Conference Realignment: What Next?

[stever20]

My updated, highly-scientific, and always unheeded expansion preferences as of Feb 2023, on a scale of 1 to 100:

only 2 former BE teams on list:
Notre Dame - 100.
Syracuse - 100.
no other old BE teams in contention.

others:
Gonzaga - 35.
San Francisco Dons - 7.
Saint Thomas Tommies - 5.
Detroit Mercy - 3.14159.
Dayton - 3.

no other teams are over scale of 1.

Gonzaga has lost a bit of that excitement and je ne sais quoi... momentum has stagnated... should've gotten it done 4 to 5 years ago... to be honest, i'm more excited about our current teams and coaches... Holloway, Sean Miller, Matta, the future unknown Hoya, future Pitino at St John's.

San Francisco and Saint Thomas got a boost due to available nearby NBA arenas, which i've randomly decided this month is a huge positive. Unfortunately, both are listed below 10 on this highly-scientific scale.

Dayton is on this list solely because at least their fans give a sh-t.

Detroit Mercy made the list just to aggravate lurking Dayton fans.

Duquesene is at 0.25 which is the highest it's been in 54 years I think. If they could duplicate this year about another 20 years they would get interesting.

Actually is your Duquesne score before or after their big first half yesterday at George Washington...?

Meanwhile, after losing at home to Navy, the Crusaders of Holy Cross sit at 0.037

that was after. it was at .02368 before.

[Xudash]

I just can’t make sense of the alignment aspect of it. A football conference plus one. The money would really have to work.

On the other hand, how much gas does Mark Few have left in the tank? How long will he be there?

Gonzaga in the Big East if we each make $10 million per year? No problem.

To answer the bolded part: absolutely, yes. Last year Villanova was in the Final Four with the best coach in the nation. Now they're nowhere near the bubble with a coach who has vastly underperformed. That said, they should be fine because they're in the Big East. I'd be very surprised if they don't get back to being a consistent Tournament team with a couple deep runs by the late 2020s.

Now, if Gonzaga stays in the WCC and follows up Few's departure with a year like Nova's (no reason to think that couldn't happen)? They could totally fade away.

I just don't get this sentiment. There is just no way you go to 25 straight NCAA tournaments and are one of the best programs and brands in the game for more than a decade without that having lasting effects on the future of your program. Thats a freaking generation of success! That's how it has always worked for every great/good program - one coach raised the team up for so long it also raised trajectory of the future of that program.

Are we trying to argue that no program is worth adding if they may not be as great as their program's literal peak? Oh no, Gonzaga may not always have a top 2 seed every year, guess it’s not worth it? This is such a chicken little attitude and seems to say more about what some may think (or not think?) about the Big East than what they think about the Zags. And it just all seems a bit dismissive coming from fanbases that would kill to have the success and longevity they’ve had. Nova and Gonzaga are huge college ball brands, they’re not going away because of a coaching change or 2.

If you believe in the Big East and your team/our programs, you know what would help Gonzaga maintain or continue their success post-Few? By them playing our teams/programs in the freaking Big East! Man guys, sometimes…just try to remember the value our little conference really has.

I believe I’ve been beyond clear about money being the primary driver of expansion from here, primarily in the form of what transpires with the media agreement.

I literally offered this in an earlier post: Gonzaga in the Big East if we each make $10 million per year? No problem.

I totally believe in the BE. I can’t imagine there are many BE fans who are worried about the conference’s position and standing now and moving forward at this point.

This is all about what is in the best interests of the BE.

Do I respect Gonzaga’s success? Absolutely. They have achieved “Major” status in a mid-major conference. But, oh look at that: notwithstanding their success, including impressive results in OOC play, they still play an entire conference season in a weak mid-major conference. What would they look like going through a BE schedule?

Beyond that, Spokane presents logistical issues for them and for the conference.

This is about what is best for the BE. If adding them means that the payout per school lands at around $10 million per school, then bring them on, so long as everyone understands and accepts the logistical challenges.

If not, then perhaps we hold at 11 schools and trust that our next media deal will still provide a meaningful bump.

Sentiment has squat to do with this. Positioning the conference well for the future is what this is about. THAT is about money. And that money thing hopefully gets resolved to our collective liking in the next media deal.

[DeltaV]

BIG 12 has reached out to UConn/St John’s and NOVA!! All bets are off…BIG East better move fast..

Dayton fans are adorable.

You laugh, and Cheech may be smoking something in making that post, but I did have a Big 12 fan at work a few weeks ago say that he thought they'd be interested in a few basketball only programs, highlighting Nova. I told him he was crazy and we'd never go back to a hybrid conference dominated by big state schools, but maybe that's something being looked at?

[adoraz]

BIG 12 has reached out to UConn/St John’s and NOVA!! All bets are off…BIG East better move fast..

Dayton fans are adorable.

You laugh, and Cheech may be smoking something in making that post, but I did have a Big 12 fan at work a few weeks ago say that he thought they'd be interested in a few basketball only programs, highlighting Nova. I told him he was crazy and we'd never go back to a hybrid conference dominated by big state schools, but maybe that's something being looked at?

Actually, yeah:

https://twitter.com/MHver3/status/1622094536989188098

He also posted this months before it happened:

https://twitter.com/MHver3/status/1516166017319411713

Could be something there...

(Cheech likely saw this on Twitter, as it was posted half a day before his post here)

[Cheech]

Boys, I only post when I have something. This is not conjecture there are talks going on. The BIG 12 will get the ACCs attention and will put Nova and UConn in a strong negotiation position. I think you would all agree that the fans of Nova and UCONN though a long history with the BIg East would love to have Duke…NC…Cuse…Notre Dame stop by not to mention the huge check form either the ACC ..or the BIG 12. Tradition is the off the table and the BIG East will be effected . UCONN is gone for sure.

[Omaha1]

I don’t see it happening for a myriad of reasons.

[billyjack]

Boys, I only post when I have something. This is not conjecture there are talks going on. The BIG 12 will get the ACCs attention and will put Nova and UConn in a strong negotiation position. I think you would all agree that the fans of Nova and UCONN though a long history with the BIg East would love to have Duke…NC…Cuse…Notre Dame stop by not to mention the huge check form either the ACC ..or the BIG 12. Tradition is the off the table and the BIG East will be effected . UCONN is gone for sure.

Dayton just dropped to a 2.8 rating on my highly-scientific scale.

[Cheech]

Look Billyjack, and I will 2 days ahead of time post the teams that are being added , your angst towards Dayton is without merit. The Flyers will be in and will be a perfect fit. They get more people for a game as St Johns/DePaul/GT combined. There facilities are second to done and improving. Dayton have huge NIL support and will fill your empty arenas. Come to a game I will host you, after you tell me what you thought of the atmosphere and the fan behavior. I think you will be very impressed.

[billyjack]

Look Billyjack, and I will 2 days ahead of time post the teams that are being added , your angst towards Dayton is without merit. The Flyers will be in and will be a perfect fit. They get more people for a game as St Johns/DePaul/GT combined. There facilities are second to done and improving. Dayton have huge NIL support and will fill your empty arenas. Come to a game I will host you, after you tell me what you thought of the atmosphere and the fan behavior. I think you will be very impressed.

Brother Cheech, i've pretty much been Dayton's biggest supporter on this site. Because of this last post of yours, Dayton temporarily dropped on my scale to 2.42... but then immediately popped back up to 2.95 based on me remembering that one of my wife's friends was born in Dayton.

And if you think i just used those ratings randomly today because they were the ERA's of Don Gullett and Pedro Borbon in 1975, then you must be hoping they jump to 1975 Clay Kirby level.

[Hall2012]

Hoping you're full of shit because reality is that would be the death of this conference.