SOUTH ORANGE - Whether he is engaged in a casual conversation among friends or a meeting of the Big East braintrust, Pat Lyons' reaction to the term "Power Five" used to describe major conferences in college athletics never changes.

"I instantly say 'Football Five,'" Lyons told NJ Advance Media during a recent wide-ranging sitdown interview in his office.

Seton Hall's athletics director was on the job just a few months when the original Big East suffered its knockout blow, with the exit vote by Syracuse and Pittsburgh in the fall of 2011.

Lyons, who came to Seton Hall from Iona, also has kept an insider's view for the quick rise of the reconfigured conference -- with Xavier, Butler and Creighton and without football teams.

"If you are just talking football, say whatever you want," Lyons said. "But you can't say Power Five talking about men's basketball. We don't feel like we are second to anybody -- especially in men's basketball, but in these other sports as well."

Lyons' firm stance just received arguably its second-greatest piece of evidence over the last four years -- other than Villanova's 2016 men's basketball national title -- when the Xavier and Creighton men's basketball coaches rebuffed overtures from Big Ten money-maker Ohio State about its coaching vacancy.

A third Big East coach, Butler's Chris Holtmann, took the job.

"It's obviously a huge compliment when a school like Ohio State is looking for a coach and they come to the Big East," Lyons said. "And then you have coaches who have said to themselves, 'I don't know if that's where I want to be. I like where I'm at right now.'"

Without football, the Big East no longer had a seat next to the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12.

The question was: Would the new configuration carve out its own tier in the hierarchy, or be lumped in with Group of Five conferences such as the American Athletic Association, Mountain West, MAC, Conference-USA and Sun Belt?

Fox Sports' 12-year, $500 million television deal with the Big East in 2013 provided the first answer. The schools have backed it up with financial commitments.

"It's also a sign that our presidents and the ADs have said, 'We understand that basketball is going to be how we are judged on the national level, so we have to make sure that we are meeting those standards,'" Lyons said.

This is Part One of four stories off of NJ Advance Media's interview with Seton Hall athletics director Pat Lyons. Check back in coming days for more.

Seven of the Big East's 10 men's basketball teams were selected to the 2017 NCAA Tournament, including Seton Hall earning a second straight berth for the first time since the early 1990s.

The Big East has won five national championships in four years and sent 41 teams to various NCAA Tournament/Championships in 2016-17.

"If you said four years ago, 'In four years this is where the Big East is going to be,'" Lyons said, "the presidents, the ADs and the coaches probably would've said, 'That would be great, but those aspirations are a little too high.' It's unbelievable how great this league is doing."

Seton Hall has won seven Big East titles in five different sports -- men's basketball, women's basketball, men's swimming and diving, women's golf and baseball -- during Lyons' tenure, marked by facility renovations and record fundraising.

"When the league was disbanding and we were going our own way, there was some concern amongst the ADs and coaches that one of the reasons we all are spending a lot of money is because teams in our league -- these big state schools -- are spending a lot of money," Lyons said.

"I'm thankful that we said 'No, we're committed to this. We're going to spend what we need to spend. We are going to make sure we are paying our coaches (market value) and we are going to make sure we are chartering (flights) and doing all the things we need to do to be successful.'"

In fact, the Big East is in a position now where speculation is that Connecticut -- a former Big East power -- wants back in to rekindle old rivalries in non-football sports.

In the football-inclusive American Athletic Conference, the Huskies run the fourth-most subsidized athletics department in the nation at $28 million, according to USA TODAY.

"We definitely feel like we have a great situation," Lyons said. "Our partnership with Fox is a true partner. That's not transactional. They are at our meetings. They have input."

And yet, if the last decade showed anything, it's that conference alignment is tenuous. The idea of four Superconferences -- or something similar -- could be revived at any moment and being caught flat-footed is a potential death sentence.

"We'd be foolish if we didn't always keep an eye on things and make sure that we have a good view of the landscape," Lyons said, speaking in general terms and not on specific rumors.

"We have no plans of expanding right now. If things change in the future and teams come and go, we'd certainly look at it. We'd be foolish not to. But someone would have to make a really strong case because when we went to 10 ADs in this league, it is collegial. You always want to be careful who you bring into your family."

The same goes for the family that he patriarchs at Seton Hall.

"When I hire a coach, we tell them the same thing: We have 14 programs. We love them all. We care about them all. I don't believe in hierarchies at all," Lyons said.

"Resource levels are difference, but usually it's comparable to what the league is. When you come to Seton Hall, you are going to feel like your sport is just as important as anything else."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.