If the overtone of the last week in men’s college basketball was that the Big East is still very much relevant, then the undertone was just how badly the sport needs the Big East to be relevant.

That’s not at all a commentary on the on-court product, which was excellent as ever over the first four days of March Madness, giving us no shortage of stories to get excited about.

Even in the college hoops desert that New York City has become, Princeton and Fairleigh Dickinson becamedarlings. The NCAA Tournament is still the best annual event in sports. That is not in question.

But is it good for the sport’s relevance on a day-to-day level that its title favorite is Alabama, a program besieged by a murder investigation implicating two of its players?