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My eyes and the rest of my head are in excruciating pain as I type this following the reading of the Fieldhouse Flyer "Memorial Page"!

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My apologies to anyone who has experienced any discomfort, pain, or injury as a result of reading Page 3 of this thread.

That was actually pretty informative. Thanks for doing all that but unfortunately we do not have any say on whether or not Dayton gets into the Big East. Good info nonetheless.

I realize that I am in the minority, and I have made my opinions known, but I truly feel that SLU and UD are #11 and #12 once we begin renegotiations for our next TV deal. They would certainly not be cellar-dwellers in the Big East, and would strengthen the middle in years when programs are rebuilding (Marquette, Georgetown, St. Johns, DePaul, etc.). SLU is in excellent position now that they were able to move on from Crews and actually have a dynamic and establish coach again (much like Majerus).

With the added games, the added tournament matchups, the strong fan bases, and the TV markets, I think it just makes too much sense to complete our league. Butler, Creighton and Xavier are now established and contributable Big East members. With our conference's resources and exposure, they would see a similar jump, IMO.

I'm no university President or TV executive, unfortunately, haha.

Fieldhouse Flyer wrote:4. The Top 40 Programs of Each Decade – 2010-2019

The Top 40 Programs of Each Decade - The 1990's:

20. Georgetown
31. Villanova
32. St. John’s
38. Xavier
39. Providence

The Top 40 Programs of Each Decade - 2000-2009:

24. Xavier
25. Villanova
29. Georgetown
32. Marquette
39. Butler (non-Catholic)

If ESPN/Sagarin publishes a 'Top 40 Programs of Each Decade – 2010-2019' list, which Big East teams might be included?

I won’t attempt to recreate the (good?) work of Jeff Sagarin, but if the NCAA’s RPI Rankings are indicative of 'how good' a given basketball team is, it appears that only Villanova and Xavier would make a 'Top 40 Programs of Each Decade – 2010 to 2019' list.

8-Year Average Final RPI Ranking - Team ( 2009-10 • 2010-11 • 2011-12 • 2012-13 . . . 2013-14 • 2014-15 • 2015-16 • 2016-17 )

32 - Villanova ( 15 • 45 • 120 • 54 . . . 8 • 6 • 2 • 3 )
37 - Xavier ( 17 • 26 • 37 • 95 . . . 56 • 28 • 8 • 27 )

47 – Georgetown - ( 16 • 15 • 14 • 15 . . . 75 • 24 • 103 • 115 )
50 – Butler - ( 7 • 19 • 105 • 21 . . . 154 • 30 • 53 • 13 )
56 - Dayton ( 37 • 80 • 91 • 115 . . . 33 • 29 • 25 • 36 )
68 – Marquette - ( 56 • 49 • 9 • 13 . . . 94 • 145 • 111 • 67 )
71 – Creighton - ( 106 • 113 • 23 • 22 . . . 17 • 157 • 94 • 32 )
85 – Seton Hall - ( 70 • 103 • 69 • 133 . . . 136 • 103 • 23 • 46 )
89 – Providence - ( 147 • 158 • 156 • 86 . . . 46 • 25 • 32 • 61 )

110 – St. John’s - ( 78 • 25 • 153 • 91 . . . 82 • 52 • 245 • 148 )
132 – Saint Louis - ( 80 • 183 • 28 • 17 . . . 19 • 273 • 207 • 247 )
205 – DePaul - ( 217 • 233 • 194 • 204 . . . 157 • 197 • 201 • 236 )

Eight seasons of the present decade have already been played, so 80% of the results are in already, with two seasons left to play.

From what I have read, it appears that # 47 – Georgetown’s Average Final RPI Ranking will get worse over the next two seasons, so the Hoyas are an unlikely candidate to make a Top 40 list.

If # 50 – Butler has a Final RPI Ranking of # 10 in both 2018 and 2019, the Bulldog’s 10-year Average RPI Ranking would be:

(.80)(50th place) + (.20)(10th place) = 42nd place.

Therefore, it is near a mathematical impossibility for Butler to make the Average RPI Ranking Top 40 list for the decade 2010 to 2019, but who knows how Butler might fare in a hypothetical ESPN/Sagarin 'Top 40 Programs of Each Decade – 2010 to 2019' list.

Does this methodology assume the average RPI ranking for the decade will be representative of the team's spot on the top 40 programs of the decade? Without looking up all of the data, my guess is there would not be a team in the top 5 under this scenario. The same teams would have to be finishing in the top 40 of the RPI for the entire decade or you wouldn't even have 40 teams for the list, so my guess is Butler is comfortably in if you had a list of the 40 highest RPI average finishes for this decade.

XtoDC - your points are valid, accepted, and appreciated. Accordingly, I have edited Post # 24 as follows:

In revised Post # 24, Fieldhouse Flyer wrote:
Eight seasons of the present decade have already been played, so 80% of the results are in already, with two seasons left to play.

From what I have read, it appears that # 47 – Georgetown’s Average Final RPI Ranking will get worse over the next two seasons, so the Hoyas are an unlikely candidate to make a Top 40 Teams of 2009-2019 list.

Butler has fielded very good to excellent teams in 6 out of the last 8 seasons, but Butler's # 105 and # 154 Final RPI Rankings in the 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons likely puts the Bulldogs on the Top 40 Teams of 2009-2019 bubble with two seasons left to play.

With major conferences expanding to a 20 game conference schedule, if anything is done before the FS1 contract renewal date, it would seem to be adding one member to maintain the round-robin and go to 20 conference games.

In Post # 29, Fieldhouse Flyer wrote:
With ESPN’s ACC Network going live for the 2019-20 season and the ACC going to a 20-game conference schedule, there will be considerable commercial pressure on Fox Sports to increase their inventory of basketball games, which may result in Fox Sports encouraging the Big East to expand to 12 schools in 2024-25 (or possibly sooner). But at present, the Big East is showing no interest whatsoever in expansion, and that will remain the case until we officially hear otherwise.

paulxu wrote:
With major conferences expanding to a 20 game conference schedule, if anything is done before the FS1 contract renewal date, it would seem to be adding one member to maintain the round-robin and go to 20 conference games.

In the unlikely event that the Big East expands prior to the expiration of their present TV rights contract with Fox Sports, it will be because Fox Sports wants to increase their inventory of basketball games, and is willing to pay the Big East handsomely to add more teams. The addition of only one team to the Big East prior to the 2024-25 season wouldn't add much game inventory for Fox Sports, and consequently, it wouldn't be worth the bother for Fox.

While round-robin conference play resonates with the BE fans and basketball coaches, any Big East conference expansion decisions will be made by the universities' Presidents, who are far more interested in revenue generation than conference play format. Ditto for the BE Athletic Directors who will be advising their respective universities' Presidents.

Fieldhouse Flyer wrote:

In Post # 29, Fieldhouse Flyer wrote:
With ESPN’s ACC Network going live for the 2019-20 season and the ACC going to a 20-game conference schedule, there will be considerable commercial pressure on Fox Sports to increase their inventory of basketball games, which may result in Fox Sports encouraging the Big East to expand to 12 schools in 2024-25 (or possibly sooner). But at present, the Big East is showing no interest whatsoever in expansion, and that will remain the case until we officially hear otherwise.

paulxu wrote:
With major conferences expanding to a 20 game conference schedule, if anything is done before the FS1 contract renewal date, it would seem to be adding one member to maintain the round-robin and go to 20 conference games.

In the unlikely event that the Big East expands prior to the expiration of their present TV rights contract with Fox Sports, it will be because Fox Sports wants to increase their inventory of basketball games, and is willing to pay the Big East handsomely to add more teams. The addition of only one team to the Big East prior to the 2024-25 season wouldn't add much game inventory for Fox Sports, and consequently, it wouldn't be worth the bother for Fox.

While round-robin conference play resonates with the BE fans and basketball coaches, any Big East conference expansion decisions will be made by the universities' Presidents, who are far more interested in revenue generation than conference play format. Ditto for the BE Athletic Directors who will be advising their respective universities' Presidents.

With the B1G now playing on FS1, I don't think there's a real inventory concern for the network.

While I don't know all the particulars of the current contract, I'm not sure how the presidents of the current BE can increase revenue by changing the number of conference members.
I understood Fox gave a certain amount of money to each school for the contract life.
If new members were added (up to 2) there were provisions to pay them the same.

So, team expansion, in and of itself, might not affect current school revenue. The exception might be with increased NCAA credits, but that area has done quite well since expansion.

The pressure for good "content" is always a challenge. Things like the Gavitt games help.
There are only a limited number of opportunities during conference months.
An additional 2 conference games (like other large conferences) can be accomplished by adding 1 team.

We'll see I guess.