Realignment and Recruiting
On Sunday afternoon the Big East’s seven Catholic schools – DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, and Villanova – met with commissioner Mike Aresco to express concern over the future state of the league.
On Tuesday afternoon, ESPN’s Andy Katz reported that the Atlantic 10 was open to expansion should those seven schools be looking for new options.
As drastic as conference realignment has been to date, the potential of the Atlantic 10 being able to add those seven schools would forever alter the landscape of college basketball on the east coast and create an unprecedented amount of collateral damage.
Some of the first questions to be asked following such a move would include:
1. What would happen to the Big East? Would it cease to exist all together or would the league spread itself even thinner than it has already in hopes of self-preservation.
2. If the Big East did somehow survive, would it be looked upon as a “high-major league” by media, general public, and consequently recruits?
3. Would the Atlantic 10 earn the “high-major” label or would the east coast become an enhanced replica of the west coast, with only one true premier conference and another superior mid-major league?
4. What would happen to the three remaining schools in the Big East (Connecticut, Cincinnati, & South Florida)?
The answers to all four of these questions will have tremendous impact on the state of college basketball and consequently the state of college basketball recruiting.
Consider just the microcosm of the New England region. From an affiliation standpoint, Boston College could, theoretically, become the powerhouse program in the region, while UMass, Providence, and Rhode Island would now all be on level terrain. Most ironic, is the fact that UConn, the region’s flagship basketball program of the last two decades, finds themselves with the most uncertain future of all.
It wouldn’t be any different in the Metro region where suddenly Rutgers would become the only true high-major program. St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova would now be peer schools not only to Temple but also to Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and LaSalle among others.
That’s really only just the beginning as similar ramifications would be felt as far south as Tampa, as far west as Chicago, and virtually all spots in between.
From a recruiting standpoint, such moves would redefine the way we perceive conferences on the east coast, and that, in and of itself, will have far more impact on the recruiting process than anything we’ve seen in realignment to date.