Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[Bostonspider]

For Richmond, the road to financial well being started with one large gift. E. Claiborne Robins (Owned AH Robins Pharmaceuticals) gave a challenge gift of $50,000,000.00 to the University in 1969. Richmond was able to raise an equal amount to the challenge, and the school has not looked back. The Robins Family has given Richmond close to $200 million dollars over the last 40 some odd years.

[marquette]

Good lordy Richmond, how did you get all that cash?

Highly ranked university, #12 business school (I hear those guys make some bank), #53 law school, solid all around academics with alumni who obviously love their university (look at their presence on message boards relative to the size of the school/success of bball program). All amounts to high-income alumni who are most likely going to give back.

[Bill Marsh]

Sometimes, there are fluky circumstances that result in endowments. LeMoyne is a little Jesuit college in Syracuse. The receipt of a donation of a million in a given year is a cause for celebration, hanging bunting, and calling for a parade. It's rare and it's special. Recently they received a bequest of $50 million! The source was not an alum and did not even live in Syracuse. The man, a resident of Binghamton, was an admirer of what the college was doing, decided it was worthy of being supported, and came to the conclusion that he was the guy to do it.

There was a report about 5-10 years ago that there was a big donor who was willing to spend tens of millions to fund the construction of a new on campus basketball arena at St. John's. However, he wanted a say in the coaching hire. Matt Doherty was his guy. St. John's reportedly said, "No, thank you." I don't know if it was true, but that's what was out there. I know you can't let donors run the university, but that must have been hard to turn down. Ay least. It would have been for me. Coaches come and go, but a new facility would have been there for decades.

Endowments are usually managed very conservatively and are not big sources of revenue from year to year. A lot of circumstances can conspire to boost a college's situation. Sometimes luck plays a big part in it.

[Shocker22]

Shocker fan here, occasionally check out this site because i have been following Creighton this season mainly to watch Doug and how he does his senior year (definitely think he should be NPOY). But i decided to register a name and make a comment on the expansion. At no point in time do i think that WSU will ever be invited to the Big East or that it's even in the thoughts of the higher ups that make the decisions. WSU needs out of The Valley but if that happens, it won't be to the Big East.

[paulxu]

Yes, Xavier was a Mid-Major, sorry but it's true. Playing in the A-10 and the money you were making made you in fact a mid-major

Do you have a good idea of what you are talking about?
See how many current BE teams you can find in Forbes Top 20 Basketball programs.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/ ... ble-teams/

(sorry, had bad link earlier)

[ChestRockwell85]

The bottom line is the only teams that we would really want are St. Louis and Gonzaga, Gonzaga doesn't make any sense geographically so it is just St. Louis. I would love to have St. Louis in this league but unless we can find a 12th team that everybody can agree on, that makes sense for the league, and that doesn't scream "mid-major," we should stick to 10.

Also, there has been speculation for awhile that we will eventually move to 12, and if that is what Fox Sports wants, that is what they will get. So again, I think St. Louis will without a doubt be #11, it is just who the hell really makes the most sense for #12?

[notkirkcameron]

Any expansion needs to be a game-changing program, not expansion for expansion's sake

1.) The Big Ten kept its membership constant for 40 years, and only added one team, who was a national power, Penn State.
2.) The SEC kept its membership constant for 25 years before it grabbed Arkansas and South Carolina to get to 12 and stage a football championship game.
3.) The ACC nabbed Virginia Tech, Miami, and BC to get to 12 and stage a football championship game.
4.) The Big Ten added Nebraska, (who with 11 National Championships, became the third-most successful program in the Big Ten after Michigan and Ohio State) to get to 12 and stage a football championship game.
5.) The Pac-10, to get to 12 and a football championship game, added Colorado, and only added Utah as an afterthought. Its original aim, if you recall, was to get Texas and Oklahoma, bringing Oklahoma State and Texas Tech along for the ride. Texas opted to stay put in the Big 12 with a better TV rights deal for Longhorn Network.

These were big time moves that dynamically changed the conference. Who are your basketball equivalents of Penn State, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Texas? Your game-changers that justify rocking the boat? I really don't see any out there right now, all respect to Saint Louis and what they've managed to do turning that program around.

Assuming you don't want to go outside your geographic concentration, your game changers are Connecticut, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and Duke. None of them are likely to join the Big East, although if they are, I would say they are listed in order of likelihood, contingent on UConn coming to its senses and dropping its mid-major level FBS football, which is cannibalizing its basketball program, and Notre Dame perhaps figuring out that basketball visits from Duke and Carolina every other year aren't worth the strength-of-schedule-suck that is ACC football.

SLU isn't going anywhere. Richmond isn't going anywhere. VCU isn't going anywhere. The A-10 is effectively their ceiling for how high they can go outside of the Big East. UMass may well be heading to the AAC as their 12th team. Fine. Let them.

There's no need to rush. Sit back. Watch for the ACC (who, with football-centric members and basketball-centric members, and an unwieldy 15 teams most resembles the old Big East format). Watch to see if the Big 12 makes a move to get to 12 teams. But don't expand just for the sake of expanding.

[stever20]

I think your last statement was the big one. If the Big 12 goes to 12, I think we're almost going to be forced to go to 12. It is easier to get more teams in the tourney not having the double round robin schedule. ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC, A10 all would have at least 12 teams. MWC, and AAC would have at least 11 teams(at least pre-move by B12- and you would likely find them re-expanding to get back up to 11 if not more). Even CUSA, SBC, MAC would have more than 10 teams- and given the situation with the FBS with them maybe able to give stipends, that's big- you're going to find them improving rapidly in basketball if that happens. I just don't think we can survive being the smallest conference. Going to make it much harder to get 4 teams in, let alone a 5th team in.

[BillikensWin]

If "the A-10 is their ceiling", you just basically said none of those schools have any reason to field programs.

Y'all are better than that.

[aughnanure]

If "the A-10 is their ceiling", you just basically said none of those schools have any reason to field programs.

Y'all are better than that.

I don't see how that means what you think it means. It just means there's no other conference the Big East has to worry about poaching the best A-10 teams. So not sure why that means you guys shouldn't field programs unless that's a reflection of your own pessimism about the A10.