CINCINNATI -- Greg Christopher was showing new Big East commissioner Val Ackerman around the Xavier campus Friday, including grabbing some lunch, as the two walked back to Christopher's office at the Cintas Center. Ackerman has been on the job all of four months so she had all kinds of questions for Christopher, the Xavier athletic director.
Christopher has been on the job for six months.
"I said, 'Val, this is my first game, too'," said Christopher. "I'm just trying to stay out of people's way."
Xavier opened up its basketball season with an 83-59 win against Gardner-Webb Friday night in front of the commissioner of their new league but the night was bigger than any win or loss. It's a night that's been thirty years in the making.
"You have to understand from my perspective I have to wear two hats. For me, it's been a blur but it's been neat to watch," said Christopher. "We had dinner last night with Val and several of our donors. From their perspective, it's been a (three)-decade journey to get to this point of the Big East and what goes with that."
The Big East was founded in 1979. Xavier played its first season in the Midwestern City Conference that same year. The Musketeers have gone from the MCC to the Atlantic 10 to now the Big East. They won eight regular season championships and five tournament titles in 16 seasons in the MCC. They won or shared nine regular season titles in the A-10, plus four tournament championships.
They go into the Big East with the same expectations of success. There was a near-capacity crowd of 10,250 in the Cintas Center to watch the Musketeers win their 24th consecutive season opener.
"Our fans treat this program unbelievably well," said Xavier coach Chris Mack. "The student section was easily at capacity. They make this building rock."
The Musketeers fell behind 7-0, not getting on the scoreboard until almost five-and-a-half minutes had passed when sophomore guard Semaj Christon hit the first three-pointer he attempted this season. Xavier took its first lead, 11-9, on an offensive rebound and put-back by senior forward Isaiah Philmore with 10:17 left in the first half.
By halftime Xavier had a comfortable 19-point advantage, 41-22. Junior center Matt Stainbrook had 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Musketeers. Sophomore James Farr, his backup, had 10 points and nine rebounds. Freshman point guard Brandon Randolph scored 12 points to go along with seven assists and just one turnover in 36 minutes.
"It was not a close game but I thought our focus was kept all the way from the first moment to the last," said Mack.
The new Big East consists of league holdovers Georgetown, Providence, Marquette, St. John's, DePaul, Villanova and Seton Hall plus newcomers Creighton, Butler and Xavier. The Big East was a 16-team monster last year before the holdovers, none of whom play Division I FBS football, decided to break away from the rest of the conference.
This new configuration of the Big East, according to Ackerman, brings the league closer its original mission.
"I do think that this group of schools is very unified in terms of their vision of focusing on all sports but really making basketball the centerpiece and the commitment they all have to excellence in basketball and the values they share about the value of academics," said Ackerman. "The reality is that football really is a different league in terms of what it generates at a campus, in terms of community support and revenues but also what it demands of a school in terms of investment.
"The group of schools that pulled out of the old Big East, I think, made a very brave decision saying we don't want to work in that world. We're going to set our sights on other sports and put our investments elsewhere and we think basketball is the way to go. For us, that makes sense."
The landscape of college athletics has undergone massive changes the past decade, driven mostly by the money generated by football and the television contracts that come with the sport. Traditional conference alignments and their geographies have been jettisoned in the name of dollars. That's not all bad. It's also not all good.
The Big East members did what they believed they needed to do to best position themselves for whatever comes next in big-time college sports. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between these big-time programs and their professional counterparts.
"For better or for worse, we are our own worst enemies in some ways in that we put a pro wrapping paper around our events," said Christopher. "This (Cintas Center) is a first-class venue and the experience to walk in here and watch this game tonight is probably not a whole lot different than if you go watch the (NBA Indiana) Pacers. The setting, the fan experience. That's where I think the outside world sees this professional experience and they sometimes lay it down to further levels."
Ackerman has been in the world of pro sports. She was the first president of the WNBA and is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She was a four-year starter at Virginia, graduating in 1981, when the school's women's sports were still in their infancy.
One of the things that attracted her to the Big East commissioner's job was her belief in the university presidents and their mission. Yes, it's still the world of big business college sports, but maybe, just maybe there is a little sensibility to it. Or at least whatever passes for sensibility in college sports.
"College sports remain timeless. These programs are vital elements of these universities. They bring student-athletes together, they bring communities together," said Ackerman. "I think college sports is very different than pro sports, where I spent many years. It's not the same. There are daily reminders that you're part of higher education and you've got to keep some of these things in perspective and you've got to get these students ready for life after their playing days. I like that part of it.
"People can and do and should really believe that that is the most important thing. I like being part of a world where that is important."
