I have come across many types of sports fans in my travels. There are people who follow players, people who follow teams, and people who follow entire sports. Their passions range from “I’m doing this for my dad” to “I wouldn’t miss this preseason game for my dad’s funeral.” I’ll admit to falling somewhere in the middle of that great divide. I caught the sports bug from my father and his love (or obsession, depending which of my parents you ask) for the University of Louisville Cardinals. Because I was baptized into Cardinal fandom at such an early age, I never truly understood how people could randomly decide to follow a team and get caught up in their wins and losses in the same way I could with my Cards. I have acquired tastes for players and teams over the years, but none of those relationships could be described as anything more than fleeting. Until recently.
About a week ago, my friends and I were talking for the umpteenth time about how ungodly loaded the ACC is for basketball. Without fail, these conversations always take on a mood of weltschmerz as one of us will eventually get around to saying something along the lines of “I’m glad we’re in the ACC and everything, but damn, it’s too bad they had to break up the Big East. It was just perfect.”
“Perfect,” I later think to myself. It really was. After I work myself into a fit griping over the the causes of the Big East’s ultimate demise, I check out some Big East previews to see how my old friend is doing. Perplexed and saddened by the lack of preseason buzz around the once great conference, I can’t help but wish things were different for these schools and their fans. Does it seem a little weird to suddenly get all sappy over your formal rivals’ demise? Perhaps. But let me explain by starting from the beginning.
Growing up in Kentucky, college basketball is the biggest thing around. It’s not until Kentuckians leave for college until we can truly understand how much of a niche market college basketball is. It turns out, not everyone follows the sport like we do. “Wait, you don’t remember Drew Neitzel? But he played at Michigan State for, like, ever! I think he’s still on scholarship!” But blank stares are all we get in return.
I came to appreciate college basketball fans so much more once I realized how few of us there really were relative to the rest of the sports Americans follow. It was harder to consider rival fans as my enemies when, in reality, they were my people. In a sports landscape dominated by football, the Big East was a haven for fan bases that could deal with a 4-8 season so long as it was followed by a 24-8 one (if they even had a football team). But it wasn’t just that the fan bases cared–Big East basketball was an event that could only be fully appreciated by those who lived and died with its results. If you don’t understand what I mean, then buckle up, kids, it’s time for a history lesson.
In 2005, the Big East essentially traded Boston College, Miami (FL), and Virginia Tech for U of L, Cincinnati, Marquette, South Florida, and DePaul. From a basketball standpoint, the moves turned out to be brilliant. Stacked with Hall of Fame coaches, programs steeped in tradition, and players who were consistently among college basketball’s best, there was rarely a night off in the Big East. Even if your school wasn’t playing a top ten team (and there were plenty), you still had to worry because the middle tier of the Big East was still better than the top tier in the SEC or the PAC-10 (remember that 2011 UCONN team that won the National Title? They finished ninth in the Big East that year.) Easy wins against the bottom-feeders? Perhaps, but most of them came equipped with at least one player who was too good to be on their team and could stick your favorite school with a bad loss any given night.
Sure, the physical style of play may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing, and yes, the refs were bad enough that how well each team played had less of an impact on the final score than it should have. But those factors just added to what made winning in the Big East so special: it was a grind in the purest sense of the word. The margin for error was simply too slim to let up on any possession without the other team ready to take advantage. In other conferences, a win was a triumph to be celebrated; in the Big East, a win was an act of survival that came with a sense of relief followed by a stiff reminder that another formidable game was only days away.
The Big East season was the ultimate test of a basketball team. Flat out, it just wasn’t enough to be a good team. You had to be able to handle the grind, or you were toast. Look up the 2008-09 seasons for Notre Damn and Georgetown. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
…
You’re back! I was worried. Anyway, crazy season, right?! Notre Dame returned the Conference Player of the Year and was ranked in the top ten in the preseason; the Fighting Irish beat the NCAA tournament’s number one overall seed, Louisville, by 33 in South Bend, yet couldn’t handle the grind of a Big East schedule. Georgetown was also ranked in the preseason and had a talented squad featuring multiple NBA players; the Hoyas beat two teams that made the Final Four and two more than made the Sweet Sixteen, but couldn’t play consistently enough to avoid losing to less talented opponents. That season, both Notre Dame and Georgetown looked at one time or another like they had the chops to make noise in the NCAA tournament–yet neither had what it took to make it through the conference schedule with a good enough resume to even make the Big Dance. (To be fair, the 2008-09 Big East is considered the greatest single season conference in college basketball history, featuring three number one seeds and two Final Four teams.)
Not too long after that epic 2008-09 season, conference realignment reared its ugly head yet again. Due to the disparity between money generated from college football and college basketball, the Big East was in a bad spot due to its lack of clout in the former. The end was near, we just didn’t know it–or perhaps we didn’t want to accept it.
Conference realignment has robbed college sports fans of rivalries and traditions that have made supporting their favorite teams such a rewarding experience. Of all the fans affected by the conference realignment blitz, Big East fans lost the most. The Big East was a formidable basketball conference long before Louisville arrived, but it’s currently struggling to adjust to its new reality. With only one team ranked in the preseason top 25, it’s unclear whether the Big East will be able to remain among the top conferences in college basketball. As a fan who’s been through the Big East grind, I know exactly what my counterparts whose teams were victimized by conference realignment are missing out on. At its peak, Big East basketball was one of the greatest dramas in television history.
Big East basketball was something so special, yet was truly appreciated by relatively few. It was something its fans experienced together–maybe not in the same location, but in the same spirit. By doing so, we formed a community. Even without having met them, I know something about every person who was a fan of a Big East school from 2005-2013. We share memories. Feelings of loss over what once was. Nostalgia.
Yet, there is still so much I don’t know. The Big East was around for far longer than the time Louisville was in it. I can’t know what it feels like for the people who followed the conference for twenty, thirty, maybe even forty years, only to watch it be reduced to a shell of what it once was and be told that it’s greatest accomplishments mean nothing because they were done with a round ball instead of an elongated one. I would imagine it’s best for my mental health that I stay ignorant of such feelings.
For some reason, I don’t want Big East fans to have to deal with those feelings, either. Maybe I’m a sap after all, but the fall from the top of college basketball to its middle class just doesn’t seem fair to the Big East programs who put in so much work to build it up. College basketball is all Big East fans have, and the current, watered-down product is unfitting of their passion and dedication.
Maybe I like a comeback story, maybe I hope that a successful Big East can be the middle finger I want to extend to everyone that contributed to the avalanche of conference realignment. Whatever it is, I really hope the Big East regains its former glory as a major power player in college basketball. You don’t have to hate all of your exes, ya know? Sometimes things just don’t work out. But the ending doesn’t change the good times we had.
To the Big East, thanks for the ride, I’m glad we could share it together. I’m sure you’ll get back on your feet one day, old friend. I know I’ll be rooting for ya.
*Section Photo credit to Brian Spurlock, USA Today Sports; Featured Photo (above) credit to Michael Heiman, Getty Images
