admitted that they actually downgraded Seton Hall's win over UConn due to Clingan missing the second half. That is unbelievable to me. Wow.

makes me wonder if you guys would have gotten full credit beating Marquette w/o Kolek.