The layout of the new divisions is an attempt to protect important league rivalries. The heated Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry will be protected, and to maintain balance, Connecticut and St. John's were paired in the other division. While each team has four games against the other division, those games may be against fewer than four teams. The last major change is in the format of the Big East Tournament. Instead, the last-place team in each division will stay home for the tournament.
History seems to have taught little to the Big East.
League expansion was in vogue in the early 1990s, when many observers had grand visions of 16-team megaconferences ruling the college world. The Big East, once a small conference that packed a big wallop, expanded to 13 teams. The results of expansion, though, are mixed. The 16-team WAC disintegrated last year when the team's more established sports powers got fed up and formed a new league. The WAC, like the new Big East, only invited 12 teams to its tournament, and that irked many of the coaches whose teams did not get invited.