Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/114977
Upon Further Review todd D. burlage A Sad End And A Bright Beginning L ike so many of us who have come to know, love, admire and appreciate Big East basketball during the last 30-plus years, Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey is yet another who can hardly believe that the proudest conference in the country will be only a memory about one month from now. ���It was a heck of a league,��� Brey said after a loss at Louisville this month became the last regular-season game his Irish will play in the Big East. ���Still hard to believe.��� With the Big East endlessly searching for a seat in this high-stakes game of conference musical chairs, the once proud league suffered its hardest credibility hit to date last week when seven of the eight Catholic member schools (Notre Dame the exception) announced their defection from the Big East and the formation of their own non-football conference. Adding insult to life support, the ���Catholic 7��� schools are not only pulling from current Big East jurisdiction, but they are also keeping the Big East name and will play their postseason men���s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City, leaving the hodgepodge group of schools remaining in the old Big East looking for a new conference name and a new home for their tournament. And while this ���mutually beneficial separation��� of the Catholic schools from their conference affiliation ��� as Big East commissioner Duke men���s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (above) will square off with his former assistant Mike Brey and the Irish in ACC play beginning next season. Photo by ken martin Mike Aresco called it ��� is anything but good for the future of his league, this dissolution is great news for the Irish because it expedites an exciting move to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notre Dame was willing to stay on as a loyal partner and delay its departure to the ACC from the Big East until at least the 2014-15 school year, provided the other Catholic schools stayed put. So when the defections of DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John���s, Seton Hall and Villanova