Xavier AD says expanding to 12 schools within 5 years

[friars321]

My thoughts on initially staying at 10 was that we were waiting for the final fallout of the football conferences. Then if it were possible, we could add schools like duke, wake forest, vanderbilt, or the like if any of them wanted to join. Far fetched but those names would elevate the league status.

More realistically I figured we would be getting the likes of St. Louis, Richmond, VCU, Dayton types.

Now as I assess it, I think the BEAST should go big. Go national. We can't just add teams for the sake of adding teams. We need to add programs that will elevate the status of the league. Gonzaga could really help entrench the league as a major conference. I say go 3 divisions. Add Gonzaga, Witchita St, BYU--throw them with Creighton and another school from either Cali or Texas and thats a strong 5. 15 teams: 5 east, 5 central, and 5 west.

Keep an 18 game conference schedule where you still get home and homes with the other 4 teams in your rival division (8games), then play each of the other teams once. If you set this up properly, each team may only need to make 2-3 LONG road trips a year which is not too bad in order to bring in nationally recognizable programs. Long shot I know, but I would place that into consideration.

[Moliva]

Do you guys really think a diploma mill like Wichita State is under consideration?

I think administrators look at things through a bit wider lense than fans who can only see a Final 4 trip last year. Or 3 years ago for that matter.

[muskienick]

Do you guys really think a diploma mill like Wichita State is under consideration?

I think administrators look at things through a bit wider lense than fans who can only see a Final 4 trip last year. Or 3 years ago for that matter.

I am not arguing for or against the Big East offering WSU membership. I simply believe that if the league were going to go to 3 divisions of 5 with one being in the West, I'd prefer WSU over the likes of a St. Mary's since the Shockers routinely are successful both on the floor and in the stands: two pretty important characteristics of any potential Big East member. St. Mary's has basically a high school gym for its home venue while WSU fills its 10,000+ arena fairly regularly with rabid Shocker fans and present a great look to any national TV audience.

Excellence is as much perception as it is reality.

A similar argument could easily be made for VCU!

[Friarfan2]

Big East by a landslide. And thats even without Football. I'm too lazy to look it up but a little googling should find it for you. The AAC is definitely not being paid as a big boy conference.

The Big East teams are making somewhere between 4-5 million per team from Fox. The AAC is getting like 2-3 million a year per team for basketball AND football.

plus the exist fees for all those schools that left (~$70M) split between essentially UConn, Cinci, & USF

AAC is getting $1.5 mill per team for both sports. That's horrible.
The $70 mill is already being divided up by the schools. That's mainly going to uconn, cincy and usf. That payment is going to those schools, no matter what conference they are in 4 years from now.
Exit fee is only $5-10 mill for AAC.

Uconn could pay the exit fee, park football in the MAC, and make more than double their annual tv revenue by joining the big east.

That said, I don't want them. They won't be a long term commi and will always be looking for an out.

I wouldn't mind the 15 school, 5 east, 5 central, 5 west format. Play your division twice (8 games), and then one game against the other 10 schools.

[Jays26]

Do you guys really think a diploma mill like Wichita State is under consideration?

I think administrators look at things through a bit wider lense than fans who can only see a Final 4 trip last year. Or 3 years ago for that matter.

I am not arguing for or against the Big East offering WSU membership. I simply believe that if the league were going to go to 3 divisions of 5 with one being in the West, I'd prefer WSU over the likes of a St. Mary's since the Shockers routinely are successful both on the floor and in the stands: two pretty important characteristics of any potential Big East member. St. Mary's has basically a high school gym for its home venue while WSU fills its 10,000+ arena fairly regularly with rabid Shocker fans and present a great look to any national TV audience.

Excellence is as much perception as it is reality.

A similar argument could easily be made for VCU!

Yes, but you have never had to deal with their idiotic message board fans.

That in itself should be reason enough to keep them out.

[Dave]

I like the the BE at 10 with a round robin schedule, but expansion seems in the works. I disagree that Presidents will decide - in my opinion, Fox will "suggest" and the Presidents will do what they are told. I think the most likely additions will come from SLU, Dayton, Richmond, and VCU. My guess is maybe all 4. Fox would gain more content, two new markets and two great rivalry games. Any school we invite has pluses and minuses. I think most of the posts I have seen are putting too much emphasis on recent winning ways, coaches, NBA players. I think other factors could come into play. Maybe VCU would be seen by FOX as a plus because they are public and not Catholic. Richmond is also non Catholic - try to shake the CYO tag. Dayton supports BB - even though they have not been great for awhile. SLU is a good TV market even though SLU will still be second fiddle to Missouri. NBA players? Which does you more good, a solid 4 year player or a one year NBA type? Coaches eventually go, hopefully they retire, but some go to greener pastures or they loose their magic and get fired. Is it better to hire a big name coach and constantly struggle to keep him or to hire a young up and comer, maybe an alum with loyalty to the school. Certainly, my school, Butler, never hired a big name coach, but some of them became pretty big names.

I appreciate the positives of the other candidates out there. But if you were Fox which additions would you think you could market more successfully?

1. Gonzaga coming off a #1ranking and 15 consecutive trips to the tournament.
2. SLU coming off an A10 title and 3 tournament bids in the past15 years.
3. Dayton, Shut out of all tournaments this year and having 4 tournament bids in the past 15 years.
4. Richmond coming off the CBI and 3 tournament bids in the past 15 years
5. VCU coming off a Final Four 2 years ago and 6 tournament bids in the past 15 years.

UConn

[Bill Marsh]

I like the the BE at 10 with a round robin schedule, but expansion seems in the works. I disagree that Presidents will decide - in my opinion, Fox will "suggest" and the Presidents will do what they are told. I think the most likely additions will come from SLU, Dayton, Richmond, and VCU. My guess is maybe all 4. Fox would gain more content, two new markets and two great rivalry games. Any school we invite has pluses and minuses. I think most of the posts I have seen are putting too much emphasis on recent winning ways, coaches, NBA players. I think other factors could come into play. Maybe VCU would be seen by FOX as a plus because they are public and not Catholic. Richmond is also non Catholic - try to shake the CYO tag. Dayton supports BB - even though they have not been great for awhile. SLU is a good TV market even though SLU will still be second fiddle to Missouri. NBA players? Which does you more good, a solid 4 year player or a one year NBA type? Coaches eventually go, hopefully they retire, but some go to greener pastures or they loose their magic and get fired. Is it better to hire a big name coach and constantly struggle to keep him or to hire a young up and comer, maybe an alum with loyalty to the school. Certainly, my school, Butler, never hired a big name coach, but some of them became pretty big names.

I appreciate the positives of the other candidates out there. But if you were Fox which additions would you think you could market more successfully?

1. Gonzaga coming off a #1ranking and 15 consecutive trips to the tournament.
2. SLU coming off an A10 title and 3 tournament bids in the past15 years.
3. Dayton, Shut out of all tournaments this year and having 4 tournament bids in the past 15 years.
4. Richmond coming off the CBI and 3 tournament bids in the past 15 years
5. VCU coming off a Final Four 2 years ago and 6 tournament bids in the past 15 years.

UConn

They're not interested.

[Dave]

UConn

They're not interested.

Don't fall into the trap of static thinking. The landscape is dynamic.

Add UConn

[cm5yz6]

UConn will never join. That is all, tell me I'm wrong when it happens... which it won't.

[DudeAnon]

Oh UConn will join. Oh yes, and they will like it.