Her email is
vackerman@bigeast.com. I have already emailed her and all big east fans should also do the same and explain our concerns over the treatment of our conference. To their credit coach Hurley , Holloway and English from Providence have spoken out even our AD . Need more of that .
Done.
Commissioner Ackerman,
Please let this email serve as my request that you speak publicly, repeatedly, regarding Seton Hall, St. John's and Providence being excluded from the NCAA tournament despite being members of the second ranked conference in the nation, having winning records, and multiple quad 1 and quad 2 victories.
The Big East Conference is an extraordinarily competitive conference with games against some of the best teams and coaches in the nation. There will always be metrics in which our teams excel and some which are lower than other available teams. I very strongly encourage you to speak publicly emphasizing the most favorable metrics for the teams describe above in publicly stating that you find it shocking, as I do, that none of these three teams were seen as being fit to play in the NCAA tournament. Your frequent and fervent public comment now will go along way to preventing what is universally acknowledged as an egregious slight to the conference from becoming a reoccurring practice.
I truly believe that each of these teams had the potential to get out of the first weekend given the level of play in our conference. The level of play of our conference prepares our schools for the rigors of the NCAA tournament. As the phrase goes, iron sharpens iron.
Please be advised that I am not a fan of any of the excluded schools. But I am very conscious of the fact that by only getting three schools in the tournament are opportunity to earn NCAA credits is severely diminished. As you are well aware, the Big East receives only a fraction of the media dollars received by the "Power 5" schools. NCAA credit distributions to conference members help our member schools compete.
Finally, I hope you have spoken privately to Barry Collier demanding an explanation as to why our schools were overlooked not with standing superior metrics and key areas. It is, to be frank, an outage and makes one question whether he was even minimally effective in the room.
I very much hope to see your public presence leading the charge on this issue.