The History of the Big East: College Sports' Ozymandias

[@lukeontheplains]

Alright, tried something new with this one and focused more on team movement than team successes. Let me know if you like this focus more or not. Any suggestions on how to improve these videos for the future are always helpful!

[@ktrefz1234]

loved the video and topic

[@Asa2]

The Minecraft music hits different 😂 although I’d love to see a video on the Big 10

[@NC-youtube]

Once all the madness with the PAC 12 is over, you should do a part 2

[@donovanmclaughlin4830]

Yes a part 2 describing what will happen tothe remaining four teams of the Pac12

[@launchbase4944]

​@@donovanmclaughlin4830we don't know what will happen yet

[@Play3r21]

@@donovanmclaughlin4830 *remaining two teams

[@dylanwoods242]

Well well well

[@B3FMandCProductions]

Great video! Quick note on 2004 realignment. As you mentioned, the ACC originally wanted Syracuse but took Virginia Tech instead. That was because then-Virginia governor Mark Warner didn't want VT stuck in a weakened Big East. He put pressure on the UVA president to get their in-state rivals into the ACC and the Hokies ended up getting the nod over the Orange

[@kevinbergin9971]

I was going to mention that and add that the original lawsuit included VT joining the Big EAST members in that lawsuit. Once they got the okay, for ACC, they dropped out of the lawsuit and Syracuse-now rejected-joined it. Kind of like not being invited to the popular kid's birthday party and trashing it until your invite shows up later in the mail.

[@otisboy6714]

As a primarily CBB fan who’s only recently started getting more in CFB it’s always crazy to me the difference in narrative of the Big 12 and Big East In CFB they are considered dying (or dead) conferences But in CBB they’re consistently the best in the entire sport

[@patrickb33339]

I’d love to see you do a Big 10 history video, your work is amazing.

[@KevinConwayChannel]

This channel is wickedly underrated. Keep it up. Rip pac12

[@BNiche]

Fantastic video! Only edit - you missed Butler's addition to the Big East alongside Xavier, making the new Big East a 11 team conference with UConn rejoining.

[@imhappy5266]

As Mountain West fan and casual Historian I would love to see a video on the MW conference. It is in such a interesting breaking point rn

[@lakerskid2013]

I remember growing up watching the Big East Conference in football, actually I miss it quite a lot. My favorite team is Florida but I remember the chaos from 2007 which felt like the Big East contributed to a lot of it. I’m hoping the Pac-12 can somehow survive this with these realignments, hopefully they form a merger with the Mountain West to form a new conference so they can still be part of the Power 5, maybe a new conference name like Pac-West or something similar.

[@kyleb5169]

That would be ideal but that's predicated on the conference getting a bigger media deal. The MWC only brings in 4 million a year to split between its current schools. If the 4 Pac 12 schools join, I'm not sure the conference would get enough additional revenue from the media deal to avoid deluding an already small pot of money. While it would be good from a football perspective, monetarily it doesn't seem like they add enough value to convince the MWC to accept them.

[@mongoslade277]

​@@kyleb5169I think he meant 4 Mountain West schools joining the Pac 12 to replace USC & UCLA in 2024 & Oregon & Washington the year after

[@Joshua-uw7wm]

When I was a kid I would watch the old big east basketball games and rooted for St. John's just because it was the only college basketball that came on regularly.. man that Florida joke was great

[@NA.NA..]

Great video, but 1 massive flaw timeline wise . It was Pitt and Syracuse who announced that they would leave before West Virginia. The big east was STABLE in 2011, not great but stable, but in September 2011. They had invited TCU they were fine. However it was Pitt and Syracuse who announced that they would leave for the acc first in September 2011. It wasn't until later in October that WVU & TCU announced they had been accepted into the big 12. So yes I guess you could say WVU saw the writing on the wall, but the writing we saw was the Graffiti left by Pitt Syracuse and the rest of the dirty pole up their rear acc schools. Pitt and Syracuse ended the big east not WVU

[@christopherwebb3517]

That's a common mistake because West Virginia negotiated an early exit. So they actually left first, but their announcement came after Pitt and Syracuse.

[@marcus813]

Then-commissioner Mike Tranghese found out about Pitt and Cuse leaving from Brett McMurphy and Tranghese was hot about that.

[@sunsensational]

UConn was a football member in 2002. Not 2005

[@NA.NA..]

@@sunsensational were they accepted in 2002 and didn't play a Big east schedule till 2004?

[@jlop6822]

Cuse fan here. Pitt is our prevailing rivalry now, but it feels dirty, and we both deserve it. It’s like a prospective couple that cheats on their significant others and ends up together. You’re together, but deep down, neither feels good about it. I miss the old big east. I didn’t have anything to do with the realignment. I want it back. The funny thing is, it’s not even that the ACC is “too good.” It’s just that the old big east was authentic, it was real. And that made it amazing.

[@scottkessel952]

As a Wvu fan I wish we would have followed Joe Pas ideas of super conference for the Northeast. Would make so much more sense now. Would much rather play Pitt Penn St and Va Tech

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

I still don’t see why WVU wasn’t “allowed” to join the ACC. Nowadays I feel the same about UConn

[@ajnboilerup]

You forgot to add Butler to the Big East in the 2010s.🐶

[@ramencop2993]

This was a lot of information I didn’t know I needed, what a guy

[@gagemartin7207]

I wish football wasn’t the end all be all of college sports cause big east was a great conference that was destroyed by schools leaving for football money

[@lakerskid2013]

I miss the Big East also, it was pretty good for college football. Now everything is all about money and isn’t the same anymore. The only good things happening nowadays at least are having a college football playoff system and now it’s going to be expanded to 12 teams, although in my honest opinion I think 32 is the most it could be expanded to. I mean if you have a top 25 rankings system and you’re ranked, you’re automatically in and then at that point it’s 7 at-large teams with the most votes. Heck if you’re good enough to be ranked, you should have a chance to compete for a national championship. Now the FCS has a 24 team format, but for FBS if it expanded farther than 12 then I think 32 would be the maximum amount that could be feasibly done.

[@stephenshaw7593]

The new Big East is still the old Big East as far as I'm concerned. Most of the charter members of the original conference remained in the new conference and it retained the basketball programs from the Northeastern Catholic schools

[@__hjg__2123]

yup- living in 1982...................

[@TheAlfrulz]

Love the presentation. I like the way you use the graphics to help reinforce the narration. It would be too difficult to just listen to audio of teams coming and going year in and year out. Also the vintage commercials are a nice break and to start a new segment on the video. I would've liked to see more of team or conference successes. The questions that came to me as I watched were "When did the Big East peak? How strong was the Big East competitively and financially compared to the other major conferences of their time?"

[@mongoslade277]

The Big East peaked in the mid 1980s. They had a big contract with ESPN. In 1984 & 85 they had the national champion in college basketball. In 1985 they had 3 of the Final Four teams. If Boston College didn't lose to Memphis St at the buzzer they would had all 4 teams of the Final Four. That was the peak period. Then Dave Gavitt the commissioner left. Then they said no to Penn State. Football won out. All of this nonsense realignment is bc of football

[@rustyshackleford8819]

Love this content on the Big East, especially tying it in with the Metro. Not sure if it’s in the works, but a Conference USA/Ship of Theseus retrospective would be phenomenal

[@MetalGod999]

Awesome video, Lucas! I’m so happy you did a video talking about the history of the Big East, and it was perfectly written. Great job, dude, and keep up the great work. 👍👍

[@northodges]

the summoning salt reference was 🤌🏼

[@Humbucker75]

I hate that you’ve made such amazing videos outlining all of this and then all of this realignment madness happens. These are great though. Keep them coming!!!

[@myislander]

Love your vids. As a Southern Miss fan, the Metro is one of the biggest what if’s in my mind…. Along with then watching as teams we regularly beat (Louisville, Cincy, TCU, Va Tech, Tulane, UCF, USF, SMU…..) pass us by because we are not a big enough TV market. Would love to see a hypothetical video on if the Metro had been able to work.

[@zacharyrome3432]

The Big East will always be remembered as a wonderful era in WVU history !

[@robertewalt7789]

I remember when Big East started, very exciting to follow East Coast basketball in those days.

[@andrewalden8364]

I grew up on the Big East. Living in DC in the 80’s I was naturally a Hoyas fan, my Dad, having grown up in Syracuse, was an Orangemen fan. The Big East Tournament in March was like a religious holiday. I miss those days. I ended up attending WVU and had good memory of the Big East. I wish WVU had their geographical rivals. I think it will go back to that in about 10 years.

[@JoshuaSquirrell377c4a]

Pretty solid content - appreciate the Big East love

[@treymagathan847]

Thanks for doing this, man. Even as a KU fan, I have to admit your work here is impressive.

[@lukeontheplains]

Lol 🤝

[@BromanderInChief]

12:33 I understood this reference. The Pac-12 taking the Conference Implosion world record from the Big East was not foreseen though

[@zerof0rce]

Great video, love the old logos and TV spots. Keep it up!

[@willbowden6897]

Are you eventually going to do all the FBS conferences or just the “power” ones? I’m curious how you’ll handle the whole WAC/MWC/Big West thing because that’s even more confusing than the Big East/AAC/ACC one haha (and it could get even more confusing with the PAC falling apart).

[@lukeontheplains]

I don't know yet. Big 12, Pac and Big East were all topical based on events going on. Big 12 obviously with the new 4 (now 6 I guess), then PAC with the smoke on Colorado and Arizona, and then Big East because of the parallels.

[@mongoslade277]

The WAC/Mountain West is easy. The death of the WAC was expanding to 16 teams. That was death of them. When the 8 bigger market schools left to create the Mountain West. The money was too spread out. The slices of the pie was smaller bc there were more mouths to feed. After the upcoming death of the Pac-12 it'll be the Power 4 with 16 teams per conference. Those 64 teams will leave the NCAA and do their own thing

[@Leftlane4passing]

Another heater, love these videos man. I know you focused more on movement rather than success, as mentioned in your comment, but I would watch a 45 minute video if you made one.

[@Redmenace96]

Great vid. Brings back a lot of forgotten events! As a fan, I passed through all of these changes. I didn't really understand what was happening until I read a more in-depth article on revenues. Pure gold if you could do research on the amounts of revenue and expenditures of these schools and the sports. Especially the history of the TV contracts and basketball v. football. Most people have no idea how much money is on the table.

[@jonathanmodisette6997]

Loved the speed run nod. I thought i skipped ahead to summoning salt

[@teddiwooper]

The Big East from 2005-2013 was special man. As a Louisville fan I absolutely regret us joining the ACC as they've never really accepted us as one of their own. Only good thing was reigniting our rivalry with Duke and being able to play old conference rivals Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

[@carsonc29]

I honestly wish the B12 would have invited PITT and Louisville instead of the ACC..I think had they done that in 2013, maybe OU and Texas at least think twice before leavign as a better TV deal could have been attained with them on board

[@jlop6822]

And they never will. I’m a Syracuse fan, and it’s been over 10 years now. Nothing has changed. We’re still the fringe guys…it’s a big club and we’re not in it. The ACC is lame. Tobacco Road calls the shots, and the rest fall in line. The old BE had personality and parity. Every corner a new challenge, a different battle. It bred rivalries that didn’t even make sense, but it did because it was the Big East. You can’t replicate greatness

[@teddiwooper]

@ well said friend

[@luigidon3761]

I been loving these conference history vids! Keep up the good work

[@steelcitymeech7703]

Yoo I vividly remember when TCU was set to join the Big East 2 years after their Rose Bowl year😭 that would’ve been weird asf

[@girlwithaguitar24]

I would love to have seen the alternate universe where Penn State joins the Big East rather than the Big !0. Not only does it likely lead Notre Dame to join as a full member, but Miami, VT, Boston College never leave so early. Imagine Miami, Penn State, Notre Dame, Louisville and Cincy fighting it out over the last few years

[@manuelduran5912]

Addicted to this series, keep it up!

[@blakelyhall8191]

Mr. Ontheplains!! Love your stuff and I appreciate all the low key and subtle admiration you direct to my Razorbacks in the videos ❤ Thank you for doing the lords work and please keep rocking in the free world!

[@yayhay1]

You forgot that the new big East added Butler as well. Still a very good video.

[@pageboy25]

these videos are AMAZING! keep it going!

[@dwolfe401]

As a Penn State fan born in 94 , it's always confused how this school didn't end up in the Big East and then eventually the ACC , seems like it would made much more sense from rivalries.

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

Penn St and WVU would make more sense in the ACC to me. Maybe UConn now. pillaging the PAC12 just seeemed to jump the shark. And all this talk of the SeC and B1G taking apart the ACC is just absurd

[@howIegendsaremade]

One thing I wish you mentioned is that Rutgers was in the AAC for a year or two before the B10 move

[@chriscline2652]

Loved that old Big East. Good Video.

[@Skiller71Studios]

Please make more videos. These are awesome.

[@yasugi0153]

Bro your account is so underrated

[@dennisduhon3791]

Great video! Finally KZbin recommended me good content!

[@Hiou077]

I like the Minecraft music, a bit out of place it it definitely fits

[@DioChicken]

The WAC would be interesting especially with the attempt to rejoin the FBS and the recent conference merger

[@mongoslade277]

Nah the WAC died. RIP to the WAC & even the old SWC. The Pac-12 is next

[@marcus813]

USF alum here. I remember when we got the invitation to the "old" BIG EAST along with DePaul, Cincinnati, Marquette and Louisville. I was happy that we got to play football at the highest level. Too bad USF football fell off when the old conference was on its last legs. I miss the conference's late 2000s iteration because that was one of the most formidable men's hoops leagues in Division I.

[@JFerg393]

As a native Syracusan, this was well done and a pleasure to watch

[@Annunaki2012return]

You deserve more subscribers

[@patpozzuto4809]

You got off to a good start... but when TCU was invited to the BIG EAST there was no such thing as "G5", TCU was simply a non BCS AQ FBS conference member!

[@kevinbergin9971]

9:40 In that original lawsuit VT joined the Big EAST members against A.C.C. expansion. Once they got the okay, for A.C.C. membership themselves, they dropped out of the lawsuit and Syracuse-now rejected-joined it. Kind of like not being invited to the popular kid's birthday party and trashing it until your invite shows up later in the mail.

[@kevinbergin9971]

Depending on how many major conferences are left? SEC/BIG 10/Big 12 or even a remodeled ACC/PAC-12. some of the former P-5 schools may find themselves without a chair once the music stops.

[@DWat01]

Keep it up man. Love these videos

[@TheLucasValone]

That asterisk is doing some heavy lifting at 5:41... woof

[@zachellenburg5738]

I would love to see an ACC history video.

[@kevinhill6854]

Another great video

[@itsjustme11]

Looks like someone has found a niche. Keep up the good work!

[@weslittlereptilefamily3418]

Dude, you’re good at this.

[@winstongraves8321]

These are so good

[@richrivers1232]

Good video, well done. My one comment - claiming BC was one of the "better" football schools when the ACC raid happened is silly. They got in due to the media market. BC in the Big East, much like they are in the ACC, are an also ran. Pitt, WV, and Syracuse were all better football brands proven by wins and losses.

[@christopherwebb3517]

When the ACC first raided the Big East, it was thought that they would rival the SEC and Big Ten for football supremacy. After all, FSU and Miami had both won multiple national championships over the previous decade. Add to that, Clemson and Georgia Tech had each won a national championship within the previous 20 years, and Virginia Tech had an NC appearance just a few years prior. However, for various reasons all of them went through dry spells, and some of them had never recovered.

[@garrenzo360]

The ACC is the new Big East.

[@PENS68]

As a Pitt fan, I miss the Big East, especialy the basketball portion. I wish Pitt could just go back to the Big East for basketball only, but honestly as much as people ragged on the Big East Football Conference, it held it's own. If you look back at the Big East Teams had a 56-42 with a .571 winning percentage, and even after Miami and VT left the conference, The Big East went 5-4 in BCS Bowl games from 2005-12, and if you look back at the NFL Talent that came out of the Big East, it's absolutely ridiculous. There should be an entire football documentary on the amount of NFL Talent that came out of the Big East Conference. The Big East is and will always be known for it's basketball, but the football conference was very underrated.

[@S-mores]

I wish college football didn't so disproportionately garner revenue in comparison to other sports since it undermines literally all other college athletics, even basketball. I understand that money is a huge and important deal, but when schools start making decisions based primarily on that influencer, they're basically saying that what is best for their football team overrules what is best for literally any other program =/

[@ryanwinters7120]

The Minecraft music is a great addition

[@pageboy25]

At 6:11, you used the SEC logo that has LSU’s colorway. Just letting you know:)

[@Rockhound6165]

The Big East was a great conference and a power basketball conference. So great that in 1985 3 of the Final Four were Big East teams: Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's. Georgetown and Villanova were back to back NCAA champs. Syracuse was in the 1987 Final and Providence was in the Final Four. Unfortunately they wanted to focus on football and it killed the conference.

[@PENS68]

I know from reading past articles one of the biggest issues in the Big East was the revenue being spilt between the Full-time members and the Non-FBS members. The Big East had a unique setup, because most of it's member's were not full time members, or more so, most of them Non-FBS members and then you had Notre Dame who was a member of every sport in the Big East, minus football. From what I read this whole issue reached a boiling point in 2011, when the first wave of conference realignment was taking place. It sucks, because I miss the old Big East, but I'm glad the Basketball conference is alive and well, because I would put the Big East history up against any basketball conference out there.

[@LeeNobody]

Great Video. I would love a video on the ACC. Why did they realign so poorly? Why did they fall behind the SEC and Big 10. Where was the tipping point? Was it all missing out on Penn State?

[@wotintarnation8388]

Perfect timing.

[@TimothyPowlas-js1dh]

Kudos on the Summoning Salt reference

[@justinwear1591]

Another interesting side story to the big easts rise and collapse is that at one point Charlotte was offered a spot if it added football, but our AD at the time was incompetent and decided we didn't want football. wonder how much the history of Charlotte would be different if we added football in the late 90s/early 2000s compared to 2013.

[@softrockrules]

You left out Butler in the new Big East.

[@chasmeinecke4322]

Here’s my humble take with all this conference realignment ridiculousness. It’s gotten so out of hand to the point it doesn’t make sense anymore. Because football is the driving force behind this mess, college football needs to become its own semi-pro league and let the other sports reset and rejoin their original conferences. Players now get paid, colleges get their TV money, and can still use their brands and resources. It’s beyond ridiculous to drag other sports into conferences to play teams all over the country that don’t have the same amount of revenue and resources. Give football its own league to divide up however they see fit, and let the other sports continue to compete within their traditional more regional based conferences.

[@nateg4582]

Another great video and it's pretty sad to see the pac suffer a similar fate that the big east football faced.

[@mikem957]

The love of my money is the root to all evil. As a lifelong Memphis fan I am 💔 over all this money grabbing by the elites and white power conference realignment. Watching all the other schools who were once conference mates of Memphis all move on up while we get held back. It sucks like a breakup in a relationship. But it is what it is. Some just are not meant to be treated equal in life or have nice things. Memphis is obviously one of them. I wished our lazy AD would give up the P5 pipe dream and work to get us back into the Big East (even though we never got to play a game as a member) since basketball is our money maker and national brand and the Big East is a true traditional basketball first conference.

[@stevec9704]

Great video and explanations of the BE. I fear all of this money grab and conference reshuffling is going to doom a lot of schools and programs. There were reasons why conferences formed, whether for geographic locations or tradition/history of schools battling each other made these conferences entertaining and relevant. With that dissolved now and more schools trying to grab a chair before the music stops, my fear is that some institutions will simply stop playing sports or competing at this level and then fans, alumni etc will be left with nothing. I blame ESPN and their desire to form a super conference of just the big names of CFB, I don’t see this as entertainment, what makes CFB CBB entertaining is the pageantry, history, and tradition as well as when david beats Goliath, it’s what makes March madness so great. Sad times of college sports lately and I only see it getting worse not better. Again, great video and thank you.

[@icarus8471]

I don't think the PAC-12 is the best analogy for the old Big East. Like the video states, in the BE you had a big split between the football schools and the non-football schools. That could not hold together when the TV revenue mainly came from football. The PAC-12 did not have this problem, just a really bad media deal that killed the conference. What happened to the old Big East was basically inevitable due to the imbalance. There was no way to '"adapt" without overhauling and effectively destroying the conference, either getting rid of the original non-football teams and over half the conference or unrealistically have them all become power football schools. What happened to the Pac-12 on the other hand was mismanagement. Happily the core basketball schools in the BE reformed the conference and the football schools found another home.

[@lukeontheplains]

Good point. I was looking at it more from a dysfunction/infighting angle, but you're definitely right-the reasons for that dysfunction are totally different between the two.

[@bullymattguire4270]

Great vid but I can’t take the Minecraft music seriously 😂

[@TheCanesfanjoe]

as an East Carolina fan i wish the timeline where the Metro formed in 1990 came to be. imagine its impact throughout the 90s

[@WillSchatz19]

Love the minecraft music lol

[@motjinx]

Once the minecraft music started I fuckin lost it these vids are amazing

[@christopherfoote4643]

It's still around. Connecticut is in the Big East Conference. They're independent but affiliated with the Big East

[@412emilio]

Can you please drop a Conference USA video🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@eskipotato]

Good video, but for some reason I misread the title as "College Sports' Oedipus" and I was very very confused

[@mongoslade277]

I think Miami joined the Big East in 1989. That was the 1st year Dennis Erickson was the coach. Miami "won" the national championship that year even though Notre Dame beat #1 Colorado in the Orange Bowl

[@thomasb.smithjr.8401]

For a time, in the early '80's, pundits referred to the football side as The Big Least - before Miami, Fla., West Virginia, et al became members. 🤔 🏉

[@flboy85]

As a south Floridian I often wonder what if Miami held out and stayed independent. Could they have secured a Notre Dame type tv deal? Or would they have eventually went to the ACC or SEC?

[@christopherfoote4643]

Connecticut is in the Big East Conference. So are Butler, Georgetown and Villanova.

[@un1verse596]

The ACC used to be the predator now its the prey

[@redarcher1416]

College football and basketball need to unionize. They need to work out a revenue sharing agreement. A certain % of the TV, ticket sale and merch sales should go to each team. Then set a min and max pay scale. Then the GM and head coach sign players based on their budget. The labor of player should be made their market value. My labor should barely benefit me, but fund all these other sports programs. Also require the student to take 8 credit fall & spring. 3 hours during the summer. The player pay instate tuition. End scholarship by giving paychecks. People demand equal pay and benefits. Every team would get an equal share of the money that their team earned. They don't have a right to the fruit of someone else's labor.

[@CatsClaw44]

Actually Bill Self is right. ESPN reported at that time that those schools and Baylor had reached out to the Big East. This was shortly after Pitt and Syracuse jumped to the ACC.

[@nordiczebo5336]

I still think losing the big east was awful we lost a great conference I wish it was still around with those schools with wvu Pitt Syracuse etc

[@Royalshitter]

Can you do Mountain west next

[@robertkauffman8137]

Big East is in the dustbowl of history. The reason, it was ill-conceived from the start. Joe paterno proposed an Eastern All-Sports Conference and the basketball schools balked at it. That single mistake relegated most of the Big East to the football irrelevant section. We all know its football that drives revenue.

[@mongoslade277]

Right. Paterno definitely wanted a conference bc by 1979 he was cheated out of 2 national championships. He thought bc they were an independent from the Northeast

[@robertkauffman8137]

Right. 1994 team was the best team in college football that decade!@@mongoslade277

[@Austin_Niepołomice]

Lol no we in the Big East are happy without football. Enjoy your 20 school ultra conferences having no meaningful rivalries and chasing the next hit.

[@robertkauffman8137]

Glad you are happy. Just don't pretend to care about football and we are good. Goodbye Pitt, 'Cuse, BC, etc. @@Austin_Niepołomice

[@jerrellparchman5037]

Other than Tulane voluntarily exiting the SEC, the Big East inexplicably shunning the largest fan base by far (Penn State) ... is the biggest perpetual conference membership mistake ever.

[@napkinnathaniel5232]

They just announced Arizona Arizona state and Utah going to the big 12

[@lobecosc]

Very Interesting.

[@MntneerWVU]

One thing that should be highlighted was the expansion back then was driven by media markets, with the thought being you wanted to add the teams that had the TV's to justify the expansion. That model has been changing, and will continue to be less relevant. One thing is for certain, the original Big East football teams have never been the same since the breakup.