Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[marquette]

I cant speak for the midwestern schools but the eastern members are all the marquee programs in thier markets. georgetown, st johns, providence and villanova all get top billling over the state or public programs in their market.

Unfortunately, Georgetown lags well behind Maryland in coverage and popularity in the DC market.

I'm going to guess the same with St. John's/Syracuse, Nova/Pitt/Penn State. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out PC/UConn/UMass/may URI and Seton Hall/Rutgers have similar situations.

It's unfortunate, but those schools put out way more alumni, casual fans identify with the name on the jersey, and in the case of Syracuse they have grown a fanbase by sustained success.

[SecureDaBall]

I cant speak for the midwestern schools but the eastern members are all the marquee programs in thier markets. georgetown, st johns, providence and villanova all get top billling over the state or public programs in their market.

Unfortunately, Georgetown lags well behind Maryland in coverage and popularity in the DC market.

I'm going to guess the same with St. John's/Syracuse, Nova/Pitt/Penn State. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out PC/UConn/UMass/may URI and Seton Hall/Rutgers have similar situations.

It's unfortunate, but those schools put out way more alumni, casual fans identify with the name on the jersey, and in the case of Syracuse they have grown a fanbase by sustained success.

You are way off on Philly and Providence. Seton Hall and Rutgers is probably a split in NJ.

As for St. John's, there biggest issue is they are the #1 CBB team but there is so much to do in NYC/ They also deal with transplants being loyal to where ever they came from(hometown/alma mater). Also, the Johnnies fan base can't be described as having blind loyalty. Too much background noise in NYC for St. John's to make noise during a bad season. But make no mistakes about it, when St. John's is good NYC comes out.

[SecureDaBall]

Also, the issue with Seton Hall is that there is no NJ TV station for them to get full burn. Like the state in general, they get eclipsed by NYC sports coverage. Rutgers football to a lesser extent because they are the only major CFB team in the metro area

[gosports1]

I cant speak for the midwestern schools but the eastern members are all the marquee programs in thier markets. georgetown, st johns, providence and villanova all get top billling over the state or public programs in their market.

Unfortunately, Georgetown lags well behind Maryland in coverage and popularity in the DC market.

I'm going to guess the same with St. John's/Syracuse, Nova/Pitt/Penn State. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out PC/UConn/UMass/may URI and Seton Hall/Rutgers have similar situations.

It's unfortunate, but those schools put out way more alumni, casual fans identify with the name on the jersey, and in the case of Syracuse they have grown a fanbase by sustained success.

Notice i said market not region. PC is clearly the favorite over URI. Uconn and Umass are not the same market. Nova is favored over everyone in Philly as well as PSU. St johns is also NYC's team, contrary to what the marketing folks at Syracuse would like everyone to believe

[marquette]

Notice i said market not region. PC is clearly the favorite over URI. Uconn and Umass are not the same market. Nova is favored over everyone in Philly as well as PSU. St johns is also NYC's team, contrary to what the marketing folks at Syracuse would like everyone to believe

Well, if we are talking markets then there's really not much competition. Marquette is the only major D1 school in Milwaukee, Creighton in Omaha, Butler in Indianapolis (although IU is close), Xavier has competition from Cincy, but judging by attendance numbers I would say Xavier holds an edge, Chicago is probably more of an Illinois lean than DePaul (or Northwestern, for that matter).

[notkirkcameron]

Scrub basketball? That's interesting.

Man, SLU makes the tournament two years in a row and all of a sudden people start to forget about the previous 72 seasons played since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939; 66 Tournaments of which were played without the Billikens.

SLU's made great strides, and they're playing well this year, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not exactly talking about a dynasty on Laclede here.

[BillikensWin]

Scrub basketball? That's interesting.

Man, SLU makes the tournament two years in a row and all of a sudden people start to forget about the previous 72 seasons played since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939; 66 Tournaments of which were played without the Billikens.

SLU's made great strides, and they're playing well this year, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not exactly talking about a dynasty on Laclede here.

I don't get the constant insults of SLU. You happen to see the record right now?

20-2.

As for the history comment...looking backwards doesn't help much going forward.

[Jet915]

Scrub basketball? That's interesting.

Man, SLU makes the tournament two years in a row and all of a sudden people start to forget about the previous 72 seasons played since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939; 66 Tournaments of which were played without the Billikens.

SLU's made great strides, and they're playing well this year, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not exactly talking about a dynasty on Laclede here.

I don't get the constant insults of SLU. You happen to see the record right now?

20-2.

As for the history comment...looking backwards doesn't help much going forward.

Like I have said before, SLU in every aspect OTHER than basketball is a perfect fit for the Big East. The basketball has been good the last couple of years and this year but time will tell whether it is a Majerus effect or if Crews can keep the ball rolling after this year. Also, looking deep into the 20-2 record, SLU's best wins are Richmond and Indiana State. Don't have one win yet against a tourney team (although no bad losses either).

[BillikensWin]

The Big East has a lot of great programs, and Marquette certainly qualifies as one.

But "scrub basketball" is a lot over the top.

[notkirkcameron]

Scrub basketball? That's interesting.

Man, SLU makes the tournament two years in a row and all of a sudden people start to forget about the previous 72 seasons played since the inception of the NCAA Tournament in 1939; 66 Tournaments of which were played without the Billikens.

SLU's made great strides, and they're playing well this year, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not exactly talking about a dynasty on Laclede here.

I don't get the constant insults of SLU. You happen to see the record right now?

20-2.

As for the history comment...looking backwards doesn't help much going forward.

Go back through this thread and check my "constant insults." I'm a SLU Law grad. Personally, I would love to see the Billikens in the conference, if only for another close MU roadtrip, and to give me an opportunity to razz my SLU grad brother.

But if I'm the commissioner of the Big East, I expand very, VERY carefully, and despite their recent success, I don't think SLU grows the pie enough as a program to convince my 10 university presidents to take a smaller cut of the pie...ESPECIALLY if it means also having to add a team like Richmond or UMass and basically becoming the A-10 on steroids.