Conference Realignment Thread v. 2016

[UD Flyer Fanatic]

"This isn't football. No one does divisions in basketball not even the 16 team Big East. Divisions are a no go, why do people still bring them up when only the OVC still uses them?

NJ Redman,

1. Was just toying with the idea of keeping the original BE teams together to make sure their rivalries continue- maybe even keep a round robin format within a division,
2. Reduce the travel for the west coast team(s) and their east coast counterparts. Allow say Creighton to play a St Louis and a Gonzaga home and home each year, not require a Georgetown to travel west as often. This could be achieved also by using an A-10 like pod system which is likely less obnoxious to some...

The original 16 team BE was entirely Eastern based- this playful experiment imagines a conference coast to coast. Does any MBB conference have teams on both coasts? None I can think of. But I see your point...

[NJRedman]

"This isn't football. No one does divisions in basketball not even the 16 team Big East. Divisions are a no go, why do people still bring them up when only the OVC still uses them?

NJ Redman,

1. Was just toying with the idea of keeping the original BE teams together to make sure their rivalries continue- maybe even keep a round robin format within a division,
2. Reduce the travel for the west coast team(s) and their east coast counterparts. Allow say Creighton to play a St Louis and a Gonzaga home and home each year, not require a Georgetown to travel west as often. This could be achieved also by using an A-10 like pod system which is likely less obnoxious to some...

The original 16 team BE was entirely Eastern based- this playful experiment imagines a conference coast to coast. Does any MBB conference have teams on both coasts? None I can think of. But I see your point...

The idea is flawed. Round robin in division is 14 games and then playing the other 8 teams in the other division is 22 conference games. A 16 team conference playing 20 conference games gives you everyone once and 5 teams twice. What they used to do in the 16 team big east was 18 games, everyone once and 3 teams twice. Those 3 would be one top level team one middle pack team and one bottom level team.

[billyjack]

Watched part of the St Mary’s game at Loyola Marymount... announcer said St Mary’s has 7 or so Australians on their roster. I guess that's Randy Bennett's strategy, just grab the best available Aussies.

[DeltaV]

I don't think that Gonzaga or St Mary's are actually viable candidates because of location, but if they are going to be included I think BYU should be included. An academically strong, fiscally sound, faith based institution checks most of the boxes. Plus, because BYU is unique in that since it is really the only D1 school affiliated with that particular religion, it automatically has a national and international following. I know in the past when Creighton has played BYU in Omaha, local mormons have turned out in droves to support BYU. While football will always be important to BYU, if they keep that program independent like it is right now, there would be a lot of value in that add...assuming one could work around the no Sundays rule.

Religious yes, but big city CATHOLIC schools and rural MORMON aren't exactly apples to apples. The Big East schools while Catholic have mostly diverse student bodies. I doubt the large BE schools like SJU, DePaul and GTown would want to be associated with BYU and it's church officials. I know the Priests involved wouldn't want to rub elbows with the mormon church officials.

I don't know about the other Catholic schools...but our idea of diversity at Nova was Irish Catholics, Jersey Italian Catholics, Non-Jersey Italian Catholics, Polish Catholics, Boston Catholics, and then the actual 'diverse' Puerto Rican Catholics. Then again, we were nicknamed 'Vanillanova' for a reason.

[Noonzy]

Billy, St. Mary's has always had a pipeline for Aussies. They did get in some kind of trouble with that a few years ago.

[NJRedman]

I don't think that Gonzaga or St Mary's are actually viable candidates because of location, but if they are going to be included I think BYU should be included. An academically strong, fiscally sound, faith based institution checks most of the boxes. Plus, because BYU is unique in that since it is really the only D1 school affiliated with that particular religion, it automatically has a national and international following. I know in the past when Creighton has played BYU in Omaha, local mormons have turned out in droves to support BYU. While football will always be important to BYU, if they keep that program independent like it is right now, there would be a lot of value in that add...assuming one could work around the no Sundays rule.

Religious yes, but big city CATHOLIC schools and rural MORMON aren't exactly apples to apples. The Big East schools while Catholic have mostly diverse student bodies. I doubt the large BE schools like SJU, DePaul and GTown would want to be associated with BYU and it's church officials. I know the Priests involved wouldn't want to rub elbows with the mormon church officials.

I don't know about the other Catholic schools...but our idea of diversity at Nova was Irish Catholics, Jersey Italian Catholics, Non-Jersey Italian Catholics, Polish Catholics, Boston Catholics, and then the actual 'diverse' Puerto Rican Catholics. Then again, we were nicknamed 'Vanillanova' for a reason.

I'm not catholic and had a Muslim frat brother. SJU is pretty diverse and I'm sure DePaul is as well. When you get 20+k in your student body then you need to attract more than Catholics.

[DudeAnon]

Get this nonsense discussion out of this thread.......and into the 2017 thread lol

[Bill Marsh]

"This isn't football. No one does divisions in basketball not even the 16 team Big East. Divisions are a no go, why do people still bring them up when only the OVC still uses them?

NJ Redman,

1. Was just toying with the idea of keeping the original BE teams together to make sure their rivalries continue- maybe even keep a round robin format within a division,
2. Reduce the travel for the west coast team(s) and their east coast counterparts. Allow say Creighton to play a St Louis and a Gonzaga home and home each year, not require a Georgetown to travel west as often. This could be achieved also by using an A-10 like pod system which is likely less obnoxious to some...

The original 16 team BE was entirely Eastern based- this playful experiment imagines a conference coast to coast. Does any MBB conference have teams on both coasts? None I can think of. But I see your point...

The idea is flawed. Round robin in division is 14 games and then playing the other 8 teams in the other division is 22 conference games. A 16 team conference playing 20 conference games gives you everyone once and 5 teams twice. What they used to do in the 16 team big east was 18 games, everyone once and 3 teams twice. Those 3 would be one top level team one middle pack team and one bottom level team.

Gonzaga has a pipeline to international players as well.

[JPSchmack]

We can debate the merits of expanding vs not expanding. But the reality is there is 0% chance St. Bonaventure would ever be added. It would be the single worst expansion choice in conference realignment history.

Which is totally fine. I keep saying "Forget St. Bonaventure"

Show me how adding a powerful team like Gonzaga actually helps you, compared to my philosophy. Forget geography for a second and say Gonzaga relocates to Cleveland. The undefeated OOC play helps you, of course. Gonzaga going deep in the NCAA Tournament brings in more units.

But what does it do to the NCAA status/seeding of everyone else in the league? Depends on where Gonzaga finishes, right? If they're 14-4 then the rest of you are 85-95 in Big East play instead of 90-90. Is that going to push your current 5th, 6th and 7th teams out of the dance and into the NIT?