Notre Dame Would Like To Maintain Old Big East Rivalries

As is their custom, Notre Dame and head coach Mike Brey kindly request to make decisions where only others feel the consequences. Brey told ESPN's Andy Katz that the Fighting Irish would like to continue playing several Big East schools, perhaps on a rotation. Katz writes:

Brey wants to play the Big East's Catholic-based institutions, especially long-standing rivals Marquette and DePaul, in nonconference home-and-home series. Brey said he would like to add Villanova, St. John's and possibly Georgetown into the rotation of schools the Irish want to play. Brey said he wants to play at least two to three of those five schools every season.

Know what was an easy way to keep all of those teams on the Notre Dame basketball schedule? Stay in the Big East, of course. But instead, Brey would like to have his ACC cake and continue to eat his Big East Catholic-based university basketball relationship, too. Why does Brey want to do that?

"We're not in Philadelphia anymore so we definitely want Villanova, we want to go to New York with St. John's and keep DePaul and Marquette," Brey said. "We will be in the D.C. area with Maryland, but we'd still like to play Georgetown. Villanova, DePaul, Marquette, St. John's and possibly Georgetown are definitely the five I'd like to do."

Well, then perhaps Notre Dame can schedule some non-conference neutral site games in those cities. Why should Big East teams go out of their way to accommodate Notre Dame in the non-conference schedule? Notre Dame basketball isn't near the draw that Notre Dame football is. In fact, why should Big East schools be going out of their way to make room for Notre Dame so that Notre Dame can keep playing in cities where they'd like to maintain a presence at all? There are consequences to leaving others holding the bag, Mike.

Brey said he is hopeful the Irish aren't leaving on poor terms in the Big East and would be stunned if the conference's like-minded institutions would shun Notre Dame in the future. Keep in mind, Boston College couldn't get former Big East teams outside of Providence to play on a regular basis after the Eagles left the Big East for the ACC.

Well, guess what? Notre Dame is leaving on bad terms. The school waited to announce its move with no warning just as the Big East enters into negotiations for a new television contract for football, basketball, and all other sports. Notre Dame's decision directly and negatively impacts all of the schools it hopes to still be on good terms with by potentially decreasing the value of that television deal. Those are the consequences Big East teams will have to face now that Notre Dame left and chose to leave when it did. The school could have just as easily made the announcement at any time after the playoff format was announced. Instead, it chose to drop another bomb on the Big East, so pardon me if I personally hope all the Big East school left behind politely tell Notre Dame to take a hike.