Notre Dame basketball wants to keep scheduling St. John's after they bolt to the ACC.

Notre Dame is trying to make that money off of the Big East, even as they're leaving the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Andy Katz spoke to Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, and unearthed a pair of amusing nuggets:

1. Notre Dame expects to stay in the Big East for two more seasons.
2. Mike Brey would like to keep some of the Big East matchups, including coming to New York to face St. John's.
   

Why the second point is fully laughable, after the break.

From Katz' article:

Brey wants to play the Big East's Catholic-based institutions, especially long-standing rivals Marquette and DePaul, in nonconference home-and-home series....

"We're not in Philadelphia anymore so we definitely want Villanova, we want to go to New York with St. John's and keep DePaul and Marquette," Brey said. "We will be in the D.C. area with Maryland, but we'd still like to play Georgetown. Villanova, DePaul, Marquette, St. John's and possibly Georgetown are definitely the five I'd like to do."

Brey said he is hopeful the Irish aren't leaving on poor terms in the Big East and would be stunned if the conference's like-minded institutions would shun Notre Dame in the future. Keep in mind, Boston College couldn't get former Big East teams outside of Providence to play on a regular basis after the Eagles left the Big East for the ACC.

Sounds like someone misses his old Big East home, even as he slowly packs up his half of the stuff, cleans out the garage, locates the useless college-era tchochkes he came into the relationship with.

And Notre Dame - the school that blindsided the Big East with a sudden announcement, with back room deals befitting an Art Modell-to-Baltimore departure - is most certainly leaving on bad terms. [Big East Coast Bias goes into more detail]

What's more, if Mike Brey thinks the Irish are a draw at MSG... he's wrong.

The average attendance for the regular season Fighting Irish/ St. John's games at Madison Square Garden the last four years - including the 11,436 who came to see the Johnnies beat the ranked Notre Dame squad 61-58 on a Saturday - barely rates on the Rumble in the Garden scale. Certainly, their attendance calls for more than Carnesecca's capacity, but the Fighting Irish don't draw like Duke or Syracuse or even Villanova.

And scheduling them would be, in no uncertain terms, a favor.

A favor?

For a team that added to the "the Big East is in trouble" meme, insulting the league's stability as the conference negotiates a media rights deal with ESPN?

For a team that would benefit far more than the Big East schools would benefit with this arrangement?

Not worth it. Notre Dame basketball shouldn't receive the favored, saintly status that their football program continues to enjoy. St. John's can find better suitors as the team improves its profile to national status.

Scheduling Notre Dame in a world where 19 or 20 conference games could be the Big East norm would be foolish when so many schools (like Michigan, Syracuse, even Texas) enjoy a trip to the hallowed halls of MSG for a winter night in front of the fans in Gotham.

And going to South Bend in the fall/ winter/ spring has even less value than hosting them in Manhattan. Have you looked at where South Bend is on the map? Over an hour drive from Chicago, close to nothing, the excitement of a doornail in sodden dirt on a cloudy day. For DePaul, the Irish might be an interesting draw, considering the throngs of Irish alumni in the Chicagoland area.

But for St. John's, no favors for Notre Dame are needed. They can enjoy their Syracuse "rivalry", create new memories with the empty seats in Miami, and enjoy the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle area for the conference tournament.

Should teams like St. John's, Villanova, and Georgetown schedule Notre Dame basketball in the future?

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