Notre Dame head basketball coach Mike Brey should know the Big East conference inside and out.

But Brey disregards half the teams.

‘I don’t pay much attention to the East division,’ Brey said. ‘The three (teams) we don’t play, I don’t even pay attention to them. I don’t know their roster a lot of times.’

The reason for Brey’s seemingly incredulous remarks: the two-division system the Big East uses. Since 2000, when Virginia Tech became the 14th team to join the Big East, the conference has used seven-team East and West divisions.

The move was made to organize a conference that had grown too big for its own good.

‘I like (the two divisions),’ Brey said. ‘I really look at the West division as just our own league. It’s kind of simplified for me. (The Big East) has gotten smaller as it’s gotten bigger with the division system.’

‘There are pros and cons,’ Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said. ‘We looked at lining up one through 14. People just didn’t think it was the right thing. It was confusing.’

The two divisions have decreased confusion in some ways, but increased it in others.

First, there’s the task of remembering which teams play in what division. (The East includes Connecticut, Boston College, Villanova, St. John’s, Miami, Providence and Virginia Tech. Syracuse plays in the West with Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Rutgers, Seton Hall and West Virginia.)

Scheduling controversies are the biggest point of contention surrounding the divisional format. Each team plays division opponents twice — once at home, once on the road — and also plays four interdivision games. This means every Big East team misses three conference foes each year.

For instance, Syracuse will not play Providence, Villanova or Virginia Tech this season, and the Orangemen will not host East Division opponents UConn or Miami.

The divisions have created, well, a division between the old guard and new blood among Big East coaches. Older coaches long for simpler days, while newer coaches see mostly positives.

‘I don’t like (the two-division system),’ said Bernie Fine, SU’s assistant coach for 27 years. ‘Last year, we didn’t play St. John’s or Connecticut, which are two of the biggest rivalries we have.’

‘The biggest problem,” UConn head coach Jim Calhoun said, “is taking it back to (a 14-team league), you’d at least play everybody.”

‘Since we had the divisional play, we’re starting to develop rivalries that we did not have before,’ Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said. ‘A lot of people that follow basketball in the East are used to seeing teams play, but things change. We set up this divisional play to create new rivalries.’

Esherick pointed to his team’s four-overtime contest against Notre Dame last season as a sign that new rivalries form.

But the unbalanced schedule also creates competitive issues.

‘To be fair,” Fine said, “you don’t want to have to play (UConn and St. John’s) every year and let Pittsburgh play some of the weaker teams.”

Fine said it’s unfair that teams in the same division play different schedules, because, for one team, it would mean an easier path to a high seed in the conference tournament.

The divisional format was designed with the postseason in mind.

‘There are some conferences that aren’t (in a two-division format) that are thinking about doing it,’ Miami coach Perry Clark said. ‘It gives teams more of a chance to get into the (NCAA) Tournament. It keeps teams alive late, feeling like they have a chance.’

The Big East’s two divisions emphasize divisional races. The two last-place finishers miss the Big East tournament, and the top two squads in each division earn first-round byes.

‘I’m able to get my hands around these other six teams,” Brey said, “and I know if we finish in the top three in the West, we’re probably getting an (NCAA Tournament) bid. I look at the West division and say, ‘How do we get the (first-round conference tournament) bye?’ ‘

Despite mixed reactions to the two-division system, it makes the league more competitive. In the two years of divisional play, nine Big East teams have gone to the NCAA Tournament.

‘When we separated the league into two divisions, I think it has helped us manage the league,’ Esherick said. ‘We create interest and still get people interested in watching us on television. Right now, the league is in very good shape.’

Published on November 13, 2002 at 12:00 pm