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Big East Commissioner hints at potential expansion

Providence v Xavier

CINCINNATI, OH - FEBRUARY 28: Xavier Musketeers players celebrate after winning the Big East Conference regular season title with an 84-74 win over the Providence Friars at Cintas Center on February 28, 2018 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

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The Big East made an important move for the conference’s future over the weekend by securing another 10 years at Madison Square Garden for the league’s annual conference tournament.

While the new iteration of the basketball-only Big East isn’t as deep or talented as its predecessor, having the iconic Garden to host the league’s postseason is a huge part of the Big East’s identity. The conference might not be as strong top-to-bottom as the ACC or the Big Ten in most years. But March wouldn’t be March in college hoops without the Big East Tournament in the Garden.

The timing of the Big East’s extension at MSG also gave league commissioner Val Ackerman the chance to address some questions -- including some talk of potential league expansion. Adding members has always been a touchy subject for the 10-team conference, since all of the schools have a very specific profile while all being basketball-focused schools.

But UConn always gets brought up with regard to the Big East -- as the AAC has never felt like a natural fit for the Huskies. There are also other schools probably doing whatever they can for a shot at playing the Big East’s conference schedule and national television deal. The league itself has been coy about adding other teams until Ackerman spoke this weekend.

By noting that the Big East has the capability of adding more teams, the league could be making a push at adding one or two more teams. Now that other basketball conferences are going to 20-game league schedules, the Big East is only at 18 with a true round-robin schedule already in place. They could add another team and upgrade the conference schedule to more games if they decided to do so.

So it’ll be fascinating to see if the Big East tries to enter the college arms race from a basketball perspective. I’m sure UConn fans would love to see their school make the jump back into the league. It’s just hard to speculate where things stand so early in the process.

(h/t: Bobby Reagan, Barstool Sports)