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...but only if going to 11 teams. The B1G and ACC have already increased conference play to 20 games. Media day is Wednesday. I'm sure this will get brought up a lot during the season.

UConn will continue to be brought up, but I feel like that ship has sailed. Regardless of who that potential eleventh member is, you get stronger conference games, more televised games, more conference tournament games in NYC, and more potential teams in the tournament. In the end, I do think money will talk and we will - at some point - expand again (keeping the round-robin, of course).

https://www.fanragsports.com/rothstein-big-east-could-play-20-conference-games-if-it-adds-11th-team/

If UConn doesn't drop FB to at keast FCS they wont be the 11th team.

The realistic options could be SLU, Dayton, Richmond and VCU.

I say take the best program with the best facilities and best chance at being able to compete year in and year out. I know every program with have down turns but who has the resources to be more than a cellar dweller. I would say that would narrow it down to Dayton and VCU.

The Big East could be expanding to a 20-game conference schedule sometime in the near future. However, such a change is only likely if the heralded conference if able to add an 11th team into the fold, a source has informed FanRag Sports.

The league currently has 10 teams and plays its conference schedule by way of a double round-robin format.

“The double round-robin format is ideal,” one source told FanRag Sports. “That needs to be kept in place.”

I wonder who made that statement.

Xudash wrote:The Big East could be expanding to a 20-game conference schedule sometime in the near future. However, such a change is only likely if the heralded conference if able to add an 11th team into the fold, a source has informed FanRag Sports.

The league currently has 10 teams and plays its conference schedule by way of a double round-robin format.

“The double round-robin format is ideal,” one source told FanRag Sports. “That needs to be kept in place.”

I wonder who made that statement.

I actually think UConn becomes more realistic as time goes on. Their football program hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire and I haven't heard any rumblings that their P5 lifeboat is on its way.

Oh goodie, a new expansion thread! I was wondering when we would get one of these!

If 1 team is added then it has to be Gonzaga.

That single addition would ramp up attention near 1980 levels.

Or, bring on VCU, Dayton, St Louis, Northern Iowa.. they'll be fine.

But Gonzaga is the Crown Jewel.

I'm not sure why anyone other than Gonzaga is worried about travel. It's just 1 trip for all of us. If they're willing to make it work, then the Big East should. They're worth the trouble. We have room for more Bulldogs.

OMIGOD, here we go AGAIN! For the past few years we've been over and around and back and forth debating every possible 11th member.

SLU is private, Catholic, offers good academics, provides a fan base bridge to lonely Creighton, has its own HUGE local TV market, and has had an athletics history and budget that fit our institutional model. SLU's only downside seems to be their general lack of success in men's bball. Dayton offers much better bball and, like SLU, provides great "institutional fit". They have a very sold fan base, but their TV market overlaps Xavier's to an extent. Richmond also works on the "institutional-fit" dimension, and expands our footprint further south, but I'm sure how much TV viewership and additional league fan base they could generate. IMHO, all 3 of those A-10 programs would accept a BEAST invitation immediately, and hold a party to celebrate.

On the other hand, UConn does not bring good "institutional fit"; they're public rather than private, not church-affiliated, and -- like most bigger public universities --football minded. However, they do bring a big bball fan base, lots of east coast TV viewers, some old Big East rivalry swagger, and an outstanding bball history. Financially, UConn absolutely does make sense for us.

IMHO, VCU brings nothing. Don't get me wrong; I've loved their "underdog" bball success over the years (like our own XU, CU, and BU, and like Dayton), but they just don't fit institutionally, and are waaay behind UConn in desirability.

The more fanciful ideas that have been thrown against the wall include (1) a private institution that just can't compete with the huge public universities in a Power 5 Conference, and decides to drop out of D-1 football altogether (consider Vanderbilt, Boston College, or Northwestern -- just to pull out one possibility from 3 different conferences), (2) Gonzaga and/or St. Mary's -- hooray, now we're nationwide!, and (3) jumping right to 14+teams like most other conferences, though our own BEASTLY success has made major expansion both unnecessary and unappealing.

After countless hours of thinking and debating this issue, I've come to believe that expanding to 11 members won't happen anytime soon, but that IF we add an 11th member, the entry fee would now be substantial. SLU, Dayton, Richmond, and UConn are the only candidates worth mutual consideration. The fanciful ideas may be fun, but I can't see all of them together having more than a one in a thousand chance of happening.

xusandy wrote:OMIGOD, here we go AGAIN! For the past few years we've been over and around and back and forth debating every possible 11th member.

SLU is private, Catholic, offers good academics, provides a fan base bridge to lonely Creighton, has its own HUGE local TV market, and has had an athletics history and budget that fit our institutional model. SLU's only downside seems to be their general lack of success in men's bball. Dayton offers much better bball and, like SLU, provides great "institutional fit". They have a very sold fan base, but their TV market overlaps Xavier's to an extent. Richmond also works on the "institutional-fit" dimension, and expands our footprint further south, but I'm sure how much TV viewership and additional league fan base they could generate. IMHO, all 3 of those A-10 programs would accept a BEAST invitation immediately, and hold a party to celebrate.

On the other hand, UConn does not bring good "institutional fit"; they're public rather than private, not church-affiliated, and -- like most bigger public universities --football minded. However, they do bring a big bball fan base, lots of east coast TV viewers, some old Big East rivalry swagger, and an outstanding bball history. Financially, UConn absolutely does make sense for us.

IMHO, VCU brings nothing. Don't get me wrong; I've loved their "underdog" bball success over the years (like our own XU, CU, and BU, and like Dayton), but they just don't fit institutionally, and are waaay behind UConn in desirability.

The more fanciful ideas that have been thrown against the wall include (1) a private institution that just can't compete with the huge public universities in a Power 5 Conference, and decides to drop out of D-1 football altogether (consider Vanderbilt, Boston College, or Northwestern -- just to pull out one possibility from 3 different conferences), (2) Gonzaga and/or St. Mary's -- hooray, now we're nationwide!, and (3) jumping right to 14+teams like most other conferences, though our own BEASTLY success has made major expansion both unnecessary and unappealing.

After countless hours of thinking and debating this issue, I've come to believe that expanding to 11 members won't happen anytime soon, but that IF we add an 11th member, the entry fee would now be substantial. SLU, Dayton, Richmond, and UConn are the only candidates worth mutual consideration. The fanciful ideas may be fun, but I can't see all of them together having more than a one in a thousand chance of happening.

I know this is radical... but Denver is already a part of the conference in some other sports..

Since the conference already went to Omaha, could Denver be the best "fit"... We've seen other conferences actually go into the basketball program building business (case in point TCU and SMU)..

With the 'Big Eat Tag', could Denver grow into the shoes of a solid conference addition? The Big East should be able to build a solid program at a school like Denver.

CrawfishBucket wrote:
I know this is radical... but Denver is already a part of the conference in some other sports..

Since the conference already went to Omaha, could Denver be the best "fit"... We've seen other conferences actually go into the basketball program building business (case in point TCU and SMU)..

With the 'Big Eat Tag', could Denver grow into the shoes of a solid conference addition? The Big East should be able to build a solid program at a school like Denver.

...it would get our schools some experience playing at altitude, so we'd be slightly less screwed when one of us inevitably gets sent back up into the mountains for play a horrifically underseeded Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Hall2012 wrote:

CrawfishBucket wrote:
I know this is radical... but Denver is already a part of the conference in some other sports..

Since the conference already went to Omaha, could Denver be the best "fit"... We've seen other conferences actually go into the basketball program building business (case in point TCU and SMU)..

With the 'Big Eat Tag', could Denver grow into the shoes of a solid conference addition? The Big East should be able to build a solid program at a school like Denver.

...it would get our schools some experience playing at altitude, so we'd be slightly less screwed when one of us inevitably gets sent back up into the mountains for play a horrifically underseeded Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Gonzaga was not horrifically underseeded. their KP rating end of year was #27 and their RPI was #46. They were in the #14 conference that year. They had 2 top 50 wins all year long and only 5 top 100 wins. Add all of that up, and you have a 10 or 11 seed.