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[QUOTE="jncuse, post: 2054195, member: 1969"]
We tend to overrate the Big East (at various periods), and think it was a great conference for its entire existence.   In reality, there was an extended period of mediocrity in the middle.   The expansion with CUSA seem to bring in some good programs to add depth, and it also coincided with an uplift of some programs who had not been great for a while (Villanova, Georgetown)

It was great in the 80's.   Around 1992 or so, the conference started to slip relative to others and this continued until about 2005.   During this period for most years the ACC was clearly superior to the Big East - over the period it was not even close.  That is supported by rankings, seeds, tourney results, F4 appearances.    The Big East had a few shining years in between 1993 and 2005.   1996 it had the elite talent and elite teams.    Syracuse did get a national title in 2003.   UConn, sad to say, carried this conference for a lot of this period.   There were years in here that modest Miami teams or Boston College teams or Pitt teams were winning the conference.

Around 2005/2006 with the CUSA expansion the league started to turn positively and became amongst the best again, but I would say it wasn't about until 2008 or 2009 that the league could say it was the dominant league in America.  Those years might compare to the ACC now, but not 2007.
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