Why expand?

[marq]

Bill Marsh....agree with your post but need to point out a common mistake: To paraphrase, you said "In fact, very few colleges have won national championships in both football and basketball". In fact, only one college has won an NCAA championship in both football and basketball....Villanova.

You mean FCS football and D1 basketball right?

[Daffron24]

Bill Marsh....agree with your post but need to point out a common mistake: To paraphrase, you said "In fact, very few colleges have won national championships in both football and basketball". In fact, only one college has won an NCAA championship in both football and basketball....Villanova.

Cal, Maryland, Michigan, Florida, Ohio St., Michigan St., Stanford, and Syracuse have all won both...unless you are just referring to the current BE.

[dmac80]

My take is you don't expand just for the sake of expansion, the programs have to be right. But I do think the positives outweigh the negatives. More teams means more prestige, more chances to get in and win in the NCAA (those thinking 7 of 10 can get invites in todays mens D1 game are on crack, IMO). NCAA invites, wins and advancement means money and celebrity for the league that is a must. Also there some insulation from a defection with more teams. I Say 12 teams.

[Bill Marsh]

Bill Marsh....agree with your post but need to point out a common mistake: To paraphrase, you said "In fact, very few colleges have won national championships in both football and basketball". In fact, only one college has won an NCAA championship in both football and basketball....Villanova.

Emphasis on "NCAA", right?

Good one.

BTW, you give yourself away with the Wali Jones handle. Terrific player.

[Bill Marsh]

Deleted.

[Jet915]

Hey, since the BCS leagues are going to be 14-16 teams anyways, minus well add Gonzaga, BYU, SLU and Richmond and get to 14. Richmond appeases the east coast schools, good academics and a school in the south. SLU with rising program, new facilities and natural rival for Creighton. BYU with national following, great fan support and bridge to Gonzaga. Gonzaga, great hoops tradition, fits profile of Big East schools. Fox would eat this up, schools in every time zone, 14 teams means east coast schools dont have to travel west except maybe once every other year for their team sports.

[Dew]

If you could snap your fingers and give the Big East these 4: Gonzaga, BYU, SLU and Richmond, I'd sign up for that.

[nathanhm]

What people are forgetting about all these leagues that are expanding is they have kept their core intact.

From a Big East perspective we have Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova who are part of the original Big East core. Add in Marquette and DePaul who are recent joiners but at least have some continuity with the league.

Now we are adding 3 more schools. 10 schools with a core of 5, and 2 additional teams to add continuity is good. If suddenly we end up with 14 schools before we've barely even integrated the 3 new ones, its like we ducktaped a bunch of schools that are good at basketball together and called it a league.

I have a ton of respect for Gonzaga, BYU, Richmond, St. Louis, Dayton but I can't remember the last time Georgetown has played any of those schools, or been in a recruiting battle against them. We have basically zero history with them and I bet this is the case for most of the league.

Currently we have basically zero history with Creighton, Xavier, and Butler so it will take time to build that into some meaningful games. Being in a league where most than half of the conference games don't even move the needle for me outside of it being a conference game sounds like the former version of the Big East where you get teams like Houston playing Temple and people are supposed to care.

Honestly who would really be excited to watch Georgetown - BYU or Seton Hall - Gonzaga? Not me.

[DanofXav76]

What people are forgetting about all these leagues that are expanding is they have kept their core intact.

From a Big East perspective we have Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova who are part of the original Big East core. Add in Marquette and DePaul who are recent joiners but at least have some continuity with the league.

Now we are adding 3 more schools. 10 schools with a core of 5, and 2 additional teams to add continuity is good. If suddenly we end up with 14 schools before we've barely even integrated the 3 new ones, its like we ducktaped a bunch of schools that are good at basketball together and called it a league.

I have a ton of respect for Gonzaga, BYU, Richmond, St. Louis, Dayton but I can't remember the last time Georgetown has played any of those schools, or been in a recruiting battle against them. We have basically zero history with them and I bet this is the case for most of the league.

Currently we have basically zero history with Creighton, Xavier, and Butler so it will take time to build that into some meaningful games. Being in a league where most than half of the conference games don't even move the needle for me outside of it being a conference game sounds like the former version of the Big East where you get teams like Houston playing Temple and people are supposed to care.

Honestly who would really be excited to watch Georgetown - BYU or Seton Hall - Gonzaga? Not me.

Great point Nathan! You can tell from many C7 posters they are already struggling (rightfully so) by missing so many of their traditional BE rivals. While I truly believe the NBE has a huge upside let's give it some time to take root and not lose the Big East identity the C7 provide.

[aughnanure]

There have been a couple of expansion threads recently - the first in response to the Xavier AD's comments to expect expansion to 12 some time within the next 5 years and a second focused on who the candidates might be. I'd like to propose a more basic topic with regard to expansion:

Why?

What goals might the conference be trying to achieve through expansion? Before there can be any meaningful discussion of who, it's necessary to identify what the conference is trying to accomplish in the first place. That should give us some idea of whom they might look to as candidates.

Personally I see no reason to expand. In fact I see a lot of reasons not to expand. Ten seems like a perfect number. The conference is perfectly balanced between East Coast and Midwest. There is a core of teams with high level success in recent years that qualify the league as a power conference. There are great traditions and markets throughout the 10 members. The schedule of 18 games offers double round robin among all members.

To be honest, I haven't a clue as to what is to be gained by expanding to 12.

Help me out. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Easier to get more bids (i.e. create a reputation), better seeds and helps defends against bad years (3 bids).

Revenue not an issue as Fox already said they will just increase the contract to bring in up to 12 teams at the same yearly pay. More teams = more inventory = more advertising.