Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[Bluejay]

Expecting UConn to dump football and join us is like the nice guy who's pretty good looking and has a lot going for him but lacks the 'flash' of the fooball player, waiting around for the cheerleader to wake up and stop being treated like shit by the QB of the team and come running to him.

It probably isn't going to happen, and do you want a chick that can't figure that out anyway?

If you told me 4 years ago that College athletes would now get paid to play (on top of getting a free education) I would have told you to take off your tin foil hat. If you told me that institutions would dump their old rivals all in the name of TV contracts, I might have shaken my head. Basically what I'm saying is that the college athletics landscape is unpredictable nowadays. It's become to lucrative for schools not to do what is in their best interest. Honor, Loyalty, Tradition? ppfftt throw that out the door.

Being a state school, it will be easier for UConn to sell the fact that they no longer have interest in putting money in their football program. Both their basketball programs generate revenue while some reports had their football program either only make a million or just break even.

You make some valid points, but I think UConn will hold on to football because they know that is their only chance at ever making it into one of the football power conferences. They only way they drop the program IMO is if one of two things happen: 1) the football power conferences announce that there will be no expansion; or 2) the UConn fanbase overwhelmingly demands it.

[senditinjerome]

people who think that UConn would ever even consider dropping its FB program are delirious...step back a minute and just think about what you're saying.

everyone here is passionate about college BB and rightly so. but in the grand scheme of things, consider this...the Duke/Cuse game, the most hyped college BB game of the season drew a 2.9 tv rating, one of the most watched regular season college BB games in ESPN's history.

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketbal ... ame_o.html

meanwhile, the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl, a meaningless bowl game between Michigan and Kansas State drew a 2.8.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014 ... viewe.html

[HoosierPal]

people who think that UConn would ever even consider dropping its FB program are delirious...step back a minute and just think about what you're saying.

everyone here is passionate about college BB and rightly so. but in the grand scheme of things, consider this...the Duke/Cuse game, the most hyped college BB game of the season drew a 2.9 tv rating, one of the most watched regular season college BB games in ESPN's history.

http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketbal ... ame_o.html

meanwhile, the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl, a meaningless bowl game between Michigan and Kansas State drew a 2.8.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014 ... viewe.html

Wow, this shows you how popular bad football is. The Big East's highest rated game is lower than the Brady Bunch Bowl. Humbling, yet that is what America apparently wants.

[Burrito]

So I guess there's a reason why ESPN pays the football schools in the P5 roughly $20 million per year. lol

[DeltaV]

Morbid curiosity here, but how many teams would we need to host an FCS/D1-AA football conference?

Currently, we have Nova, GTown, and Butler (in different conferences). VCU has an FCS team, right? Any other 'prospectives'?

[senditinjerome]

I believe the minimum requirement for a conference is 8 teams.

VCU does not currently sponsor football, but there has been discussion about starting up a team. the biggest hurdle is the lack of a stadium.

Among the other prospective expansion candidates, Richmond plays in the CAA and Dayton plays in the non-scholarship Pioneer League (along with Bulter). Now that the Patriot league offers athletic scholarships for all sports including FB, I believe that other than the Ivy, the Pioneer is the only non-scholarship FCS league.

[Bostonspider]

Richmond built a new 8,000 seat stadium on campus 3 years ago, right next to the Robins Center arena. The Spiders currently play Villanova yearly, and played Georgetown a couple of times in the late 00's.

[redmen9194]

No need to expand. 10 works very well. No candidates out there that move the meter enough to expand.

[Bay Area Billiken]

The Saint Louis University Billikens hail from the nation's 21st ranked television market. SLU plays in the state of the art 10,600 seat Chaifetz Arena.

SLU is 20-2, 7-0 in the Atlantic 10, the nation's 6th highest ranked conference per the RPI.

SLU is ranked 13th in the nation in today's AP Rankings and 15th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. SLU has an RPI of 27 and is well positioned for its 3rd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

Coach Jim Crews is 48-9 as SLU Coach. The incoming Crews recruits are rated similarly to the Coach Rick Majerus players.

[marquette]

The Saint Louis University Billikens hail from the nation's 21st ranked television market. SLU plays in the state of the art 10,600 seat Chaifetz Arena.

SLU is 20-2, 7-0 in the Atlantic 10, the nation's 6th highest ranked conference per the RPI.

SLU is ranked 13th in the nation in today's AP Rankings and 15th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. SLU has an RPI of 27 and is well positioned for its 3rd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

Coach Jim Crews is 48-9 as SLU Coach. The incoming Crews recruits are rated similarly to the Coach Rick Majerus players.

SLU's recent credentials speak for themselves although the pres's might want to see if it lasts past this year's seniors. I believe it will, but with a moderate dropoff next year (happens to the best programs, we've all had down seasons in the last decade). I still see you guys finishing top 3 in the A10 next year with an NCAA tournament berth. Unfortunately SLU isn't the problem. If there was another obvious choice out there, you guys would be coming next year (most likely).