Conference Realignment: What Next?

[stever20]

It's an extreme example of course, but with an imbalanced schedule the questions of legitimacy surrounding the last 2 regular season champions will become the norm.

Don't think so. No one really questioned the regular season champions in the 16 team Big East.

[kayako]

It's an extreme example of course, but with an imbalanced schedule the questions of legitimacy surrounding the last 2 regular season champions will become the norm.

I am okay with it, because that's what we had before the conference was reconfigured.

Expansion is coming, and we're getting imbalanced schedule just like all other power conferences with 12+ teams. But I do think that there will be a scheduling priority to keep the eastern teams play each other as much as possible.

[Hall2012]

As long as Seton Hall remains 100% locked into playing the other 5 east coast teams twice each and letting the imbalanced portion rotate through the midwestern teams and Gonzaga, then I guess I don't really care if the standings are structured as a single table or two divisions.

[GreatDaneAttorney]

Expanding with Gonzaga is probably driven by 3 big factors:

• SEC expansion to 16 members (and the potential downstream realignment chaos)
• Big XII expansion to 12 or 14 members and the end of their double round-robin
• Big East TV deal negotiations

Basically, the Big East can't fall behind the other power conferences, because a smaller conference puts conference challenges at risk, and if the other conferences add even more conference games, it'll be harder for Big East schools to fill out a competitive schedule.

I think Gonzaga is a great addition and helps position the Big East for the next decade.

[Omaha1]

If we added Gonzaga and went to divisions of six teams, with home and home games inside the division and one game against the other six teams in the division or something like that, I am starting to warm up to that idea. I used to hate the notion of eliminating the double round robin, but it might not be the worst thing for the league.

[billyjack]

I do! Maybe it's just some old Big East nostalgia, but regardless of how good anyone is, I love the local games. Being within driving distance makes the SJU and PC games for example, a lot of fun and great potential road trips. I don't want to lose those to instead have to watch a 10:30pm start in Spokane. If we're giving up 2nd games with some teams, I'd rather Seton Hall give up the 2nd games in Omaha and Milwaukee than the ones in Philly and NYC.

Yes i understand and agree with keeping the local home-and-aways.

Also, someone else answered my 22 game question. Villanova with Big-Five commitments would have no flexibility, that's important to consider.

My question or comment is, if part of our reluctance to add Gonzaga is due to the legit-reason of not wanting to lose the round-robin, then we should look into changing things up so that it *does* work for us.

So, the NCAA game limit of 26 plus holiday tourneys or whatever it is... why can't we petition to pop that up to 28 games? 30 games? whatever number works for us.

How old is that arbitrary 26 game limit? How was that even determined? Just some random number chosen 40 years ago?

Also, the schedule solution to extra games is to pull back non-conference Opening Day from Nov 6th to Oct 30th. Season too long?Well, hockey starts in early October.

Just trying to think out of the box a bit, and trying to keep some totally random game number from limiting our options.

[GreatDaneAttorney]

It's good thinking to petition the NCAA to expand the regular season, especially now that we're in an NIL era and there's less of a feeling that players are being exploited. You can't just endlessly expand the season when these are amateur athletes, but if they're semi-pro, the expectations are a bit different.

Another outside-the-box idea: go further unbalanced schedules, and don't even require everyone to play the same number of games. Nova could get an exception in the league to play fewer conf games. Wouldn't be an issue IMO.

[Xudash]

Personally, I can't say I'm fully on-board the add Gonzaga hype train. Can I learn to live with it? Sure. Will I be excited about Gonzaga coming to the Rock? Yeah. Will I be excited about the Pirates going to Spokane? Eh, maybe the first time. Will I be excited about playing Gonzaga in anything other than mbb regardless of location? Not particuarly. The biggest thing though, is that I love the double round robin and will be disappointed to see it go.

Assuming Gonzaga does indeed join, my preferred solution would be going the divisional route. Play your division home and away every year and the play the other division once a year, alternating home and away. In general it should keep balanced schedule for each division. We'd also lose the regular season conference championship to 2 divisional championships, but I can live with that. The problem with that proposal right now is that with 12 teams it leaves us with only a 16 game conference schedule. With 14 teams, we could have a reasonably balanced 19 game league schedule. Is it worth adding another 2 teams to keep the schedule balanced? Personally, I'd argue yes. If we're going to scrap the home and home for a 12th team, I think we may as well go all in and expand to 14.

And of course the natural follow up question is - who else? Who else moves the needle? Well...nobody. But does Gonzaga move the needle enough for 3? And as far as moving the needle financially - the extra 2 would add a Tuesday Big East Tournament game, regardless of who they are. So with that in mind, strategic options IMO - to select 1 east and 1 west

East: I'd love to get back into Boston

Boston College - they've struggled in the ACC, are they interested in a lifeline? Probably not but a call doesn't hurt
Northeastern - Again, Boston
Boston University - Another Boston Option
UMass - leaving Boston but close enough?
Temple or St. Joe's? - I'd rather not double up on a market we're already in, but outside of Boston or expanding south it's pretty much our only option
Richmond or VCU? - Another market double up


West: Can go a few different directions

Saint Mary's - Another west coast school for Gonzaga
Portland - If the goal is a "travel partner" for Gonzaga, they make much more geographical sense than Saint Mary's
UNLV - Fun city, here because I saw the name floated but honestly don't really see the fit
Saint Louis - I still think it's an ideal location / market for the Big East to get into
Dayton - I don't like the market double up but accept that with the UD posters on this board, the conversation simply can't exist without them
Loyola Chicago - Another double up and unlikely because of their recent move, but the recent success is hard to ignore
Notre Dame - Extreme long shot, but a program that would actually move the needle

You posed "the natural follow up question is - who else?" and you rightfully focused on a combination of teams that MOVE THE NEEDLE and/or perhaps teams that would provide some connectivity with Gonzaga (i.e. travel partners).

If you're otherwise saying that we cannot avoid having VD in the discussion because some of their fans have a tendency to show up here too often, that's one thing. However, this conversation can easily exist without putting VD into it. Dayton will not gain membership in the Big East so long as the Big East remains strong, and adding VD will not make the Big East stronger or better.

The market double up and proximity issue is in full view in this case, just as Nova wants to be THE TEAM in Philly, St. Johns wants to be that in NYC, and DePaul wants Chicago to itself, Xavier has no interest in having Dayton brought into the conference, and Butler should feel exactly the same way about that. Gee, I'm trying to remember whether or not this point has been made already.

[Xudash]

Expanding with Gonzaga is probably driven by 3 big factors:

• SEC expansion to 16 members (and the potential downstream realignment chaos)
• Big XII expansion to 12 or 14 members and the end of their double round-robin
• Big East TV deal negotiations

Basically, the Big East can't fall behind the other power conferences, because a smaller conference puts conference challenges at risk, and if the other conferences add even more conference games, it'll be harder for Big East schools to fill out a competitive schedule.

I think Gonzaga is a great addition and helps position the Big East for the next decade.

Your bringing up a great point: the value of the Round Robin versus the need to remain well positioned with and against the other power conferences via expansion. Remaining well positioned means both the right number of members and more television money.

The round robin cannot compete with that, if that's where all this is headed.

[Hall2012]

You posed "the natural follow up question is - who else?" and you rightfully focused on a combination of teams that MOVE THE NEEDLE and/or perhaps teams that would provide some connectivity with Gonzaga (i.e. travel partners).

If you're otherwise saying that we cannot avoid having VD in the discussion because some of their fans have a tendency to show up here too often, that's one thing. However, this conversation can easily exist without putting VD into it. Dayton will not gain membership in the Big East so long as the Big East remains strong, and adding VD will not make the Big East stronger or better.

The market double up and proximity issue is in full view in this case, just as Nova wants to be THE TEAM in Philly, St. Johns wants to be that in NYC, and DePaul wants Chicago to itself, Xavier has no interest in having Dayton brought into the conference, and Butler should feel exactly the same way about that. Gee, I'm trying to remember whether or not this point has been made already.

Just saying that they'll inevitably be added to any conversation on future expansion, so may as well throw them on the board now. Though I personally would put them low on the priority list.