Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[Bostonspider]

Talking with VCU and Richmond fans there is a feeling that they would like one of the two to get invited to the BE so that they are not competing in the same league. Only negative for VCU if it is one is the public vs private school. Other than that they would be a nice addition.

I think actually both UR and VCU fans think the exact opposite. Neither really wants the other to get into the Big East. If UR does not get in, the Spider fans would rather be in an A10 with VCU, instead of having them in the Big East, and the same goes in the opposite way for Ram fans. If neither Richmond nor VCU gets invited to the Big East, being in an A10 with each other, George Washington, George Mason, and Davidson is not a bad thing for either school at all. Sure the money would be very very nice, and the Big East has some great schools to be affiliated with, but having close rivals in your conference is a good thing, and the A10 certainly has proven it can put multiple teams into the NCAA's.

[adoraz11]

Well now that we know that had Xavier not advanced to the third round of the tournament and had Providence not won the whole damn thing, we'd be looking at a TWO BID league. I really hope this has set off an alarm bell in BE headquarters. It would be foolish not to expand before next year.

Expansion candidates in the field:
VCU- 5 seed
St. Louis- 5 seed
Gonzaga- 8 seed
Dayton- 11 seed
Richmond- not there. Not even NIT.

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Well that's also assuming Marquette or St John's had won the whole tournament, became now we know they were not getting an at large if Providence wasn't. As for Georgetown, they may have went had they beat DePaul. My point is though we were looking at a very real possibility of a 2 or 3 bid league. Had that happened it would be detrimental to the BE image. We'd be getting wcc or mvc comparisons for the next year

[BEwannabe]

Well now that we know that had Xavier not advanced to the third round of the tournament and had Providence not won the whole damn thing, we'd be looking at a TWO BID league. I really hope this has set off an alarm bell in BE headquarters. It would be foolish not to expand before next year.

Expansion candidates in the field:
VCU- 5 seed
St. Louis- 5 seed
Gonzaga- 8 seed
Dayton- 11 seed
Richmond- not there. Not even NIT.

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Not sure why people can't get their arms around this idea, yes, 2 could've happened but the odds were longer against 2 than 4 in my estimation because there were 3 big east bubble teams capable of winning the automatic bid.

[SJHooper]

Well now that we know that had Xavier not advanced to the third round of the tournament and had Providence not won the whole damn thing, we'd be looking at a TWO BID league. I really hope this has set off an alarm bell in BE headquarters. It would be foolish not to expand before next year.

Expansion candidates in the field:
VCU- 5 seed
St. Louis- 5 seed
Gonzaga- 8 seed
Dayton- 11 seed
Richmond- not there. Not even NIT.

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Well that's also assuming Marquette or St John's had won the whole tournament, became now we know they were not getting an at large if Providence wasn't. As for Georgetown, they may have went had they beat DePaul. My point is though we were looking at a very real possibility of a 2 or 3 bid league. Had that happened it would be detrimental to the BE image. We'd be getting wcc or mvc comparisons for the next year

Please stop. Wichita State is the only team that can nationally compete with top tier teams in the MVC and they haven't faced a real team yet. They will be out of the tournament very soon. Then once they graduate, Wichita State goes back to being a mid major off the steroids...look at Davidson and George Mason. They had their runs and now they are back to being pretty irrelevant once their studs were gone. MVC has BRADLEY. Nuff said. Wtf is Bradley?

[adoraz11]

[


You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Well that's also assuming Marquette or St John's had won the whole tournament, became now we know they were not getting an at large if Providence wasn't. As for Georgetown, they may have went had they beat DePaul. My point is though we were looking at a very real possibility of a 2 or 3 bid league. Had that happened it would be detrimental to the BE image. We'd be getting wcc or mvc comparisons for the next year

Please stop. Wichita State is the only team that can nationally compete with top tier teams in the MVC and they haven't faced a real team yet. They will be out of the tournament very soon. Then once they graduate, Wichita State goes back to being a mid major off the steroids...look at Davidson and George Mason. They had their runs and now they are back to being pretty irrelevant once their studs were gone. MVC has BRADLEY. Nuff said. Wtf is Bradley?

Did mvc get only one in this year? Guess that makes sense since Creighton is gone. Still, whether fair or not we'd be getting wcc comparisons or any other league like the sec with 2 or 3. We know that ESPN will bounce on any opportunity to spread bad press.

[podcast411]

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Not sure why people can't get their arms around this idea, yes, 2 could've happened but the odds were longer against 2 than 4 in my estimation because there were 3 big east bubble teams capable of winning the automatic bid.

Fox Sports knows what could have been - and a 2 bid league was a real possibility. 3 was the most likely outcome - and 4 was a stretch outcome. You have Chris Mack out there spouting off about other conferences that easily got more schools in the dance. Not a good start for the Big East and Fox Sports - and yes - they know what could have been and is. Expansion is not an if - just a when question now.

[Bill Marsh]

Ultimately the league's reputation will be determined not by how many bids we've gotten, but by how many wins our teams get int he tournament.

The A10 got 6 bids, but for the life of me, I'm having a hard time figuring out where they're going to get a win in the tournament. I've got them with only one win total in my bracket. I've got the Big East with 7 wins, 2 teams getting to the Sweet 16, and one of those going on to the Elite 8. Which will make a bigger impression - the A10's 6 bids or the BE's 7 wins?

[adoraz11]

Well now that we know that had Xavier not advanced to the third round of the tournament and had Providence not won the whole damn thing, we'd be looking at a TWO BID league. I really hope this has set off an alarm bell in BE headquarters. It would be foolish not to expand before next year.

Expansion candidates in the field:
VCU- 5 seed
St. Louis- 5 seed
Gonzaga- 8 seed
Dayton- 11 seed
Richmond- not there. Not even NIT.

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Not sure why people can't get their arms around this idea, yes, 2 could've happened but the odds were longer against 2 than 4 in my estimation because there were 3 big east bubble teams capable of winning the automatic bid.

I'm a statistics major I understand it just fine.

Yes 2 was more unlikely but as we know now, had creighton beat providence as expected, we'd have three teams in. That seems like the most likely scenario to me, and 3 is a pretty bad number. 4 isn't great but at least we have the same as the American and more than the sec and most mid majors. 3 and we're right there.

Does anyone want to repeat this next year? Where we need an upset in the championship game to secure an automatic bid??? Note that Big East may be the only conference fortunate enough to get an extra bid this way. Don't think it happened in any other conference.

[milwaukeejedi1]

You fail to take into account that had Xavier and Providence not won games, another team (out of St. Johns, Georgetown, or Marquette) would have advanced and likely reached the dance.

Not sure why people can't get their arms around this idea, yes, 2 could've happened but the odds were longer against 2 than 4 in my estimation because there were 3 big east bubble teams capable of winning the automatic bid.

Fox Sports knows what could have been - and a 2 bid league was a real possibility. 3 was the most likely outcome - and 4 was a stretch outcome. You have Chris Mack out their spotting off about other conferences that easily got more schools in the dance. Not a good start for the Big East and Fox Sports - and yes - they know what could have been and is. Expansion is not an if - just a when question now.

I am not judging whether or not it was appropriate for Coach Mack to say what he did but he wasn't alone. Coach K," I’ll get in trouble probably for saying it. Like the Atlantic 10, they’re a really good conference. I hear people saying there are six teams in there. Come on. I mean, they’re good, but put them in our conference and go through the meat grinder that our conference has to go through."

I hope the VCU and Dayton fans who posted on this board voicing their displeasure with Coach Mack's statement also posted on the ACC and Duke boards. http://tracking.si.com/2014/03/15/mike- ... a-10-bids/

[ruechalgrin]

Who would win the NCAA tourney if academic progress rate was key?

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014 ... s8.twitter

Wouldn't read too much into it as no way Xavier and St. Louis behind NC State, but still had to post.