Get Ready For '30 For 30: Requiem For The Big East'

The Worldwide Leader's excellent "30 for 30" series will continue on March 16 with "Requiem For The Big East," which will premier following ESPN's Selection Sunday special. The film follows the rise of the old Big East Conference.

ESPN Films' 30 For 30 series will continue with "Requiem For The Big East," premiering Sunday, March 16, at 9 p.m. ET after Bracketology on ESPN. The film, directed by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ezra Edelman, explores the meteoric ascension of the Big East Conference, and how in less than a decade under the innovative leadership of founder and Commissioner Dave Gavitt, it became the most successful college sports league in America.

The film is told primarily through the lens of famed Big East coaches such as Jim Boeheim, Lou Carnesecca, Rick Pitino and John Thompson, former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, and some of its most iconic players like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Ed Pinckney. It chronicles the rivalries and successes that led many of them to become household names.

The Big East was a groundbreaking athletic and business creation that encapsulated the era and region in which it was born - from the toughness of the players and coaches hailing from some of the Northeast's most storied cities, to the executives and Wall Street brokers who thrived because of it. Launched in 1979 - the same year that ESPN was born - the Big East used the burgeoning cable TV network and the media as a whole to help spread its gospel to fans and future players across the nation. But "Requiem For The Big East" is also a tale of change as the super conference eventually found itself in a new era fighting for survival.

Director Ezra Edelman wanted to not only chronicle the conference's rise, but also its untimely demise.

"Having grown up on the East Coast, I've spent most of my life as a dedicated fan of the Big East and I, like so many others, was saddened by its split last year," said director Ezra Edelman. "In setting out to make a film about the league, I hoped to not simply tell a story about the rise of a great basketball conference but also understand and ultimately convey the causes of its fall. "

The story of the Big East as told by Boeheim, Carnesecca, Pitino and Tranghese ... delving into the causes of its fail. Can't imagine this looking good for Boston College. Should be ... interesting, to say the least.