Ackerman - BE - TV Contracts, Expansion, Gonzaga - Oct 2021

[Omaha1]

https://twitter.com/slu_billikens/status/1449156060183420929?s=21

SLU???

Apparently related to facilities expansion. Boy are there fans going to be posed after that tweet.

[billyjack]

https://twitter.com/slu_billikens/status/1449156060183420929?s=21

SLU???

Apparently related to facilities expansion. Boy are there fans going to be posed after that tweet.

Billiken Athletics with 14k followers tweets about a major announcement, 3 weeks before opening day. And 36 hours later, fewer than 300 of their fan-people have liked it, and only 40 fans have commented. WTF?

Can you imagine the reaction if Dayton, Gonzaga, etc got this Tweet from their school? This is an example of why i havent supported Saint Louis being added.

[Xudash]

http://adimeback.com/big-east-realignment-dont-overthink-it-its-gonzaga-or-nobody/

[DudeAnon]

https://twitter.com/slu_billikens/status/1449156060183420929?s=21

SLU???

Apparently related to facilities expansion. Boy are there fans going to be posed after that tweet.

Billiken Athletics with 14k followers tweets about a major announcement, 3 weeks before opening day. And 36 hours later, fewer than 300 of their fan-people have liked it, and only 40 fans have commented. WTF?

Can you imagine the reaction if Dayton, Gonzaga, etc got this Tweet from their school? This is an example of why i havent supported Saint Louis being added.

Same. I really think people overstate the SLU fan support.

[Gopher+RamFan]

Our retired AD Bruce Rasmussen just said we should take Gonzaga in basketball only. That would eliminate the travel costs for all the other sports and make the possibility of adding the Zags even more attractive! Just his take, but it seems like a good one.

Except the NCAA doesn’t allow a school to park basketball in a separate league than it’s other sports.

I've read different opinions on this from both sides. I don't know that if we have a definitive answer for this.

The quick answer is you have to park your sports together. Sports that your Conference does not sponsor, can be in another Conference. This is how you get 'Associate Members' like ODU (field hockey), Denver (lacrosse), Liberty (field hockey), and Temple (field hockey) in the Big East. They're Full Members in their respective conferences, but those conferences don't sponsor field hockey/lacrosse. Likewise, the Patriot League doesn't sponsor Football, so Navy can be an 'Associate Member' of the AAC with their football.

Any basketball addition will have to be a 'Full Member' of the Big East, and bring all of their sports that the Big East sponsors to the Conference.

[ecasadoSBU]

I personally prefer if the Big East stays at 11. Don't really want Gonzaga in the conference for geographic reasons even though it has been a great program the past two decades.

[Violet Ram]

http://adimeback.com/big-east-realignment-dont-overthink-it-its-gonzaga-or-nobody/

I find it a bit humorous that a UConn fan is using Gonzaga's performance over the past decade as the benchmark for expansion candidates, and pretty much completely discounts audience size (which is why UConn was added). I mean, over the past 10 years, UConn's average 10-year Kenpom rank is 64.7. I doubt the author would argue that UConn doesn't belong in the Big East or that UConn is diluting the Big East name. If you used UConn as the reference point (which I think has more value since UConn is the most recent addition), both VCU and Dayton would 'qualify' from a basketball performance standard (I didn't double check the author's numbers but VCU would slot in as #4 in the Big East over the past decade, Dayton would have been 8th, UConn 9th, and SLU would be 11th ahead of only DePaul). The whole perception bucket thing doesn't really make sense either as it's just an arbitrary and subjective exercise with little explanation. For example, I'm not sure where Creighton would fall, or whether Georgetown carries as much cache for those under 40.

Out of curiosity, if a media company is willing to pay for Gonzaga to join a better conference, how about the Pac-12, Big 12, or Big 12 ? They all seem like better geographic fits, and it may be less expensive for the network. If Gonzaga had offers from all three of those conferences and the Big East, which one do you think they'd take.

Also, while I understand why fans enjoy the equity of a round-robin, I'm not sure why some of you think that a round-robin is especially valuable to Fox. The most valuable matchups would likely continue to exist.

[kayako]

The quick answer is you have to park your sports together. Sports that your Conference does not sponsor, can be in another Conference. This is how you get 'Associate Members' like ODU (field hockey), Denver (lacrosse), Liberty (field hockey), and Temple (field hockey) in the Big East. They're Full Members in their respective conferences, but those conferences don't sponsor field hockey/lacrosse. Likewise, the Patriot League doesn't sponsor Football, so Navy can be an 'Associate Member' of the AAC with their football.

Any basketball addition will have to be a 'Full Member' of the Big East, and bring all of their sports that the Big East sponsors to the Conference.

Makes me wonder why a recently retired Creighton AD would say what he did. Perhaps there's a loophole or it's hard to enforce?

[Xudash]

http://adimeback.com/big-east-realignment-dont-overthink-it-its-gonzaga-or-nobody/

I find it a bit humorous that a UConn fan is using Gonzaga's performance over the past decade as the benchmark for expansion candidates, and pretty much completely discounts audience size (which is why UConn was added). I mean, over the past 10 years, UConn's average 10-year Kenpom rank is 64.7. I doubt the author would argue that UConn doesn't belong in the Big East or that UConn is diluting the Big East name. If you used UConn as the reference point (which I think has more value since UConn is the most recent addition), both VCU and Dayton would 'qualify' from a basketball performance standard (I didn't double check the author's numbers but VCU would slot in as #4 in the Big East over the past decade, Dayton would have been 8th, UConn 9th, and SLU would be 11th ahead of only DePaul). The whole perception bucket thing doesn't really make sense either as it's just an arbitrary and subjective exercise with little explanation. For example, I'm not sure where Creighton would fall, or whether Georgetown carries as much cache for those under 40.

Out of curiosity, if a media company is willing to pay for Gonzaga to join a better conference, how about the Pac-12, Big 12, or Big 12 ? They all seem like better geographic fits, and it may be less expensive for the network. If Gonzaga had offers from all three of those conferences and the Big East, which one do you think they'd take.

Also, while I understand why fans enjoy the equity of a round-robin, I'm not sure why some of you think that a round-robin is especially valuable to Fox. The most valuable matchups would likely continue to exist.

Do you believe that VCU would have slotted in as the 4th best team in the BE over the past decade if VCU actually had to play a Big East conference schedule?

UCONN is UCONN. It was such a strategic and obvious add for the Big East conference because of its history with the Big East and its brand, which is still strong and now getting very strong again. If anything, VCU should have welcomed that addition, given that it opened the public institution door to the Big East.

UCONN also has created a bit of a very good problem: the BET has already proven to be very successful during the reboot. It will now be insane with UCONN in the conference. Selling MSG tickets for this event is not a problem, and no fan base looking from the outside in should count on fan travel being a key strength. Most Big East schools - most, not all - have no problem getting their ticket allocations to New York, and most Big East programs - not all - are strong in the home attendance category.

I don't know why you are bringing up football (i.e. all-sports) conferences for comparison. They're not comparable. Those conferences are solving for football, period, end of story. They continue to exhibit zero inclination to move towards a hybrid model.

[Violet Ram]

http://adimeback.com/big-east-realignment-dont-overthink-it-its-gonzaga-or-nobody/

I find it a bit humorous that a UConn fan is using Gonzaga's performance over the past decade as the benchmark for expansion candidates, and pretty much completely discounts audience size (which is why UConn was added). I mean, over the past 10 years, UConn's average 10-year Kenpom rank is 64.7. I doubt the author would argue that UConn doesn't belong in the Big East or that UConn is diluting the Big East name. If you used UConn as the reference point (which I think has more value since UConn is the most recent addition), both VCU and Dayton would 'qualify' from a basketball performance standard (I didn't double check the author's numbers but VCU would slot in as #4 in the Big East over the past decade, Dayton would have been 8th, UConn 9th, and SLU would be 11th ahead of only DePaul). The whole perception bucket thing doesn't really make sense either as it's just an arbitrary and subjective exercise with little explanation. For example, I'm not sure where Creighton would fall, or whether Georgetown carries as much cache for those under 40.

Out of curiosity, if a media company is willing to pay for Gonzaga to join a better conference, how about the Pac-12, Big 12, or Big 12 ? They all seem like better geographic fits, and it may be less expensive for the network. If Gonzaga had offers from all three of those conferences and the Big East, which one do you think they'd take.

Also, while I understand why fans enjoy the equity of a round-robin, I'm not sure why some of you think that a round-robin is especially valuable to Fox. The most valuable matchups would likely continue to exist.

Do you believe that VCU would have slotted in as the 4th best team in the BE over the past decade if VCU actually had to play a Big East conference schedule?

UCONN is UCONN. It was such a strategic and obvious add for the Big East conference because of its history with the Big East and its brand, which is still strong and now getting very strong again. If anything, VCU should have welcomed that addition, given that it opened the public institution door to the Big East.

UCONN also has created a bit of a very good problem: the BET has already proven to be very successful during the reboot. It will now be insane with UCONN in the conference. Selling MSG tickets for this event is not a problem, and no fan base looking from the outside in should count on fan travel being a key strength. Most Big East schools - most, not all - have no problem getting their ticket allocations to New York, and most Big East programs - not all - are strong in the home attendance category.

I don't know why you are bringing up football (i.e. all-sports) conferences for comparison. They're not comparable. Those conferences are solving for football, period, end of story. They continue to exhibit zero inclination to move towards a hybrid model.

I think you misunderstood my post to a certain degree. I wasn't saying that UConn was a bad addition, but rather that it's a bit hypocritical for a UConn fan (i.e. the article I quoted) to argue that only a program with Gonzaga's performance over the last decade can improve the Big East. I think UConn made sense because of their fanbase and dedication to basketball, which I think equates to higher viewership and potential for future success. I just don't think that you have to be one of the top 10 basketball programs to add value to the Big East. Yes, a top 10 program would add value, but not being a top 10 program isn't an instant disqualifier.

Yes, I think VCU would have been at least the 4th best team in terms of Kenpom if they had played in the Big East. The whole point of performance driven rating systems like Kenpom is to provide a basis for comparing teams across D1, and especially schools in different conferences. Add into the equation that it's probably easier to recruit in the Big East than the CAA/A10, I think its reasonable to say that VCU would have performed even better over the last decade if it had been a member of the Big East.

I'm not sure why you think a power conference wouldn't be interested in Gonzaga if their media partner was willing to pay for it.

If attendance at the BET is an important factor, I can attest that both Dayton and VCU travel very well to NYC. SLU, not so much.