Bad Luck at DePaul Continues

[DemonLS]

This goes out to Fresh....

My cousin who is a prominent attorney in Chicago, who I just saw again on Wednesday, did share with me again that he was on a committee over the last 20 years that was responsible for finding a new stadium location.

Yes, another connection, Fresh.

[Freshjive2103]

This goes out to Fresh....

My cousin who is a prominent attorney in Chicago, who I just saw again on Wednesday, did share with me again that he was on a committee over the last 20 years that was responsible for finding a new stadium location.

Yes, another connection, Fresh.

[falcon]

DePaul and SJU are both run by the Vincentian Fathers, who are not very adept at operating a modern university. The problems are not confined to the athletic dept.

Care to enlighten us about that? Whats wrong with our universities?

Beyond the terrible administrators and basketball coaches, who have been hired and fired, at great expence over the past 20 years, both schools are ranked at the bottom of the conference in academic matters. US News and Kipplinger also rank them near the bottom of private national schools. The last SJU president was lucky not to be indicted after his involvement with the long-running embezzlement scam. Also, DePaul has no campus arena, while SJU has an absolete, poorly designed, 5600 capacity facility, which they rarely fill. Enlightened enough?

[Sactowndog]

DePaul and SJU are both run by the Vincentian Fathers, who are not very adept at operating a modern university. The problems are not confined to the athletic dept.

Care to enlighten us about that? Whats wrong with our universities?

Beyond the terrible administrators and basketball coaches, who have been hired and fired, at great expence over the past 20 years, both schools are ranked at the bottom of the conference in academic matters. US News and Kipplinger also rank them near the bottom of private national schools. The last SJU president was lucky not to be indicted after his involvement with the long-running embezzlement scam. Also, DePaul has no campus arena, while SJU has an absolete, poorly designed, 5600 capacity facility, which they rarely fill. Enlightened enough?

So curious, why not kick them out and replace them with St Louis?

[DemonLS]

I hate to tell you this but as I have said before....this conference will not reach its fullest potential until St. John's (NY) and DePaul (Chicago) improve their programs big-time. We have a solid TV contract now. But the next big contract will come when this happens.

As soon as these two schools improve on a consistent basis, then the other institutions will improve even more.

What you need is "extra" pressure from Commissioner Ackerman and the other schools and send it St. John's and DePaul's way. What the pressure is? I am not sure. But maybe a threat to be voted out.

But they need to do whatever it takes and invest in facilites, coaches, recruiting, etc.

[Piratefan]

It appears that DePaul is expending resources (e.g. budgets and new stadium) to position itself to win. Once the new stadium is in place, if not sooner, I assume that the AD will make a coaching assessment and make adjustments. It is a very large school by BE standards and located in a talent-rich city. There is no reason that it cannot be a top 40 program.

For the BE to be a top flight conference , Depaul, SHU and SJU need to be at least top 75 programs and one of those three need to be a top 40.

We will be thrilled to have DePaul in the conference once it gets its act together.

[DemonLS]

Good point, Pirate!

[Boyee]

As a DePaul University alumnus, I was very disappointed that they turned down options for a 10,000 seat arena that would be closer to the Lincoln Park Campus and walkable for students. DePaul said the reason they didn't choose the now former A. Finkl & Sons Co. site was because it would make bad traffic issues. These issues could have been resolved with a dedicated exit for the arena off the Kennedy Expressway. The only other site that would have worked for the arena is the former site of the New City YMCA, but they let a developer buy it and it is currently under construction for a mixed-use development known as New City (bounded by North Halsted Street, North Clybourn Avenue, North Ogden Avenue, and West Eastman Street) the site starts only 1 block south of Lincoln Park to 3 blocks south of Lincolnn Park and is one block Southeast from the North/Clybourn Red Line Subway 'L' Stop. Between the Old Town neighborhood and the SoNo neighborhood on Chicago's Near North Side. The McCormick Place Events Center (current name of arena project) is on the Near South Side of Chicago, and will be owned by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA or McPier).