Conference Realignment: What Next?

[stever20]

Quick question on the geography issue with Gonzaga and the non-basketball sports. How many sports need to actually travel for 1v1 conference matchups? As in, how does Track & Field, Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Swimming, etc. work? Aren't those operate more like meets that bring in more than just schools in your conference? I assume the conference has its own championship style meet near the end of the season - but I admittedly have no idea how those work inside a conference.

I would assume the sports travel for Big East schools would be primarily a Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Soccer, and Lacrosse issue? I'm probably missing a few other team sports.

This is the point people often overlook with the geography issue. It won't affect as many sports as most people think. Gonzaga sponsors a total of 18 sports. The only Gonzaga sports that will be traveling to Big East schools on a yearly basis are: baseball, M/W basketball, M/W soccer, and W volleyball. 6 sports... that’s it. The majority of sports, the remaining 12, will be able to keep their current schedules with the only change being going to Big East Championships at the end of the season rather than WCC Championships. These include: M/W cross country, M/W golf, M/W tennis, M/W indoor track & field and M/W outdoor track & field. M/W rowing won’t be affected at all, as Big East doesn't sponsor it as a sport.

Would this situation be 100% ideal for Gonzaga? Of course not, but I think it's their best option. The C7 knows all too well how it feels to be a basketball-only school in a football playing league. And at least we each had 6 friends... they'd would be all alone in the Big XII or PAC. You'd think some smart people in the Big East office and Zags athletic dept could figure out a reasonable solution for those 6 sports. I know their athletic department owns (or rents) a private plane for their teams to travel in, so that could ease some logistical issues. And as far as the 11 of us are concerned, it would obviously impact them much more than any of us, who would just need to travel to Spokane once a year.

Overall I’m a big proponent of Gonzaga coming on board. I generally think it’s remarkably overblown how often the Olympic sports are brought up as a travel barrier for the move. As stated, the 12 individual sports wouldn’t ever need to travel to the Big East schools because they don’t have home-and-home games/meets/matches with Big East teams. So really it’s just the 6 sports mentioned, which would seem to be feasible. Hope to see the Zags in the Big East in 2025 boosting up the new TV deal.

And some of those sports you mention- Soccer for instance- they only have like 4 or 5 road games. Probably could knock that out in 2 road trips. Baseball looked like only 9 series total so would only be like 4 or 5 road series. Only ones that would have full 9-10 road games would be realistically Volleyball and Basketball.

[DeltaV]

Quick question on the geography issue with Gonzaga and the non-basketball sports. How many sports need to actually travel for 1v1 conference matchups? As in, how does Track & Field, Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Wrestling, Gymnastics, Swimming, etc. work? Aren't those operate more like meets that bring in more than just schools in your conference? I assume the conference has its own championship style meet near the end of the season - but I admittedly have no idea how those work inside a conference.

I would assume the sports travel for Big East schools would be primarily a Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Soccer, and Lacrosse issue? I'm probably missing a few other team sports.

I'll speak for swimming, since that's what I competed in (though pushing 20 years ago now...so this may not be 100% accurate). We swam some but not all school in the Big East, and it varied by year. Showing my age here, but we traveled to Virginia Tech one year, did a meet with Miami once while we were in Florida for training trip. Never swam Boston College; our coach thought they were beneath us. Swam UConn and Seton Hall every year I think, and did a late season meet at Rutgers every year. I don't remember if we swam Syracuse while I was there, but Nova did come up when I lived up there right after college. Swam St. Johns once I think? All I remember is their pool being about on par with a bad hotel pool. We swam local schools as well; LaSalle every year, I think they started swimming Penn occasionally, and had a meet at Penn State my freshmen year.

It was very much up to our coach, both for in conference and out of conference. We also had the ability to do tri and quad meets; if Gonzaga were to join, they'd probably try to set up one or two trips a year, and swim somewhere between 4 to 6 Big East teams at a time who are local (maybe fly in to Chicago and have a meet with DePaul, Marquette, and Butler, if all were agreeable). Usually, but not always, Men and Women would compete at the same meet; only time we didn't was if the women were swimming a better team at the men would have destroyed us, or if the men were swimming a team which was beneath the women (womens team was full scholarship, mens no scholarships, so they were comparatively a lot faster than us).

[xusandy]

Very interesting discussion here re pros and cons of adding Gonzaga, almost entirely about the potential $$ impact on our next TV deal. There are other considerations, folks. Granted that $$$ is the 600lb. gorilla in the room, but geography (travel costs and building natural rivalries), "institutional fit" (though we may have gone past that with the additional of UConn), league branding, etc. etc. are at least relevant as well. I agree with most all of you that the Zags are viable candidates, maybe even desirable ones because travel costs may be the only major impediment), but I'm also intrigued by St. Thomas, St. Louis, and/or St. Mary's, all of which have "Catholic" (I.e. service oriented) educational models, a history of decent bball teams, a seeming commitment to moving up in today's musical chairs game of conference affiliation, good to better media markets, and at least a wee bit of "brand value".

The good news is that the BEAST doesn't really need to do anything in the near future, although I think we agree that media $$ considerations will this ultimately drive this bus. In the 5-10 year future, building the value of BEAST brand will probably require expanding beyond our current 11members. Like most of you, I REALLY like a full home and home schedule for bball, but I don't think that can survive for too many more years.

[RxJay1]

Does anyone else think that 22 conference games will be in play in the near future?

[Omaha1]

Does anyone else think that 22 conference games will be in play in the near future?

I think they’ll break into divisions before going to 22 league games.

[jaxalum]

Am I missing something, or has it not reached this board that realignment is potentially at our front door in the worst possible way. There are rumors that the BIg 12 is not only in talks with Gonzaga, but Nova and Uconn. There are well connected posters on Musketeereport.com who possess legitimate info that talks have/are taking place. And this is apparently not a new rumor.

https://hookemheadlines.com/2022/11/04/ ... h-gonzaga/

https://twitter.com/MHver3/status/1626807551722459136 (apparently this guy is usually on the right side of the truth)

Apologies if is this is being discussed somewhere else, or if it was discussed already.

I would be ECSTATIC if you told me I was a crazy person that lacked any semblance of sanity, and everything in this post constituted insanely psychotic gibberish.

[Django]

Go back and read the chapter on
Cheech. Starting on Page 99.

[kayako]

Am I missing something, or has it not reached this board that realignment is potentially at our front door in the worst possible way. There are rumors that the BIg 12 is not only in talks with Gonzaga, but Nova and Uconn. There are well connected posters on Musketeereport.com who possess legitimate info that talks have/are taking place. And this is apparently not a new rumor.

https://hookemheadlines.com/2022/11/04/ ... h-gonzaga/

https://twitter.com/MHver3/status/1626807551722459136 (apparently this guy is usually on the right side of the truth)

Apologies if is this is being discussed somewhere else, or if it was discussed already.

I would be ECSTATIC if you told me I was a crazy person that lacked any semblance of sanity, and everything in this post constituted insanely psychotic gibberish.

I don't think the B12 offers enough money ($10M?) for Nova to want to ditch a stable conference that may end up with a contract fairly close to the B12 anyway. When the B12 commissioner expressed the desire to cover all 4 timezones, I think he was talking about football.

[MUBoxer]

I'm also intrigued by St. Thomas, St. Louis, and/or St. Mary's, all of which have "Catholic" (I.e. service oriented) educational models, a history of decent bball teams, a seeming commitment to moving up in today's musical chairs game of conference affiliation, good to better media markets, and at least a wee bit of "brand value".

Thank god you're not the one making these calls. They have no brand at this level, they have no history at this level. They're in a big city (Twin Cities) and are catholic. Detroit Mercy fits that criteria and has more tournament history, every Loyola, Tulane, San Francisco, expand to "private" and Belmont & Davidson fit better than any of those.

This is a long winded way of saying you need to up your standards for history of decent BBall teams & brand value to high major level

[billyjack]

Am I missing something, or has it not reached this board that realignment is potentially at our front door in the worst possible way. There are rumors that the BIg 12 is not only in talks with Gonzaga, but Nova and Uconn. There are well connected posters on Musketeereport.com who possess legitimate info that talks have/are taking place. And this is apparently not a new rumor.

https://hookemheadlines.com/2022/11/04/ ... h-gonzaga/

https://twitter.com/MHver3/status/1626807551722459136 (apparently this guy is usually on the right side of the truth)

Apologies if is this is being discussed somewhere else, or if it was discussed already.

I would be ECSTATIC if you told me I was a crazy person that lacked any semblance of sanity, and everything in this post constituted insanely psychotic gibberish.

The 2 links take us to guys that are just spitballing their fantasies.

I actually saw a friend in the Friars athletic department over this past weekend, and he told me there is nothing to these rumors.

MHver3 is a clown.

Having said all that, if there was some shady backroom slimy deal, and Villanova, St John's and UConn were dumb enough to go to the Big-12, then please just leave. It would be the height of stupidity and i'd rather that the rest of us weren't in the same bed as you as you spread STD's... i wouldn't want you part of any other decision making.

If PC were dumb enough to move to the Big-12, then i'd be so disillusioned with the PC admin that i'd buy Rhody Rams seasons tickets the next day (though i'd need to stock up on holy water and garlic). Eff it, i'd also buy seasons tix to Brown and Bryant and start a new America East message board.

Speaking of the Big-12, who are their football anchors. The 3 historic powerhouses are gone from the Big-8 and SW conferences-- Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas. TCU is not an anchor. Baylor in Waco is not an anchor. They have some good football programs, i realize, but no blue bloods.