CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Somewhere in a parallel universe, the old Big East is still together. The warring factions battle through their tribalism by battering one another on a basketball court, and heated rivals rattle their sabers in neverending struggles to determine the superior brand. In that alternate dimension, the grainy footage of the bygone era is playing out nightly in a higher definition.
Boston College and Notre Dame weren't necessarily the greatest rivals in that other world, but the Fighting Irish's arrival in 1995 was a seamless transition within the founding fathers of the league like Providence, Villanova and Syracuse.