My Private/Parochial Conference Wish

[muskienick]

I had to go to Spokane WA on business this week. First note: It takes FOREVER to get there. From Indy you have the options of Chicago, Minny, or Denver to catch a connecting flight. A short 7 hours later, you are in Spokane. I pity the 6'6" volleyball players that would have to ride commercial from any airport east of the Mississippi to Spokane.

I took the time to drive through Gonzaga's campus. It is a non-descript campus to say the least. If you are looking for an 'attractive campus' don't look at Gonzaga. By far the most impressive structure on campus was the new baseball stadium. It doesn't rank up there with Omaha, but for an on-campus non-SEC stadium, it was very nice. The on-site McCarthey Athletic Center is rather small (6,000 capacity) and showing some age from the outside, even though it was renovated 10 years ago.

The campus is located in a university district where WSU and EWU each has a branch campus. Those buildings were much newer and nicer in appearance than what I saw on the Gonzaga campus. But it really doesn't matter what a building looks like from the outside, it is important for what happens within.

What is there to do in Spokane? Well the concert being advertised on local billboards was the Village People and Men at Work. Oh boy. I will say that the Spokane area is very attractive. There are tons of outdoor activities to choose from.

The attraction for a student-athlete to attend Gonzaga has to be the coaching staff. Changes in the coaching staff could have an impact on the sustained success of their athletic programs. [I have no knowledge of what academic programs excel at Gonzaga and am not going to research it.]

Good feedback Hoosier.

It is good to keep in mind that Gonzaga's newish - 10 years old now - basketball facility has a capacity of approximately 6000. As attractive as that school is right now, imagine if it did have a falloff in performance and this conference were left with the logistics involved in having them as a member.

NJRedman, it's not all Xavier fans, it's me with my opinion and me having an exchange with Dude. If you don't want to read these posts, then don't read them. It's a message board. You are not editor-in-chief around here. For better or for worse, the expansion topic will stay alive around here for the foreseeable future. Besides, it's the summertime, so some amount of this kind of dialogue is going to take place here.

Pretty sure I could go back in older threads and find a lot of other X fans bitching about UD. Never said i was the editor in chief and it's my opinion the X bashing of UD is like beating a dead horse. If you don't like that post then don't read it.

"Bashing" UD and saying the Flyers should not be among the next two institutions the Big East selects for membership are quite different. I think you will find that is what some other XU fans are saying. Even admitting the fact that they/we also list logical reasons why other institutions should be chosen before them is not cause to accuse us of "bashing" UD. This is a forum for people to express opinions. Some support UD's future membership in the Big East and others do not (at least as one of the next two members). If you really, really dislike fans of two member teams going at each other on a website such as this, you might do well not to support the memberships of Wichita State and Dayton. It wouldn't be very pretty around here!

[BEX]

a-10 is a nice little conference. Added some powerhouses like mason and davidson. Apparently UD just thrilled to be there according to their posters. So why come over here to instigate? Go back to your delusional rah rah boards. 10 works for me. No need to expand. Check back with us in 2025. Bye.

[ohiohsbball]

well I guess since it is offseason, might as well talk expansion. It just wouldn't be the same to login and not see a thread that has to do with expansion or the hatred of Xavier fans towards Dayton.

Just my opinion, and I'm sure a lot of people will disagree, and thats fine; I still believe strongly the BE will expand within the next 3-5 years and Dayton and Saint Louis are included. That is just my honest opinion. They are both great institutionaly great fits with the rest of the conference. For the time being the BE has bigger fish to fry. As a fan of basketball only conferences, I am concnerned about the long term of where this conference goes. You can tell me about recruiting classes all you want, but those do not guarantee wins on the court. I'm not going to say Ithink the BE is in trouble, because it is not; however when I look at facts, I see a conference that is only one year old that has grossly unfair expectations on the conference by their fans (most notable us on this message board). All you have to do is go back to some of the threads started in November, and people were actually thinking this conference will get 6 or 7 teams in the NCAA tournament. That was not realistic nor will it be next year. The conference has made great strides most notably with their agreement with the BIG which is great news. I think we can all agree that before any expansion takes place, lets take care of the 10 schools we have.

As far as UD is concerned, I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I follow the program because I live in the area. I wouldn't say that Dayton is happy in the A10 as some fans on here are suggesting. I do think a lot of the UD fans still want in the BE, but with the excitemment of the elite 8 run a year ago, the BE is an after thought right now. I'm not going to talk a lot about it because Dayton is talked about more than some other BE schools on here, but Dayton does bring a lot to the table; yes, they have struggled on the court but they have shown this year with the right coach in place Dayton has resources to be successful. Money and fan base is both there as well as a huge arena that the NCAA uses for tournaments. I'm not saying they are a "perfect fit", but resources are just as good or better than some of the schools in the conference.

I know Xavier fans will quote me and bash me on this, but some of you guys are making Xavier look like idiots. I have a ton of respect for their school and basketball program, but anytime Dayton comes up, most Xavier fans make no logical posts; just posts bashing them about how delusional they are. Thats fine; your opinion and this is a BE message board so go for it. I know a lot of X fans and UD fans, and both fans have their share of fans that are clueless. I'm just saying don't judge an entire fan base by how they post on message boards. UD gets almost 13,000 fans and maybe 100 of them post on message boards. If anyone were to judge a fan base strictly on fans on message boards, then what fan base wouldn't be delusional? Ive read UDpride and XUhoops when I have a little free time during the year; trust me both schools have fans that would be ashamed of what some of their peers are posting.

[Hoopfan]

Y'all are crazy if you use ud pride as the basis for an entire fan base. That is the most extreme of the extreme ud posters and anyone who disagreed with them was banned 3-4 years ago. Most the normal people are at Blackburn review and/or a10 forum

[BEX]

a-10 forum overrun by dayton mods now. Disagree you're banned.

[marquette]

If Fox fails to add the NBA or Big Ten (and both will almost certainly re-sign with ESPN), the Big East may become a 16 team league by 2018. They have to get more games for FS2 and the regionals. Getting the NBA and/or Big Ten would do that by pushing more Big East games to those channels. Without the NBA and/or Big Ten, a near certain reality, there is really only one way to get those games...

I definitely understand expanding with UD and SLU to get to 12. I can even see eventually going to 14 with VCU and Richmond. However, I think 16 by 2018 is probably too much too soon. UD, SLU, VCU, and UR are all decent to good programs with decent (SLU, UR) to very strong (UD, VCU) fan support. I think attendance and arena size are important to the presidents (see the early idea to add Siena), so VCU and UR might need to try and find a way to add some seats (it is my understanding that VCU is looking to get to 9,000 or so capacity eventually. Not sure on that). The problem with 16 is that there are no viable schools. You could argue Gonzaga, but the logistical issues really make that difficult. Who does that leave in (or near) the footprint without overlap?* My guess is that, if it is determined that 16 is an option, we hold spots 15 and 16 for the next phase of P5 expansion and see what shakes out.**


*Personal opinion, but schools that would probably be eliminated due to overlap are along the lines of Cincy, Temple, St. Joe's, etc.
**All my posts are personal opinion, see signature.


Sincerest apologies to all for furthering my hypocrisy.

[TheHall]

If Fox fails to add the NBA or Big Ten (and both will almost certainly re-sign with ESPN), the Big East may become a 16 team league by 2018. They have to get more games for FS2 and the regionals. Getting the NBA and/or Big Ten would do that by pushing more Big East games to those channels. Without the NBA and/or Big Ten, a near certain reality, there is really only one way to get those games...

I definitely understand expanding with UD and SLU to get to 12. I can even see eventually going to 14 with VCU and Richmond. However, I think 16 by 2018 is probably too much too soon. UD, SLU, VCU, and UR are all decent to good programs with decent (SLU, UR) to very strong (UD, VCU) fan support. I think attendance and arena size are important to the presidents (see the early idea to add Siena), so VCU and UR might need to try and find a way to add some seats (it is my understanding that VCU is looking to get to 9,000 or so capacity eventually. Not sure on that). The problem with 16 is that there are no viable schools. You could argue Gonzaga, but the logistical issues really make that difficult. Who does that leave in (or near) the footprint without overlap?* My guess is that, if it is determined that 16 is an option, we hold spots 15 and 16 for the next phase of P5 expansion and see what shakes out.**


*Personal opinion, but schools that would probably be eliminated due to overlap are along the lines of Cincy, Temple, St. Joe's, etc.
**All my posts are personal opinion, see signature.


Sincerest apologies to all for furthering my hypocrisy.

[Hoopfan]

a-10 forum overrun by dayton mods now. Disagree you're banned.

Havnt been there in a while but when I was it was good. Other than muddy and mudflap...

[BEX]

I love the "round robin" that a 10 team league can do. The non-con games with the BIG and hopefully, PAC 12, will bring a lot of eyeballs to the screen as well. Huge pluses for the League. Think we will see even more "challenges" with other major conferences. Big East recruiting is great. Great coaches, great venues, great TV deals, great announcers. Great start. Keep building on it. Stick at 10 for a while. I agree with Val. No need to expand.

[ohiohsbball]

a-10 forum overrun by dayton mods now. Disagree you're banned.

Again you're talking about a message board 99% of fan bases aren't on them. I guess just people like us without much of a life. We all realize your feelings about Dayton but they do have a good following whether you want to admit it or not.