Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

As many of you know, I am a big proponent of the Big East adding Gonzaga.

Here is the case from both prospectives:

Gonzaga
According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, the Big 12 no longer seems interested. This is a problem for Gonzaga as the BE is the only remaining major conference with any interest in the Zags.
It is not a secret that Mark Few wants his program in a power conference.
The WCC just added Grand Canyon and Seattle for the 25/26 season and Oregon State and Washington State are likely to leave after the 25/26 season (according to Norlander).
Grand Canyon is a solid pickup, but I have a feeling Seattle with be middle to lower end of the pack in the WCC. From what I have read, the WCC will expand to an 18-game schedule for 11 teams which can't be something Gonzaga is in favor of.
Also, Gonzaga for years has blackballed Seattle, which makes me think the Zags are out the door.
As far as travel, there have been several analysis on the cost for Gonzaga's athletic program traveling east and only four of their sports for each sex would have to do so. Big East tv contract money would more than cover the additional costs of travel.

The Big East
Villanova's star is fading and the league needs a huge #2 brand: enter Gonzaga. Gonzaga is one of the best TV draws nationally as well.
The other four power basketball conferences will all be at a minimum of 16 programs. The Big East is sitting at 11. It won't matter how good of a year the Big East has as the other four will almost always get more bids going forward due to their numerical advantage. This will create a perception problem as people will think if the ACC gets 7 bids it had a better year than a 6-bid Big East.
With the loss of both the Gavitt Games and the Big 12-Big East battle, several lower end Big East programs are losing their ability to get a home game against more than one P4 team a year.
12 teams playing a 20-game schedule = more bids than 11 teams playing a 20-game schedule. Math is math.
A 12-team league also means no more byes which is good in January and February.
A 12-team league also gives the league flexibility to go to a 22-game schedule in the future if the P4 elect to do so.
Grabbing Gonzaga would be the Big East's gain and the Pac-12/MW's loss.
Adding Gonzaga would help the Big East get more money in their next TV as the Zags are a huge brand and adding them also adds more inventory.

Wichita State looked like a great addition for the AAC at the time. Once the coach (Gregg Marshall) left, the program has nosedived, finishing 12th out of 14 teams this past season.

Burrito wrote:Wichita State looked like a great addition for the AAC at the time. Once the coach (Gregg Marshall) left, the program has nosedived, finishing 12th out of 14 teams this past season.

Marshall got in trouble because it turns out he abused his players and treated them like crap. He resigned and they've completely fallen apart

Yeah, I didn't go into the details of why Marshall left.

Another example is Villanova with Wright retiring.

Mark Few will be 62 this year. How many more years will he continue to coach? If the Gonzaga program falls off once he leaves, the value of Gonzaga to the Big East quickly drops.
And the cross country trips become a lot less meaningful. just a risk to consider.

How the F you gonna mention Nova's star fading just 2 years after F4 trip and then use it as a reason to go after a program wholly reliant on one coach.

Georgetown has never recovered since JT retired. They have been fumbling from coach to coach since.

Depaul used to be good too. Then the coach retired. St. John's post Lou Carnesecca.

Where did I write the Big East should add Gonzaga? I am going back through this thread and don't see that post.

Memphis, Gonzaga, and Wichita are my top expansion target's

Memphis isn’t going anywhere with the annual NIL budget from FedEx. I could see them battling with the top Big East teams annually.

Gonzaga scares me, the program will eventually regress unless they win a National Championship soon. Like people said, Few isn’t getting younger and the travel issues are real. overall tho, Gonzaga would be an A+ add in the short term.

Wichita is a wild card, I see them with more potential than programs like Dayton, VCU, and STL. Great sized arena(10,506) no football, a nice travel partner and potential rivalry with Creighton. also this conference could use some color lol, it would be a nice contrast to all the blue, and yellow and black looks great on television.

I'm not worried about what happens when Few leaves. The Zags have 26 NCAA bids in the last 30 years. That sort of run creates structure for support and high expectations. They've been running a high-level program with international recruiting for years in the WCC.

To me, the main argument against them is the travel for Olympic sports. TV $$$ might pay for some of the added travel costs, but I'd guess some schools might decide it's not worth sending one of the minor sports teams to Spokane.

Travel would be a nightmare. Unless Val can figure out how to balance all the east coast teams to have a best case scenario road trip. At Creighton then at Gonzaga, a bye and then home game

No need to expand. Not at all. 11 is perfect. No one out there worth adding.