Final BE Tourny; some BE history

BrookJersey Redmen

Well-known member
2023 $upporter
Yukon doesn't get to play this year; but how do we not have any Tuesday afternoon games then. Last year with all teams competing we had a Tuesday day/night doubleheader?? I guess they added a bye??

The original BE members were ONLY 7 and including 5 Catholic schools and 2 that weren't: Yukon and SYR.

Here is a bit of trivia: what Mass. team declined an invitation to join the BE in its formation?: Holy Cross!

Were Villanova or Pitt original Members?: NO

Who were the original members: The 2012–13 academic year is the Big East's 34th year of existence.
The early years

The Big East was founded in 1979 when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut, Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College, with Rutgers and Holy Cross declining to join.

Villanova joined a year later in 1980 and Pittsburgh joined in 1982.

In 1982, Penn State applied for membership, but was rejected, with only five schools in favor (Penn State needed six out of eight). It was long rumored that Syracuse cast the deciding vote against Penn State, but Mike Tranghese confirmed that this was not the case and that Syracuse had, in fact, voted for Penn State's inclusion.

Football expansion

About a decade after the conference's inception, Big East members decided to become a major football conference and thus added five schools including Rutgers, Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia. The inaugural Big East football season launched in 1991. West Virginia and Rutgers joined the Big East as full members in 1995, and Virginia Tech joined as a full member in 2000. Temple remained a football-only member until 2004, when it was voted out of the conference due to poor attendance figures, lack of playing success, and inadequate facilities. The Big East offered Notre Dame a non-football membership effective 1995.

Credit Wikipedia.
 
Funny how, to me, Villanova seems like a long-time (founding?) member, while Pitt seems like a Johnny-come-lately.

Rutgers must have still been feeling the ether from the James Bailey years and thought,initially, that they were too big for the new conference.

Holy Cross? Wow, hard to imagine.

Miami and Va Tech never seemed like a good fit. I was sad to see BC leave. They were good fit and a good rival. The CC has done nothing for them (other than maybe more money). I've never paid attention to Big East football, so I have no recollection of Temple being a member. If this split hadn't occurred, they would have been a good basketball fit.
 
Interesting that the media keep referring to this as the final Big East tournament. It's certainly the final one from the point of view of UConn-, Syracuse-, and Pitt-centric scribes, etc., but the BE tournament will still be around and still be a major event. Granted, it'll have a much different feel to it at first, but with the BE-rich "C7" (grrr!) at its core and schools like Xavier and Butler coming on, it'll eventually have its own history and lore.
 
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