Talks have ramped back up on what the Big East will do with realignment to continue to remain competitive on the college sports landscape. While most talks are on who we should bring in to bolster football, there remains the quiet rumbling of who we can get rid of in our unwieldy, soon-to-be-17-member conference.
I propose a two out of three doctrine. There are three college sports seasons: Fall, Winter, and Spring. I'd argue that if you don't bring something to the table in the most valuable sport in the majority of seasons, consider yourself gone. Football clearly owns the fall, and everyone's got men's basketball in the winter. As for spring, considering the success of the teams that currently play Big East men's lacrosse, particularly as it compares to baseball, I'd consider men's lacrosse the banner men's sport.
Since everyone's got basketball, the eight (soon to be nine) football schools obviously meet that requirement. The folks on the chopping block are those who don't field football or lacrosse. I speculated not long ago that part of Marquette's motive for adding lacrosse may be to remain attractive to the Big East; under my doctrine they've done exactly that. The two teams that draw the short straw are Seton Hall and DePaul. For the record, neither did particularly well in basketball this past year either. Sorry, guys. Don't let the door hit ya.
I propose a two out of three doctrine. There are three college sports seasons: Fall, Winter, and Spring. I'd argue that if you don't bring something to the table in the most valuable sport in the majority of seasons, consider yourself gone. Football clearly owns the fall, and everyone's got men's basketball in the winter. As for spring, considering the success of the teams that currently play Big East men's lacrosse, particularly as it compares to baseball, I'd consider men's lacrosse the banner men's sport.
Since everyone's got basketball, the eight (soon to be nine) football schools obviously meet that requirement. The folks on the chopping block are those who don't field football or lacrosse. I speculated not long ago that part of Marquette's motive for adding lacrosse may be to remain attractive to the Big East; under my doctrine they've done exactly that. The two teams that draw the short straw are Seton Hall and DePaul. For the record, neither did particularly well in basketball this past year either. Sorry, guys. Don't let the door hit ya.
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