The Holy Land of Hoops

The attached article is reflective of how far the Big East can take each of our programs, given its reputation and the assets at its disposal. I believe our ten schools will continue to benefit immensely from this association. A school can pull in a key asset from its conference's broadcast partner to make a fundraising event that much better.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/xaviersports/2015/08/03/bill-raftery-headlines-xus-night-of-excellence/31077965/

"The 12th Horan All For One Fund Golf Classic, Xavier Athletics' signature event, has generated more than $1 million in net proceeds for student-athletes." I believe it's on a growth curve now, thanks to the Big East affiliation.

What's new this year? Raftery will be the guest speaker at the AFO's Night of Excellence Aug. 15 at Cintas Center, which takes place prior to the golf outing at Kenwood CC.

Perhaps my perspective about this isn't a "C7" perspective, per se, as I imagine some, if not all, the C7 schools are used to having some conference weight to throw around for events like this. The AFO Fund was doing fine before this, but the Big East affiliation makes it all that much better.

I'm just loving this conference because of its ability to make things like this better, which helps to make a program better, which helps keep the conference strong.

Xudash wrote:The attached article is reflective of how far the Big East can take each of our programs, given its reputation and the assets at its disposal. I believe our ten schools will continue to benefit immensely from this association. A school can pull in a key asset from its conference's broadcast partner to make a fundraising event that much better.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/xaviersports/2015/08/03/bill-raftery-headlines-xus-night-of-excellence/31077965/

"The 12th Horan All For One Fund Golf Classic, Xavier Athletics' signature event, has generated more than $1 million in net proceeds for student-athletes." I believe it's on a growth curve now, thanks to the Big East affiliation.

What's new this year? Raftery will be the guest speaker at the AFO's Night of Excellence Aug. 15 at Cintas Center, which takes place prior to the golf outing at Kenwood CC.

Perhaps my perspective about this isn't a "C7" perspective, per se, as I imagine some, if not all, the C7 schools are used to having some conference weight to throw around for events like this. The AFO Fund was doing fine before this, but the Big East affiliation makes it all that much better.

I'm just loving this conference because of its ability to make things like this better, which helps to make a program better, which helps keep the conference strong.

Dash I have disagreed with some of the things you have said in the past but allow me to say you are SPOT ON with this. All For One is the best idea XU sports has had in some time. I fully expect continued growth.

It certainly has been good for PC as well. They smashed records last year with over $6.2 million in athletic donations from over 3,000 donors and an additional ticket revenue of $2.9 million. For reference when AD Bod Driscoll took over 12 years ago athletic donations stood at $200k a year.

FriarJ wrote:It certainly has been good for PC as well. They smashed records last year with over $6.2 million in athletic donations from over 3,000 donors and an additional ticket revenue of $2.9 million. For reference when AD Bod Driscoll took over 12 years ago athletic donations stood at $200k a year.

Hes done a great job. I think by next year every athletic facility (except the swimming pool) will have been renovated or newly built with in the past 5 years

FriarJ wrote:It certainly has been good for PC as well. They smashed records last year with over $6.2 million in athletic donations from over 3,000 donors and an additional ticket revenue of $2.9 million. For reference when AD Bod Driscoll took over 12 years ago athletic donations stood at $200k a year.

This is exactly my point.

I simply see stuff like this as another steel beam in keeping the structure and competitiveness of the Big East in place. The P5 will be the P5; so be it. They'll have their emphasis on football and a number of those schools will also be good to very good in basketball.

BUT that will not come at the expense of the Big East. As it is set up now and as it is tracking now, especially with how things are presently going with Fox and MSG, and regardless of whether or not expansion comes for some pro-active reason, the Big East conference appears to be firmly established and well positioned for the future.

Just looking down the road, and at the more strategic level, while specifically considering Marquette and DePaul, in particular, we have Wojo building Marquette back to where it's used to being and we have DePaul bringing a very impressive new facility online in the nation's second largest city. Butler made it through its Hinkle renovation and certainly seems to have solved for its coaching situation. Creighton will keep chugging along with obscene attendance numbers in a beautiful facility. St. Johns hopefully will come back very strongly with Mullin at the helm. Stay tuned on Seton Hall. And no worries with the other programs.

So, at least to me, even the "little" things like fundraisers where you can bring in a national celebrity - who is brought by your conference's broadcast partner to host some of it - is a nice contributor in its own way.