The following information needs to be repeated again because there are still some Fans Of BJ who think the new catholic league is going to get 6-7 bids a year:
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The catholic schools have split from the Big East leaving behind Cincinnati, Louisville, Connecticut, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Notre Dame. They plan on replacing those teams with schools like Xavier, Butler, Creighton, Dayton, Saint Louis, or Richmond. What should be abundantly clear at this moment is that the new "Big East" ain't the old Big East. All of the at-large bids the Big East receives each year is due to the tremendous assortment of powerful basketball programs - most of which the catholics are leaving behind.
Georgetown and Villanova have been strong programs as of late but they will surely suffer in recruiting and eventually quality of play due to having the likes of Butler and Dayton on their schedule instead of Uconn and Syracuse. Whatever bump the Butler's and the Dayton's of the basketball world receive in their program, it will be at the expense of the rest of the catholic 7. And the two premier C7 teams, Villanova and Georgetown will suffer the most.
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Do you think if we made a conference up of Wichita State, BJ, Butler, VCU, Xavier, Memphis, Gonzaga Dayton, New Mexico, and San Diego St. we would get 6-7 bids a year? Of course not. Each one of those teams would cannibalize the other until you were left with 2 or 3 at the top of the league available for NCAA consideration. That is exactly what is going to happen in the new Catholic league. Georgetown and Villanova will retain some cachet until they start getting beat by some of the mid-majors that joined the league with them. Then they will be screwed and will be considered overrated by the selection committee. The Big10, Big12, SEC, ACC, and Pac10, BigEast (old) will maintain the illusion of superiority because of their highly rated recruits and their season-long battle amongst their "elite" selves. If you people haven't learned by now that it is all about the "eye test", highly rated recruits (see: NBA eventuals), and brand name, you will never get it.
If the catholic league starts signing 4 and 5 star players who are eventually going to the NBA then things would be different, but you know that isn't going to happen. Those players are going to the SEC, Big12, Big10, and Pac10, Big East (old). The best thing that could happen for the league is for Georgetown to dominate and continue to recruit high-level players ala Memphis in CUSA. But I don't think Georgetown can be the type of team Memphis was with Calipari. Calipari can flat out recruit (regardless if he is a dirty, rotten cheat.).
Again, I see Georgetown and Villanova losing their shine, and while nobody will consider them a mid-major, they will be looked at like the Providences and Depauls of the world.. and that's sad. A very BIG mistake Gtown and Nova leaving the Uconn's and Syracuses of the world is/was.
I predict 2, maybe 3 NCAA bids year in and year out in the new catholic league. Still much better than the MVC on average, but I don't think they EVER break 4 bids which the MVC got in 2006.
Time will tell.
T
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