During March Madness, how I yearn for the "old Big East"

… it was a classy, exciting basketball conference 

The 1980s were a marquee time for the Big East Conference, formed in the late 1970s as a men's Div. I basketball conference to feature the top basketball schools in the East.

It started with a national title by Georgetown in 1984 and then a Villanova upset of Georgetown the next year, one in which three of the Final Four teams were from the conference.

The conference ran from 1979 until 2013 when problems with football drove many schools to seek other venues. During that time, the conference had 18 Final Four appearances and its teams won seven NCAA titles. The University of Connecticut under Jim Calhoun led the way with 3, while Villanova, Georgetown, Syracuse, and Louisville each had one.

In 2011, the Big East sent the most teams to the NCAA Tournament in one season in history, 11. That was 11 out of 16, an incredible accomplishment.

Formation

The conference was the brainchild of Providence Athletic Director in 1979, Dave Gavitt, and he invited St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse to join Providence, subsequently adding Seton Hall, UConn, Rutgers, and Boston College.

Villanova and Pitt joined shortly after that, making an outstanding basketball conference. Gavitt's dream was to rival the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and for many years, it gave them a run for their money as the top men's basketball conference.

Dissolution of Big East

The problem that arose in the conference centered around football since a number of the schools did not play at the Div. I level. Even today, Georgetown and Villanova play FCS, and at the time, UConn was not Div. I either -- though they later did play at that level. Providence, Seton Hall, and St. John's still do not have football.

In 2013, that conflict between the basketball and football schools came to a head, and today, while Villanova is the reigning national champion, the conference is primarily a Catholic one and includes teams not from the East. Other than the Wildcats, there are few top contenders since Georgetown is so bad.

Some of the former Big East schools like UConn went to the AAC (American Atlantic Conference). That was particularly sad since the UConn women have dominated college basketball on that end for more than a decade.

Excitement

The Big East men's basketball tournament was held at Madison Square Garden, so it had the New York media allure to give it some class.

Bottom line, though, it was an exciting conference. No one can compete with the ACC any more, and that is sad.

My favorite Big East win of all time was when Rollie Massimino's Villanova Wildcats upset Georgetown in 1985. While that was two Big East teams, I have some ties to Villanova, so they were my team.

Can Villanova repeat again? Perhaps, but I know that I will not watch one game of the current Big East tournament. It is just not the same.