Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[BillikensWin]

I think the correlation between winning on the court and bringing in more money is pretty obvious. That is what the Big East (if they expand) will look at: who gives them the best chance to win the most games and get the most tournament credits. Every conference is going to have someone finish last...it's more of an issue of not making it the same team over and over.

[robinreed]

The obvious next candidate for the BE can only be Wichita State. I know that many here believe that all members must be private and Catholic however I think we should add the best available prospect. Are there other universities which are qualified? Of course there are but none of them bring what Wichita State has.

What say you?

[stever20]

The obvious next candidate for the BE can only be Wichita State. I know that many here believe that all members must be private and Catholic however I think we should add the best available prospect. Are there other universities which are qualified? Of course there are but none of them bring what Wichita State has.

What say you?

VCU is at least as good as Wichita is, and they are in the east, which is good for the big EAST.

[HoosierPal]

Please show some specific examples of schools (outside the Ivy League) that work together in a meaningful way that could not happen if they weren't in the same athletic conference. This kind of thing sounds good in theory, but where are the examples? The fact is, schools work together academically when it makes sense for them to do so, usually because of geography and sometimes because of similar program strength and academic prestige. Athletic conference affiliation rarely makes a difference.

Google Mission Statements, put in a conference, and read.

The Big Ten is renown for sharing research capabilities and results.

[lolhoya]

Umm, nothing comes up dude. Maybe try citing some specific examples?

Obviously some Big 10 schools will share research, but for the most part that is NOT because of conference affiliation. Please cite some examples of how sports conference affiliation creates all of these wonderful shared academic benefits.

[SecureDaBall]

Umm, nothing comes up dude. Maybe try citing some specific examples?

Obviously some Big 10 schools will share research, but for the most part that is NOT because of conference affiliation. Please cite some examples of how sports conference affiliation creates all of these wonderful shared academic benefits.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation(CIC) is exclusive to Big Ten schools except for University of Chicago which was an original conference member before de-emphasizing athletics.

[Bostonspider]

I would think he is talking about things like the CIC and Colonial Academic Alliance

http://www.cic.net/home

http://colonialacademicalliance.org/

[Bill Marsh]

The obvious next candidate for the BE can only be Wichita State. I know that many here believe that all members must be private and Catholic however I think we should add the best available prospect. Are there other universities which are qualified? Of course there are but none of them bring what Wichita State has.

What say you?

No. the obvious next candidate is VCU. It's The Big EAST conference, not the Great Plains Conference. And it's tournament is in NYC, not in KC.

[lolhoya]

I would think he is talking about things like the CIC and Colonial Academic Alliance

http://www.cic.net/home

http://colonialacademicalliance.org/

Thanks, this is helpful. It doesn't look like either of these have strict membership based on athletic conference, though the CIC is clearly meant to be for Big 10 schools. I'm not really sure how robust this kind of group is, nor am I sure that the Big East presidents are planning to launch something similar. But I will admit it is possible I am underestimating the value of something like this.

[Bostonspider]

Both are limited to conference schools in either the Big10 (plus former member Chicago) or the CAA. The ACC also has one.

http://acciac.org/