Anyone watching VCU @ UMass?

[Bill Marsh]

They also went to the tourney the two years after Calipari left, with Calipari's recruits. I'm not saying they would be the worst attendance draw in the conference, but is that really a selling point?

No.

[Bill Marsh]

Bill you obviously love college BB and are knowledeable about the game. But you seem to have this continuing fascination with adding these middle of the road A10 teams to the NBE. The 10 team home and home schedule has been nothing short of awesome this inaugral season. Getting to see every team in conference in your home arena has been so much fun. No need to water down what is very good and will get even better.

Dan, I too love the 10 team home and home. I completely agree with your position. If it were up to me, I too would keep it at 10. I really like this conference the way it is and wish that it wouldn't change.

I'm only engaging the conversation because the word is out there that it is going to change. That's not initiated by me. It's from sources inside the conference and reports from sources at Fox. So, accepting the Fact that it's likely to happen, I'm posting thoughts on what makes sense to me if the inevitable does happen.

Why my fascination with middle of the road A10 teams? Who else is there? That's part of the frustration that I actually share with you. The only no-brainer out there is Gonzaga and they are geographically challenged. Otherwise it's pretty much the A10. I would take exception with your characterization of VCU as a middle of the road program. A team 3 years off a Final Four, in and out of the top 25 this year, sell outs every game in a 7600 seat arena, major investments in facilities upgrades, tournament appearances 6 of past10 years and every decade for the past 4 decades - hardly a middle of the road program.

[DanofXav76]

Bill,

Thanks for clarifying your position. I'm glad to know we agre on more than we disagree on. You're absolutely right about the VCU classification. I enjoy watching their style of play. If the rumblings are true why would Georgetown be leaning more toward adding Richmond as opposed to VCU? Also while there has been a ton of talk about expansion I didn't realise it was a done deal.

[Bill Marsh]

Bill,

Thanks for clarifying your position. I'm glad to know we agre on more than we disagree on. You're absolutely right about the VCU classification. I enjoy watching their style of play. If the rumblings are true why would Georgetown be leaning more toward adding Richmond as opposed to VCU? Also while there has been a ton of talk about expansion I didn't realise it was a done deal.

Don't know if expansion is a done deal. When the C7 first announced their split from the old Big East after Thanksgiving in 2012, there were widespread reports from the always ubiquitous "sources" that the conference would include 10 or 12 members. When they finally settled on 10, there were more reports that realignment as far as the Big East was concerned might not be over, that they still might eventually get to 12.

The topic was given new life when new Xavier AD Greg Christopher was quoted in national stories as saying that the Big East would expand to 12 members within 5 years. He didn't include any caveats in his remarks such as "might"' "would consider", or "would investigate". He said flat out that the conference would expand.

Greg Christopher doesn't speak for the Big East. He was new on the job and not yet seasoned with a know-how of what to say to the media and how to couch his remarks. Frankly I think it was this very fact that he was so forthright that made his comments so convincing. Especially since he said it as if it was no big deal, no big announcement. He said it as if it were something that everyone already knew and understood. Always nice to have a fresh faced, young administrator on the scene.

I suspect that Christopher was simply expressing what he had been already exposed to inside Big East circles. Which is that as far as everyone there is concerned, it is a fait accompli, a dome deal. They just haven't announced it yet, or acknowledged it publicly. I'm guessing that Christopher was too new on the job to have gotten the memo that he wasn't supposed to even hint about that yet in public statements.

Done deal? No way of knowing that yet, but it sure seems that way.

Why Georgetown's objection to Richmond?

I don't know.

People talk about schools being a good fit with the rest. They talk about academic standing as being important to the others. Some suggest that schools don't want competition in their own backyard. I suspect that it's more complicated than all that.

One thing that's been repeatedly mentioned Is that public institutions are subject to FOI laws in ways that private institutions are not. Allow one public institution into the conference, and all conference minutes as well as many other documents become public information. I think those who've mentioned it are right to bring it up. This is a big deal in the modern information society.

As for Georgetown, I think it's hard to run a nationally competitive sports program at an Ivy League caliber university. Really hard. Especially a school with fewer than 7000 undergrads. Not because the Admissions Dept restricts entrance for academically deficient athletes. If Georgetown brought Patrick Ewing in, they can bring anyone in. Their problem isn't getting them in, it's keeping them in.

A public Ivy like Michigan or UCLA doesn't have the same problem. Their curricula are so broad and diverse that they can find less challenging majors that they can help athletes get through with passing grades. And they have regular students within their enrollment who aren't exceptional because in state admissions standards aren't as high as they are for out of state students.

But where do you hide a deficient student at Georgetown? What major is available that isn't rigorous and demanding? And every kid at Georgetown with very few exceptions is really smart and has the skills to be academically successful. Those kids raise the bar in every class at the university - even the easier ones.

I suspect that the president at Georgetown is well aware of all that and simply doesn't want his athletic teams to have to compete against VCU, which despite having very good academics for a public university simply doesn't face the same rigorous standards for its students across the board that Georgetown faces. I don't think it's snobbery or protecting their territory, but simply a very practical issue of athletic competition. The institutions are too different for Georgetown to feel comfortable having their students trying to compete while at the same time carrying a different level of academic challenge. I may be wrong, but that's my guess.