Rivalry Week in the Big East to End the Season? Guess the Opponent

[Muskie]

The Big East announced the last game of the conference season will be reserved for a "Rivalry Week". There are four schools of thought on the match-up's. Which would you like to see long term?

X v. Butler

X v. Creighton

X v. DePaul

X v. Villanova

[GoMuskies]

Of those choices Butler. Marquette is my real choice, though.

[xudash]

Time to move on and up: Villanova.

[LA Muskie]

Are we supposed to be realistic or just go with our gut? I'd want Georgetown hands-down. But I'm nearly certain they will end up with 'Nova or Marquette.

Frankly most of the old Big East schools will probably pair, since there's no reason to "break" rivalries that already exist. So here's what I see:

Georgetown/Marquette
'Nova/St. John's
Providence/Seton Hall
DePaul/Creighton
Xavier/Butler

[GoMuskies]

Georgetown/Marquette
'Nova/St. John's
Providence/Seton Hall
DePaul/Creighton
Xavier/Butler

I don't really think G'town and Marquette are rivals. I think the Hoyas and 'Nova are bigger rivals. St. John's and the Hall have the whole NY area thing going on. I don't think Provi or DePaul have been good enough for anyone to think they're rivals, so they get each other. Xavier/Butler might be a natural for some, but Xavier/Marquette certainly have a longer history (just that it was longer ago). So I'd go with:

Xavier/Marquette
G'Town/Nova
SJU/SHU
DePaul/Provi
Creighton/Butler

[LA Muskie]

I don't really think G'town and Marquette are rivals. I think the Hoyas and 'Nova are bigger rivals. St. John's and the Hall have the whole NY area thing going on. I don't think Provi or DePaul have been good enough for anyone to think they're rivals, so they get each other. Xavier/Butler might be a natural for some, but Xavier/Marquette certainly have a longer history (just that it was longer ago). So I'd go with:

Xavier/Marquette
G'Town/Nova
SJU/SHU
DePaul/Provi
Creighton/Butler

I agree that's probably the best overall combo, but I think they will try to build the NY/Philly rivalry between Nova and SJU. That leaves Marquette for GTown. Plus I'm not sure either GTown or Nova would want to play one another the last week of the season. And I think everyone feels XU/Butler will be a great rivalry game. I'd be shocked if we weren't slotted into that.

[Muskie]

Can someone clue me in about why x/nova would be a a great rivalry match up?

[Mel Cooley XU'81]

If DePaul would simply Get Better, a DePaul / Marquette rivalry would be a smoker.

It was. Once upon a time.

[WestCoastDartagnan]

I have to agree with Gomuskies except I would switch xavier and creighton. Marquette used to play creighton on a semi-regular basis and I think the Big East wants to keep the Xavier-butler rivalry going. Also a lot of the Georgetown blogs have been predicting G'town and Nova to be the end of year rivals. They've been the hoyas biggest rivals during the past decade and the schools are only 3 or so hours apart.

[LA Muskie]

I have to agree with Gomuskies except I would switch xavier and creighton. Marquette used to play creighton on a semi-regular basis and I think the Big East wants to keep the Xavier-butler rivalry going. Also a lot of the Georgetown blogs have been predicting G'town and Nova to be the end of year rivals. They've been the hoyas biggest rivals during the past decade and the schools are only 3 or so hours apart.
I think Marquette/Creighton would be a great rivalry. I just don't think Marquette will agree to it.

PS: Where on the west coast are you?

[WestCoastDartagnan]

I think Marquette/Creighton would be a great rivalry. I just don't think Marquette will agree to it.

PS: Where on the west coast are you?

I'm in Tacoma, Washington, so the far other end of the coast (where the beaches are freezing)

[xubrew]

I can't imagine Nova and Georgetown not being matched up during rivalry week. It's Nova v Georgetown. Everyone else is pretty much interchangeable. Having said that, I think we will end up playing Butler.

Remember when we played Georgia as part of Rivalry Week?? I still laugh when I think about that.

"Rivalry Week" is one of the many ridiculous things ESPN does. They try and have a theme for each week. They even had something called "Home Court Advantage Week" once. They built it up as Duke, and UNC, and UCLA, and Kentucky and the like all playing at home in the same week. Nevermind that that pretty much happens on any given week of the season.

The majority of the "Rivalry Week" games are just regular conference games. Or, in the case of Xavier v Georgia, it was just a regular OOC game. It's just that if the games happen to be played on the week of Duke vs North Carolina, it suddenly becomes part of "Rivalry Week." There are match-ups between genuine rivals. Maybe more on that week than any other typical week, but not that many more. The majority of the teams that are billed as part of "Rivalry Week" have bigger rivals than the team they're playing that week.

Then again, it doesn't get much crazier than XU vs UGA.

[xubrew]

I read through the original post too quickly. Nevermind. We're making our own "Rivalry Week." Sweet.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure we'll play Butler, and Nova will play Georgetown and the Johnnies will play Seton Hall. Not really sure how the others will shake out. DePaul and Marquette are historic rivals, but the key word is "historic." They aren't exactly currently rivals.

[paulxu]

Then again, it doesn't get much crazier than XU vs UGA.

Wait a sec. If that was when we visited Athens, there was nothing crazy about that at all. I took 3 friends down and we had a great time.
Won the game, walked the campus, and nobody keyed my car. Great trip.

[X-band '01]

I can't imagine Nova and Georgetown not being matched up during rivalry week. It's Nova v Georgetown. Everyone else is pretty much interchangeable. Having said that, I think we will end up playing Butler.

Remember when we played Georgia as part of Rivalry Week?? I still laugh when I think about that.

"Rivalry Week" is one of the many ridiculous things ESPN does. They try and have a theme for each week. They even had something called "Home Court Advantage Week" once. They built it up as Duke, and UNC, and UCLA, and Kentucky and the like all playing at home in the same week. Nevermind that that pretty much happens on any given week of the season.

The majority of the "Rivalry Week" games are just regular conference games. Or, in the case of Xavier v Georgia, it was just a regular OOC game. It's just that if the games happen to be played on the week of Duke vs North Carolina, it suddenly becomes part of "Rivalry Week." There are match-ups between genuine rivals. Maybe more on that week than any other typical week, but not that many more. The majority of the teams that are billed as part of "Rivalry Week" have bigger rivals than the team they're playing that week.

Then again, it doesn't get much crazier than XU vs UGA.

So this is why Xavier scheduled Georgia for a secret scrimmage instead of the regular season. The Pac-12 and Big 12 offer more competition than the SEC right now.