Villanova’s hoops title a bonanza for Big East

We like to think of conference realignment through the Big 12 prism. From the departure of four schools for points all over America, to David Boren’s assertion that the Big 12 “psychologically disadvantaged,” we think of the Big 12 as the victim in conference realignment.

And maybe it is. But it’s not the only victim. It’s not the biggest victim.

The league that took the most hits in conference realignment was the Big East.

Other leagues might have had more upheaval — Conference USA, for example — but no other league had the upheaval and the loss of prestige like the Big East.

Think of it this way. The Big East not only lost a bunch of prominent schools, the Big East lost a sport. The most important sport, at least across the country.

Think of it this way. The Big East as recently as 2004 consisted of Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Rutgers and Virginia Tech. All are gone, to Power 5 conferences.

Miami went to the ACC in 2003, Virginia Tech went a year later and BC went a year after that. Pitt and Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013.

West Virginia went to the Big 12 in 2012 and Rutgers joined the Big Ten in 2013. Notre Dame, an independent in football but a Big East member in all other sports, jumped to the ACC with the same arrangement in 2013.

Louisville, which had been added to the Big East in 2005 after the initial departures, joined the ACC in 2013.

So the Big East underwent a makeover. It had started as a basketball-only league in 1979 — Boston College, UConn, Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Syracuse, with Villanova joining a year later and Pitt jumping aboard in 1982.

The Big East went back to its roots. Some of those pioneer schools formed a new conference, but retaining the Big East name.

The Catholic Seven members — Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall and Villanova, plus DePaul and Marquette, which had been added without football teams in 2005, decided to split from the remaining football schools and return to a Big East tradition of strong basketball and non-Division I-A football.

Cincinnati and South Florida, which had come aboard with Louisville, were left with Connecticut to found the American Conference.

The Catholic Seven reached a settlement with the Big East in which they retained the name, the logos and the iconic conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. The Big East then added two more Catholic schools — Creighton and Xavier — plus Butler to form a 10-team Big East.

And the new Big East’s finest hour came Monday night. Villanova won the NCAA basketball championship.

Georgetown and Villanova had won NCAA titles in the Big East glory days of 1984 and 1985, respectively. Since then, only power-football schools had won hoops titles for the Big East — UConn in 1999, 2004 and 2011, Syracuse in 2003, Louisville in 2013. UConn won the NCAA in 2014 as a member of the American Conference.

You wondered if the non-football Big East could ever regain the prestige it had in the 1980s. But Villanova’s title is a step in that direction.

“I’m really, really happy for the Big East,” said ‘Nova coach Jay Wright. “I’m really proud of them. You know, we got beat this year by Providence. We got beat by Seton Hall. We got beat by Xavier. It’s very obvious any one of those teams could be here.

“We’re a new entity that college basketball just is trying to figure out, you know. And I just hope the Power 5 (conferences) sees a value in us as a part of all of this in basketball.

“We want to keep up with the Power 5. We want to do everything they’re doing, just do it in basketball. I hope this gives us a place at the table because basketball is really important to all these schools. I hope the Power 5 schools can see that we’re really important to college basketball.”

Oh, I think the Power 5 can see that. I just don’t know if the Power 5 cares. The Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC are mostly driven by football. Football and television money, and those two are interchangeable.

The Big East will always be second-class in the NCAA power structure. That’s why the Big East tried to make a go of it in football 25 years ago.

But when winter arrives, and basketball takes the stage, the new Big East stands as tall as any league.