The bright orange of Syracuse and head coach Jim Boeheim joined Pitt in bolting the Big East for the ACC. By Briles Takes Pictures (Flickr: Scoop and Jim), via Wikimedia Commons

Are you a College Football fan who is excited for the new conference alignment?  Good, I hope you’re satisfied, because this process of realignment virtually destroyed the greatest sports conference that College sports has ever seen.  The creation of the Big East as a basketball conference is one of the most significant events to take place in the history of college sports. Current Big East schools have been to 16 Final Fours. The dissolution of the original Big East that has taken place over the last eight years should be considered one of the most significant travesties American sports have ever seen, and it was all because of the desire to make the most money off athletes who are, first and foremost, considered students.

Student athletes, that’s a dynamic term, isn’t it?  Can anyone actually explain to me how we should accurately classify a student athlete, because it seems as if the individuals in charge of college athletics have forgotten about the student portion of this dynamic term.  When describing why they are leaving the conference, monetary gains are a driving force. So you’re telling me that a school is willing travel farther, subsequently taking a chance on the academic success of their students’ grades, just so that they can make more money?  That sounds absolutely disgusting if you ask me.  I’m one of the biggest College Football fans you will ever meet—I bleed orange for my Beavers—but I start having problems when school officials start sacrificing a student’s grade just so their schedule looks appealing to the voters who decide the weekly rankings.

The Big East’s basketball pedigree rivals the football dominance of the SEC. The Big East had a 16-team basketball super-conference years before the SEC moved to 14 schools.

Since 1979, the Big East has produced six National Champions and 15 of the 16 teams—South Florida being the lone exception—have made it the Final Four — the most of any conference. In 1985, six years after its creation, the Big East sent three schools to the Final Four—Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s—with ‘Nova beating Georgetown 66-64, in a game that many consider the greatest College Basketball game ever played.  Villanova, as an eight-seed, became the lowest seeded team to ever win the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, a record the stands to this day.  Of course, Wichita State will have a chance at breaking this record when they take on top seeded Louisville—of the Big East—in this year’s Final Four on Saturday.

Fast forward over two decades to 2009 and you can find the historic game between Syracuse and Connecticut in the Big East Tournament which lasted six overtimes.  Syracuse beat Connecticut 127-117 in a game that started at 9:30 PM ET and ended well beyond 1 AM in the morning; Syracuse did not lead in any of the previous overtime periods.  102 of the 244 points came in the overtime periods, in a game that is the longest game in the shot clock era.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3koPRFXzi3o

Unfortunately, the opportunity for fans to watch games of similar pedigree involving the iconic Big East has ceased to exist.  Nevertheless, the Big East name will continue to exist through a new conference created by the “Catholic 7” universities—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova—along with the recently added powerhouses of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier.  Even without schools like Syracuse, Louisville, and Connecticut, the “new” Big East still has potential to bring excitement that may one day match the historic competition that the Big East provided for over the past 30 years.

Will Sheridan stands 6’8” and weighed 240 pounds during his four-year college basketball career at Villanova. Never a standout in the rugged Big East Conference, Sheridan held his own in the nations toughest college basketball league. He finished his career with averages of slightly more than five points and five rebounds per game in his senior season of 2006-2007.

This week, Sheridan, a developing musician came out and let those outside of his inner circle know that he is gay.

As can be expected, reactions have ranged from the “so, what” to “it’s about time” to general outrage, negative comments, and ridiculous remarks.

While it is a unique situation – very few major college or professional American athletes have come out either while they were playing or even after – Sheridan’s tone and attitude surrounding coming out have been refreshing.

On the Jim Rome Show on Tuesday, Sheridan discussed his decision to come out with a matter of fact tone. He was more at-peace with the decision than any athlete I’ve heard including John Amechi or even world-class rugby star Gareth Thomas.

Unlike Amechi or even Sheridan, Thomas came out while still playing and dealt with some negative consequences of teammates and opposing players’ prejudice and negative reaction.

On the radio Tuesday, Sheridan discussed the reactions he got from everyone in his life. He talked about how his college roommate basically didn’t bat an eye. He described how many of his teammates said they already knew and that they basically had already accepted it. Sheridan’s comments showed that Villanova at-large was very supportive of him. It also showed that his team and the program was singularly focused on the goal of winning. It was the kind of thing that can make a listener really believe that the world is evolving and getting better.

In an interview with Outside the Lines, Sheridan was quoted as follows:

“I’m trying to have a voice, and I want that voice to reach as many people as it can,” he said. “I mean, look at me. I’m black. I’m gay. I’m like a quadruple minority, and I feel like a little piece of me resides in everybody. Maybe there’s a kid out there who doesn’t think he’s OK, and he can look at me and say, ‘OK, he played college basketball. He went overseas. He has a music career and now he’s living his life. Now he’s who he wants to be and he’s happy and confident and comfortable.’ It’s my responsibility to talk about that.”

The word “comfortable” is the most important one here. Villanova University and his teammates, the program, etc… made him comfortable and contributed to the confident guy he seems like today.

There are players in today’s professional sports who are gay. There have to be. The numbers are too vast and the whispers are too many. They are out there in locker rooms in Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA, MLS, and the NHL. Yep, there are gay hockey players too.

Maybe none of them are as comfortable with their situation as Sheridan. Their motivations for coming out or not are certainly different. Some of them may feel their livelihoods are at-stake. If they are a mid-level player like Amechi or an 11th or 12th man could very well have a lot to do with any decision they make about whether to come

I’m far from an expert on the situation, but there are three points I’d like to make:

1) Nobody HAS to come out or has responsibility to do that if they don’t want to. When livelihoods and personal privacy are at-stake, people make their own decisions. Respect needs to be maintained.

2) If you were a REALLY good gay basketball player – whether you were out or not – and were being recruited by Villanova, what are the chances you’d go there after hearing about all the support Sheridan received?

3) When someone finally does come out, it will be a good story, and then, hopefully, it will move quickly to the background, just like it did for Will Sheridan’s teammates.

Then we’ll go back to worrying about the game. The modern game.