By CHUCK SAMPLES
ISL Correspondent

It’s always tough to see tradition go by the wayside, but the transformation of the Big East basketball conference the past few weeks seems to be a positive for all involved.

Some folks may gripe about the timing with the NCAA Tournament officially underway, but I doubt that the addition of Butler, Creighton and Xavier could have been announced at any time over the next couple weeks without taking some headlines from the tourney.

The way I see it, the adds of the three new teams give the Big East a sort of stability it has been sorely lacking. It also gives the new teams new markets to recruit.

Of the three newbies, I think this helps Creighton the most. True, Butler is in Indianapolis, while Omaha is a two-hour drive from Kansas City, but let’s face it: Butler and Xavier were already getting into other major markets like Philadelphia and New York thanks to their A-10 memberships. Creighton wasn’t ” until now.

In this day and age, conferences have to expand their footprints to make a move like this sensible, and this move makes sense to a large degree for the Big East. Arbitron ranks Cincinnati as the 29th largest media market, with Indianapolis at No. 40 and Omaha moving up at No. 75. Throw in a 12-year deal with Fox and the possibility of two more teams by the end of next season, and things are finally looking up for the conference ” although I would have liked to see UConn and Cincinnati stay inUConn for the tradition, Cincinnati for those brawls with Xavier.

As it is, this looks to be the Catholic 7³ ” now the Big East ” making the best of a crumbling situation. We’ll see how the now former Big East schools cobble together a conference for football and other sports in the coming weeks.