UConn Smoke

[scoscox]

The exposure things is very odd things to say. The Big East gets 19 on Big Fox and will be getting on 4 games on CBS. The only league close to that numbers is the Big Ten. I guess that is them ripping on FS1.

It is a stunning argument to say the least. 3 games on a slightly larger espn audience and all of your games on espn+ vs. every single game on FS1, Fox, or CBS. tough call. some have seriously convinced themselves though it would seem.

[scoscox]

For VCU:
a top program: Depends on the definition of "top" (law school is rubbing off on me).
Respected history: Not sure if it's respected or not.
Big City school: Richmond is ranked 44th on the MSA list, right in front of Louisville and Memphis. Virginia Beach is ranked #37 and as a large state school neighboring the peninsula, it draws a lot from that area (this works for recruiting too).
Giant student body: 31,000 students with another 14,000 employees; Endowment of $1.843 Billion.
Great attendance numbers: Sold out streak from early 2011 (before the Final Four). Top attendance school for the A10 tournament.
NBA arena available: No. Richmond Coliseum is being torn down for a rebuild. Richmond is hoping to attract more talent (concerts, NCAA tournament games etc...) like it did before Charlottesville's new building came into play.
Competitive champs in a top 10 conference: Check, arguably the Flagship of the A-10.
Sends players to the NBA: Check (Larry Sanders, Eric Maynor, Troy Daniels, Treveon Graham, Briante Weber).
In great recruiting territory: Check. Rumor is that Georgetown blocked VCU's NBE bid due to VA Beach/Peninsula recruiting territory (VCU recruits the area very well).

I will add that VCU's media rights contract runs at $2 Million/year. That's on top of the funds received from the Conference rights, as well as NCAA tournament credits that have obviously been consistent in the last decade+ of appearances through 5 different coaches.

weird to see the flagship of the A-10 thing. we just had a death grip on that title for so long (after temple), it's a new era in the a-10 i guess. from an outsider perspective, i still kinda consider dayton the flagship from the archie years. i think they still have more a-10 titles and ncaa tournament wins since realignment. knowing dayton's love of mediocrity i'm sure that will change soon.

with regard to the respected history point, i was surprised to learn that your final four year in 2011 is also your only sweet sixteen appearance. i guess i thought the duke game was a second round game in 07.

[kayako]

The A10 looks strong for next season. I can see it sending 3 or 4 teams to the tournament as the 7th best conference. Too much crap in the bottom to challenge the Pac12, but it should be as good or better than the aac.

[Edrick]

Gonzaga isn't coming and probably neither is UConn so you better get used to SLU being your conference mate because it will happen in a few years.

0% chance

[Xudash]

For VCU:
a top program: Depends on the definition of "top" (law school is rubbing off on me).
Respected history: Not sure if it's respected or not.
Big City school: Richmond is ranked 44th on the MSA list, right in front of Louisville and Memphis. Virginia Beach is ranked #37 and as a large state school neighboring the peninsula, it draws a lot from that area (this works for recruiting too).
Giant student body: 31,000 students with another 14,000 employees; Endowment of $1.843 Billion.
Great attendance numbers: Sold out streak from early 2011 (before the Final Four). Top attendance school for the A10 tournament.
NBA arena available: No. Richmond Coliseum is being torn down for a rebuild. Richmond is hoping to attract more talent (concerts, NCAA tournament games etc...) like it did before Charlottesville's new building came into play.
Competitive champs in a top 10 conference: Check, arguably the Flagship of the A-10.
Sends players to the NBA: Check (Larry Sanders, Eric Maynor, Troy Daniels, Treveon Graham, Briante Weber).
In great recruiting territory: Check. Rumor is that Georgetown blocked VCU's NBE bid due to VA Beach/Peninsula recruiting territory (VCU recruits the area very well).

I will add that VCU's media rights contract runs at $2 Million/year. That's on top of the funds received from the Conference rights, as well as NCAA tournament credits that have obviously been consistent in the last decade+ of appearances through 5 different coaches.

weird to see the flagship of the A-10 thing. we just had a death grip on that title for so long (after temple), it's a new era in the a-10 i guess. from an outsider perspective, i still kinda consider dayton the flagship from the archie years. i think they still have more a-10 titles and ncaa tournament wins since realignment. knowing dayton's love of mediocrity i'm sure that will change soon.

with regard to the respected history point, i was surprised to learn that your final four year in 2011 is also your only sweet sixteen appearance. i guess i thought the duke game was a second round game in 07.

Didn't VD only win the A10 Conference Tournament ONCE since joining the conference with X in the mid-90"s. That's one time in almost 25 years. And, if I recall correctly, it took them playing in VD Arena to accomplish that. If that track record constitutes a flagship, I'd say the flagship is a 30 year old used pontoon boat with a smoky 50-HP Evinrude dangling off the back of it.

[Xudash]

My list as of today, on a scale of 1 to 100...

- 100 Gonzaga.
- 100 UConn with indy football.
- 99 Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
- 68 Dayton.
- 20 VCU.

must check the box on half on these:
a top program,
respected history,
big city school,
giant student body,
great attendance numbers
NBA arena available,
competitive-champs in a top 10 conference,
sends players to NBA,
in great recruiting territory.

For VCU:
a top program: Depends on the definition of "top" (law school is rubbing off on me).
Respected history: Not sure if it's respected or not.
Big City school: Richmond is ranked 44th on the MSA list, right in front of Louisville and Memphis. Virginia Beach is ranked #37 and as a large state school neighboring the peninsula, it draws a lot from that area (this works for recruiting too).
Giant student body: 31,000 students with another 14,000 employees; Endowment of $1.843 Billion.
Great attendance numbers: Sold out streak from early 2011 (before the Final Four). Top attendance school for the A10 tournament.
NBA arena available: No. Richmond Coliseum is being torn down for a rebuild. Richmond is hoping to attract more talent (concerts, NCAA tournament games etc...) like it did before Charlottesville's new building came into play.
Competitive champs in a top 10 conference: Check, arguably the Flagship of the A-10.
Sends players to the NBA: Check (Larry Sanders, Eric Maynor, Troy Daniels, Treveon Graham, Briante Weber).
In great recruiting territory: Check. Rumor is that Georgetown blocked VCU's NBE bid due to VA Beach/Peninsula recruiting territory (VCU recruits the area very well).

I will add that VCU's media rights contract runs at $2 Million/year. That's on top of the funds received from the Conference rights, as well as NCAA tournament credits that have obviously been consistent in the last decade+ of appearances through 5 different coaches.

Gopher, what kind of viewership numbers do you guys put up for your televised games - - do you have any idea?

There is something to be said for having such a large student body and hence alumni network.

With all due respect to VCU, I'm still trying to figure out why Georgetown would feel threatened in any way by the VCU program.

[FriarJ]

I simply don't understand why people can't look at this logically and with facts.

1. The BE is very happy with current configuration
2. The coaches are very happy with current configuration
3. The Presidents are very happy with the current configuration
4. Fox is very happy with current configuration
5. MSG is very happy with current configuration


So when you add up all of these facts, you are left with the simple fact that it will take a no brainer have to do it kind of addition to do anything other then what we are doing.
SLU? VCU? WTF?

[Gopher+RamFan]

weird to see the flagship of the A-10 thing. we just had a death grip on that title for so long (after temple), it's a new era in the a-10 i guess. from an outsider perspective, i still kinda consider dayton the flagship from the archie years. i think they still have more a-10 titles and ncaa tournament wins since realignment. knowing dayton's love of mediocrity i'm sure that will change soon.

with regard to the respected history point, i was surprised to learn that your final four year in 2011 is also your only sweet sixteen appearance. i guess i thought the duke game was a second round game in 07.

It's been disappointing not getting to the second weekend with how many appearances there has been. I will still think of Shaka's best coaching year being 2012, as a #12 seed beating Wichita State and having a 4 point lead over IU with a minute left (heartbreaking). Should've made the second round then, with the Final Four squad having all graduated.

I think VCU's the flagship, since they've finished first or second (regular season) 6 out of the 9 years they've been in the league. Not to mention they've made the A10 Tournament Final 7 out of 9 years. Since they entered the league, they've been the most consistent. Dayton has been first or second place 3 out of 9 years (bottoming out at 11th place in Archie's second year) whereas VCU has never had an A-10 losing record. I'd argue that VCU has cemented themselves as the flagship regardless of their 3 coaching changes.

[Gopher+RamFan]

Gopher, what kind of viewership numbers do you guys put up for your televised games - - do you have any idea?

There is something to be said for having such a large student body and hence alumni network.

With all due respect to VCU, I'm still trying to figure out why Georgetown would feel threatened in any way by the VCU program.

Not sure about the television ratings. All I know is that Learfield Sports' media rights contract with VCU runs through ~2025 and they're paying $2 Million/year. I assume they've done enough research about viewership/radio ratings and what that means for advertising revenue that it's worthwhile. That's for VCU's radio games and (I believe) tier 3 television rights.

Alumni network is huge on the East Coast, especially the mid-Atlantic.

I don't know about the Georgetown thing. Apparently it was about recruiting, or trying to throw a bone towards Richmond when realignment happened. Those are both rumors though. I don't think GU should feel threatened by the 757 recruiting, we haven't gone up against them much on the trail regardless.

In general, I'm not advocating the Big East expand at all. I'm advocating that if expansion is on the table, VCU should be a prime realistic candidate (along with SLU and UConn if they're willing). Gonzaga would be amazing, but unrealistic. I think X blocks Dayton, so probably unrealistic as well. VCU needs to make the second weekend this upcoming year. We've been consistently making the tournament, but outside of 2011 and 2012, had rough draws. Mike Rhoades is the long term answer at Head Coach, who wants to stay (his first date with his wife was a VCU basketball game when he was a DIII Coach). I don't want to spam this place with VCU posts, just giving my 2 cents.

[Xudash]

I simply don't understand why people can't look at this logically and with facts.

1. The BE is very happy with current configuration
2. The coaches are very happy with current configuration
3. The Presidents are very happy with the current configuration
4. Fox is very happy with current configuration
5. MSG is very happy with current configuration


So when you add up all of these facts, you are left with the simple fact that it will take a no brainer have to do it kind of addition to do anything other then what we are doing.
SLU? VCU? WTF?

I believe most people here - virtually everyone here - agree with you on points 1 - 5.

As I noted earlier, with the Gavitt Games and the Big XII Challenge, the Big East is virtually set for results that will essentially emulate a 20-game conference schedule through at least the next few years. And our key partners are all happy, as you noted.

Otherwise, it's summertime, and that invariably leads to conference expansion / conference realignment banter. This current wave of discussion fired up over the UCONN rumor posted above.

A little more WHAT IF to go along with long, warm summer days.