Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Creighton associate AD has been tweeting out info about early season games for the fall sports seasons. First MSOC home game for CU will be against St Johns.

I look forward to seeing more info from all the schools soon.

Confirmed that the Big East volleyball tournament is going to be played in Omaha this year.

From Andy Katz:

1. The new Big East has soccer and volleyball schedules for the fall despite not having a commissioner or staff yet. Each athletic director among the 10 was given a sport to work on scheduling along with the coaches from each school. The athletic directors are completely in the dark on the league's new commissioner; the decision is being made by the university presidents. Meanwhile, the schools are still waiting to hear from broadcast partner Fox about what nights they will typically play on during the conference season. Monday and Thursday doubleheaders are a possibility, but the use of pro arenas by Seton Hall, Providence, Villanova, Marquette, Georgetown and St. John's makes it hard to lock in just two nights per week for games.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketba ... ut-details

Katz observation re: basketball schedule confirms what I've previously concluded, 10 team league will be hard pressed to play some kind of non traditonal Wed-Sat schedule and wasn't even considering the fact several teams don't control their own arenas. Like it or not articles like Katz make NBE look small time, get a commissioner and get on with the expansion we all know is going to happen. The only thing sitting on expansion does is hurt the NBE and the expansion teams whether it be SLU, Richmond or Dayton. NBE has to at least go to 12 and the 2 they add benefit from affilliation up to and including what I would suggest, air some of their 2013 OOC games on FS1, win-win for Fox and NBE.

Not sure why Katz's speculation confirms anything. I agree with both of you on the difficulty of scheduling, sports scheduling is nuts, but all this points to is that Fox isn't providing enough details, yet. They'll get it done alright, the schedule will likely just end up with a lot of rough travel arrangements to make the accommodations. Don't forget that having 10 teams to juggle is also an easier problem than having 12. 12 offers flexibility for a limited tv schedule, but 10 is simpler complexity if tv is airing all the games no matter. If 12 teams meant more games on tv, it wouldn't necessarily be an easier problem to accommodate Fox.

Technically i have long pointed out that a ten team league is miserable for logistics, and i contend that a twelve team conference is a much more manageable league. I still think the move to twelve teams regardless of who gets in is inevitable. It looks like the league is going to start with 10, and it started without a solid business plan. Yes,it will be a rough first year, but even with 12 teams starting a new conference would be rough. My guess is that the BE will deal with this years hardships and move up to 12 next year. Obviously running a small sized league puts you at a scheduling disadvantage when you are trying to compete with the major conferences. The AD's are now setting up the league and realizing it, the league will be at 12 in most likely a year. Yes it will make the BE look a lil bush but every ESPN article on the BE will make it look bush regardless. So no real loss.

BillEsq wrote:Technically i have long pointed out that a ten team league is miserable for logistics, and i contend that a twelve team conference is a much more manageable league. I still think the move to twelve teams regardless of who gets in is inevitable. It looks like the league is going to start with 10, and it started without a solid business plan. Yes,it will be a rough first year, but even with 12 teams starting a new conference would be rough. My guess is that the BE will deal with this years hardships and move up to 12 next year. Obviously running a small sized league puts you at a scheduling disadvantage when you are trying to compete with the major conferences. The AD's are now setting up the league and realizing it, the league will be at 12 in most likely a year. Yes it will make the BE look a lil bush but every ESPN article on the BE will make it look bush regardless. So no real loss.

ESPN is going to try to bury the Big East because of the broadcast differences. SportsCenter will probably show as few BE highlights as possible.

Fox isn't going to let their competitor affect them though.

@BillEsq: I just don't know why you think they are only now realizing any disadvantages for 10 vs 12. Nothing supports that, especially since all indications are 12 is coming.

DumpsterFireA10 wrote:

BillEsq wrote:Technically i have long pointed out that a ten team league is miserable for logistics, and i contend that a twelve team conference is a much more manageable league. I still think the move to twelve teams regardless of who gets in is inevitable. It looks like the league is going to start with 10, and it started without a solid business plan. Yes,it will be a rough first year, but even with 12 teams starting a new conference would be rough. My guess is that the BE will deal with this years hardships and move up to 12 next year. Obviously running a small sized league puts you at a scheduling disadvantage when you are trying to compete with the major conferences. The AD's are now setting up the league and realizing it, the league will be at 12 in most likely a year. Yes it will make the BE look a lil bush but every ESPN article on the BE will make it look bush regardless. So no real loss.

ESPN is going to try to bury the Big East because of the broadcast differences. SportsCenter will probably show as few BE highlights as possible.

Fox isn't going to let their competitor affect them though.

Agreed, while i personally think the BE made a mistake in not going to 12 teams and opened the door to this kind of reporting, I firmly believe ESPN would do their best to point out any weakness even if the league had gone to 12 and added Duke and Kentucky.

BillEsq wrote:

DumpsterFireA10 wrote:

BillEsq wrote:Technically i have long pointed out that a ten team league is miserable for logistics, and i contend that a twelve team conference is a much more manageable league. I still think the move to twelve teams regardless of who gets in is inevitable. It looks like the league is going to start with 10, and it started without a solid business plan. Yes,it will be a rough first year, but even with 12 teams starting a new conference would be rough. My guess is that the BE will deal with this years hardships and move up to 12 next year. Obviously running a small sized league puts you at a scheduling disadvantage when you are trying to compete with the major conferences. The AD's are now setting up the league and realizing it, the league will be at 12 in most likely a year. Yes it will make the BE look a lil bush but every ESPN article on the BE will make it look bush regardless. So no real loss.

ESPN is going to try to bury the Big East because of the broadcast differences. SportsCenter will probably show as few BE highlights as possible.

Fox isn't going to let their competitor affect them though.

Agreed, while i personally think the BE made a mistake in not going to 12 teams and opened the door to this kind of reporting, I firmly believe ESPN would do their best to point out any weakness even if the league had gone to 12 and added Duke and Kentucky.

We even agree. What's wrong here?

I know some of the principals have mentioned 12, but I'll believe it when it happens.