Big East Conference Realignment v2018

[scoscox]

The royals moved from Cincinnati to Kansas City and then Sacramento.

[jfan]

Sorry, reversed the order. I still remember them as the Royals with "The Big O" and Jerry Lucas.

[FenwayFriar]

The difference with Omaha compared to most other Big East cities is that Creighton hoops is the undisputed best sports entertainment option for the winter season (unless UNO puck is bigger than I realize). The only other school that can maybe claim the same is PC, but I don't think it's necessarily wrong to claim the New England region as a whole as their competition. For other schools:

Seton Hall and St. John's - Direct competition with the Knicks, Nets, Devils, Rangers, Islanders
Villanova - Direct competition with the Flyers, Sixers, and rest of the Big 5
Georgetown - Direct competition with the Capitals, Wizards, U of Maryland, arguably even the Virginia schools
Xavier - No major league pro sports besides the Bengals on Sundays, but UC and UofL are quality collegiate competition
Butler - Direct competition with the Pacers
Marquette- Direct competition with the Bucks
DePaul - Direct competition with the Bull and Blackhawks

7 (arguably 8 if you consider the Celtics for PC) of our 10 schools directly share a market with an NBA team. The plus is that it drives interest in the sport, the minus is that we'll never have the best hoops in town - which hurts the ability to draw the casual fan. Plus half of those schools have an NHL team to compete with as well - it's just another high quality sports entertainment product for the casual fan to consider against us. This is all before considering football - I don't know about the rest of you guys - but Seton Hall sees a significant attendance drop on Sunday afternoons when the Jets or Giants are playing.

Pretty spot on regarding PC. Providence is in the heart of Patriots country, being only a half hour from Gillette Stadium, so our AD Bob Driscoll does everything he can to try to avoid Sunday home games. He tries to avoid Sunday away games too if he's able. I know we had one @Creighton this year but they're usually pretty rare. The Pats connection with PC is very strong, many of our season ticket holders are also Pats season ticket holders. One of our radio guys is the Pats in-stadium announcer and Gronk has partied on campus multiple times (in his earlier days). The New England Revolution, also owned by the Krafts, played an exhibition game at PC's brand new soccer stadium last summer and that drew a huge crowd. A lot of Pats players live in the Providence area since it's closer to the stadium than Boston and cheaper to live. Notably Amendola had a run-in with his neighbors in the ultra-rich neighborhood near Brown because he needed to install a carport because Belichick would never cancel practice due to snow and his neighbors thought it was ugly.

In terms of winter sports competition, we have the Providence Bruins (Boston's AHL team) playing at the Dunk but we outdraw them. But having them in town plus the PawSox (Boston's AAA team) in the summer, it just adds to the New England sports fan's interest in pro sports over college. So the Bruins and Celtics could definitely be considered direct competition. A decent amount of people work in Boston and live in Providence because the commuter train is so convenient and it's so much cheaper.

[paulxu]

I've just got to fix the sarcasm font on this keyboard.

[stever20]

it's interesting with the competition that the city that had the least competition of all the major cities recently- Philly. And look at what has happened with Villanova last 4-5 years.

[jfan]

Yeah, but then you would have missed all the very useful information about Omaha!

[BEwannabe]

Xavier - No major league pro sports besides the Bengals on Sundays, but UC and UofL are quality collegiate competition
Butler - Direct competition with the Pacers
Marquette- Direct competition with the Bucks

Xavier - no mention of UK? Tons of Wildcat fans in SW Ohio

Butler - IU, Purdue, Notre Dame and L'ville has a ton of fans in Indiana

Marquette - Wisconsin saying there is no competition in Milwaukee from Wisconsin would be like me saying there is no competition in Dayton from Ohio St almost exact same distance between those 4 cities

[Hall2012]

Xavier - No major league pro sports besides the Bengals on Sundays, but UC and UofL are quality collegiate competition
Butler - Direct competition with the Pacers
Marquette- Direct competition with the Bucks

Xavier - no mention of UK? Tons of Wildcat fans in SW Ohio

Butler - IU, Purdue, Notre Dame and L'ville has a ton of fans in Indiana

Marquette - Wisconsin saying there is no competition in Milwaukee from Wisconsin would be like me saying there is no competition in Dayton from Ohio St almost exact same distance between those 4 cities

Who cares? I never claimed this to be an exhaustive list and my primary focus was on pro sports anyway. The only collegiate competition I mentioned were those directly sharing a city a pair that immediately came to mind as nearby. It was enough to make my point.

[adoraz]

I realize Hurley has only been at UConn for a few weeks, but I think they have a big need for 2018 recruits and so far he hasn't gotten any. After Ollie was let go, they also released UConn's two recruits.

https://herosports.com/college-basketba ... adams-ahah

Looks like they are going after a RI recruit, but he wouldn't be an impact player.

Is this because of the investigation? School can no longer pay players? UConn needs to get off to a fast start under Hurley, but it might be rough.

[gtmoBlue]

I realize Hurley has only been at UConn for a few weeks, but I think they have a big need for 2018 recruits and so far he hasn't gotten any. After Ollie was let go, they also released UConn's two recruits.

https://herosports.com/college-basketba ... adams-ahah

Looks like they are going after a RI recruit, but he wouldn't be an impact player.

Is this because of the investigation? School can no longer pay players? UConn needs to get off to a fast start under Hurley, but it might be rough.

Who cares? Let UConn and Hurley sink on their F5 quest. BE schools should not be bailing them out by scheduling games with UConn.