Conference play opened in the Big East this past week, but the group that had long stood out as the nation’s premiere college basketball league has crumbled as part of the money-driven, corporate-minded shift in college athletics. The conference’s vaunted history and rivalry match-ups have all but disappeared as a consequence of the reshuffling. Schools’ zealous quest for higher-paying television contracts seems to have undermined their interest in being part of a conference once considered the mecca of college hoops. Realignment will bring an end to a long-celebrated basketball tradition.
The Big East, established in 1979, retained only four of its seven original members: Georgetown University, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University and Providence College. The league was the brainchild of Providence athletic director Dave Gavitt ’59, who boldly aimed to start a strong basketball conference as opposed to a football-based one. Gavitt initially worked closely with St. John’s Jack Kaiser and Georgetown’s Frank Rienzo to build momentum, and they soon brought Syracuse University athletic director Jake Crouthamel ’60 into their circle. (Gavitt and Crouthamel were both fraternity brothers at Dartmouth’s now-defunct Beta Theta Pi fraternity.)
What do we lose as we witness this restructuring? The spirit and spectacle of the annual Big East conference tournament, held at Madison Square Garden each March since 1983, distinguished the league thanks to its of its intense and historic rivalries as well as its stellar play. The arena’s prominence gave the week-long gala the national exposure that helped propel the conference to basketball prestige. Teams and fans from across the Northeast would descend on New York City, and each successive win meant they could extend their stay in the Big Apple by another day.
When I attended last year, the crowd repeatedly saw a highlight reel chronicling the best moments of the tournament’s history. The swan song was a bittersweet goodbye to alumni from Big East schools who had long taken great pride in their alma maters’ inclusion in the renowned league. I could only imagine how my father felt, having been at St. John’s in the 1980s when the Johnnies were a national powerhouse and often feuded with the Hoyas.
The tournament has a long history of intense rivalries and games, including Syracuse University and the University of Connecticut’s six-overtime game in the 2009 quarterfinal, Kemba Walker leading UConn in 2011 to five wins in five straight days to win the title (the only school ever to do so in that fashion) and Walter Berry rejecting Pearl Washington’s layup at the buzzer to lift St. John’s over Syracuse in the 1986 final. But during the fast-paced realignment, rivalries like UConn and Villanova or Georgetown and Syracuse will no longer exist.
The Big East’s demise compromised legacy and history in exchange for lucrative media deals. Come March, the new bloc will play its postseason tournament at the Garden. But without the old teams, the tournament will not be the same.
