Big East Conference Expansion Ideas and Discussion

[Jet915]

If Gonzaga is ok with the travel, I think they should be added. It's such a bigger hassle for them than it would be for the other 10 teams. Even for the other sports like baseball, they aren't even playing home and homes so you would only be taking your baseball team to spokane every other year. You can be smart with the scheduling and have the Gonzaga teams travel to the east coast once a year doing a 3 team swing. I'd love it if the Big East went big and added Gonzaga, SLU, BYU and Dayton. East coast schools would not want that though.

BYU is a dangerous add. They could pop-off to Big XII anytime, or go back to the MWC if the independent thins isn't working out, so you'd have to have a good back up to replace them. I also hate the idea of 14 teams. SLU and Gonzaga and stop.

I just think in the long run, 14 will be the number. Once you get to 12, you are already losing out on home/home series. At 14, you can spare the travel to Spokane for more teams while also increasing your chances for more NCAA bids. I know BYU can jump ship, you can have Richmond replace them. In the end, it's about how many NCAA bids your conference gets, no one cares how many teams are in the league. With this set of teams, we will average 6-7 bids a year easy.

[DudeAnon]

I can't get over just how ridiculous Gonzaga would look on a map of all the BE schools.

[Bill Marsh]

Wow! That's a shocking revelation. The school that has a problem with geography is Gonzaga, not the rest of the league. If Gonzaga is willing to take on the travel, it's pure insanity for the Big East not to add them.

But, Bill, the trouble is that 10 other programs must make annual trips to Gonzaga also. And, as I have been reminded on this board, a school can't simply join another conference for basketball (like it can for football). It must join the new Conference in all the sports it sponsors that the joined Conference sponsors in League play. As I understand it, that means the volleyball, baseball, soccer, etc. teams must travel to Spokane as well. I can understand why not all 10 current AD's were jumping for joy at that prospect! (The $4 million of TV money would be gone in no time paying for transportation, lodging, meals, etc.)

The NCAA requirement is that a conference sponsor a minimum 6 teams for men and 6 teams for women, two of which must be team sports for each. That means that the lineup could look like this:

basketball
soccer
cross country
track & field
swimming
golf

Only basketball and soccer would have to make trips for a regular schedule of games. The other sports decide their conference championships at a tournament each year without having to play a regular schedule of competition. Dual meets and the like are scheduled on an individual basis.

The actual impact is very minimal. Two men's teams and two women's teams have to make the trip. If the schedule is broken up by divisions, the East coast schools would skip the trip once every 3 years and you'd still get an 18 game schedule. Do the other sports need to play an 18 game schedule? If any of the teams besides men's basketball can live with a 16 game schedule, which was the standard for decades, the East Coast schools could skip the Spokane trip once every other year. For the schools from the Midwest, this really isn't much different that the old Big East schools having to make a trip to Miami every year. (Chicago to Spokane is 1500 air miles.)

One trip a year max to Spokane for each of 4 teams is to much to handle? That's got to be a bad joke.

The Big East is absolutely bonkers if expansion doesn't include Gonzaga as priority #1 now that we know that Gonzaga is perfectly willing to take on the travel burden. Institutionally they're a perfect fit. They've just gone to their 16th consecutive NCAA tournament and have won 10 tournament games in the last 10 years. Among current Big East members, only Butler and Villanova has won more tournament games than that in the past decade.

The Big East should add Gonzaga and VCU and be done with it. They would strengthen the conference, upgrade its profile, and expand its markets. Seems like a no brainer to me.

[aughnanure]

If Gonzaga is ok with the travel, I think they should be added. It's such a bigger hassle for them than it would be for the other 10 teams. Even for the other sports like baseball, they aren't even playing home and homes so you would only be taking your baseball team to spokane every other year. You can be smart with the scheduling and have the Gonzaga teams travel to the east coast once a year doing a 3 team swing. I'd love it if the Big East went big and added Gonzaga, SLU, BYU and Dayton. East coast schools would not want that though.

BYU is a dangerous add. They could pop-off to Big XII anytime, or go back to the MWC if the independent thins isn't working out, so you'd have to have a good back up to replace them. I also hate the idea of 14 teams. SLU and Gonzaga and stop.

I just think in the long run, 14 will be the number. Once you get to 12, you are already losing out on home/home series. At 14, you can spare the travel to Spokane for more teams while also increasing your chances for more NCAA bids. I know BYU can jump ship, you can have Richmond replace them. In the end, it's about how many NCAA bids your conference gets, no one cares how many teams are in the league. With this set of teams, we will average 6-7 bids a year easy.

If you're going past 12 just go to 16 then, don't half ass it. I just don't think there's enough quality teams to even justify 14 nor have the ability to increase the league's NCAA bids past the benefit 12 would give us.

[Bill Marsh]

This indicates that the member schools have a lot of discretion regarding expansion and it's not just Fox calling the shots.

No, it doesn't. For all we know, there is already a deal in the works to include Gonzaga in the next round of expansion. The fact that they weren't added in the first round means nothing. It makes perfect sense for them to have established a more compact footprint first and to then grow out from there later.

[cm5yz6]

Wow! That's a shocking revelation. The school that has a problem with geography is Gonzaga, not the rest of the league. If Gonzaga is willing to take on the travel, it's pure insanity for the Big East not to add them.

But, Bill, the trouble is that 10 other programs must make annual trips to Gonzaga also. And, as I have been reminded on this board, a school can't simply join another conference for basketball (like it can for football). It must join the new Conference in all the sports it sponsors that the joined Conference sponsors in League play. As I understand it, that means the volleyball, baseball, soccer, etc. teams must travel to Spokane as well. I can understand why not all 10 current AD's were jumping for joy at that prospect! (The $4 million of TV money would be gone in no time paying for transportation, lodging, meals, etc.)

The NCAA requirement is that a conference sponsor a minimum 6 teams for men and 6 teams for women, two of which must be team sports for each. That means that the lineup could look like this:

basketball
soccer
cross country
track & field
swimming
golf

Only basketball and soccer would have to make trips for a regular schedule of games. The other sports decide their conference championships at a tournament each year without having to play a regular schedule of competition. Dual meets and the like are scheduled on an individual basis.

The actual impact is very minimal. Two men's teams and two women's teams have to make the trip. If the schedule is broken up by divisions, the East coast schools would skip the trip once every 3 years and you'd still get an 18 game schedule. Do the other sports need to play an 18 game schedule? If any of the teams besides men's basketball can live with a 16 game schedule, which was the standard for decades, the East Coast schools could skip the Spokane trip once every other year. For the schools from the Midwest, this really isn't much different that the old Big East schools having to make a trip to Miami every year. (Chicago to Spokane is 1500 air miles.)

One trip a year max to Spokane for each of 4 teams is to much to handle? That's got to be a bad joke.

The Big East is absolutely bonkers if expansion doesn't include Gonzaga as priority #1 now that we know that Gonzaga is perfectly willing to take on the travel burden. Institutionally they're a perfect fit. They've just gone to their 16th consecutive NCAA tournament and have won 10 tournament games in the last 10 years. Among current Big East members, only Butler and Villanova has won more tournament games than that in the past decade.

The Big East should add Gonzaga and VCU and be done with it. They would strengthen the conference, upgrade its profile, and expand its markets. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Wow, quite a big F U to all baseball, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, field hockey, and softball players and fans.

[Jet915]

If Gonzaga ever comes, all their teams will join the Big East. The WCC is not gonna let their olympic sports teams stay w/o basketball. The travel would be horrible for their olympic sports teams but their AD seems ok with it.

[ohiohsbball]

Maybe I'm completely in the minority for this, and it appears I am by reading some posts but Gonzaga in the Big EAST makes absolutely zero sense. If the SEC wants to solidify its football conference, then why not just add Oregon; makes sense to me.

There is a lot more that goes into this than just a basketball orientated move. As a coach, how will I sell my program to recruits and parents. Hey, come to Gonzaga because your parents have just a short cross country drive to the east coast for half of their away basketball games. Am I missing something? Softball, baseball, and other sports you only have a 4 hour flight to play a softball game that takes about an hour. This makes no sense to me. Gonzaga's AD may have been all for it, but was the President? They are the ones calling the shots. Football is captain of the boat; across the country for football makes a little sense but not much. West coast basketball with an East coast league makes even less sense. I could be wrong, but wasn't Boise State and San Diego State going to join the OBE for football, but not other sports because of travel? And now supposedly Gonzaga is wanting to join a non-football league? I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but I can't see the President's saying lets add Gonzaga when our league really isn't established yet.

Just my opinion, I think the league should stay at 10 for another year or two just to get on solid ground. This gives Fox a chance to add programing and bump up ratings. Ultimately I still am almost 100% sure the league expands with Dayton and Saint Louis; I don't think it is if, but when. I know a lot of people think VCU is the sexy pick, but again it isn't just basketball. VCU has absolutely nothing in common with the other schools from an institution standpoint. Again I could be wrong, but within 10 years you may even see 14 teams in the BE. I know people say they like a small league with a round robin, but the big problem now is the Big East is still being compared to the A10; if the BE wants to be a premier, elite, basketball only conference, wouldn't they take as many schools as they can from the A10 that fit in with the league? I know it is only one year, but the majority of the people outside of the BE believe the A10 is better right now and I think that is a huge threat to the BE.

Again, I know I'm in the minority with my opinions on expansion. It hasn't made sense to me since day 1 and right now it makes even less sense. When Missouri went to the SEC, that just blew up my conference radar.

[aughnanure]

Maybe I'm completely in the minority for this, and it appears I am by reading some posts but Gonzaga in the Big EAST makes absolutely zero sense. If the SEC wants to solidify its football conference, then why not just add Oregon; makes sense to me.

I know it is only one year, but the majority of the people outside of the BE believe the A10 is better right now and I think that is a huge threat to the BE.

Apples to Oranges.


....and no they do not and nor is the A10 a threat. If anything, the two strengthen each other because we need to break the perception that only schools that play football can be called "major."

[Noonzy]

Having a team join from 3000 or so miles away does not help book the Garden. Creighton fans made a great showing this year, but will they every year? We should only add teams that can help fill the Garden yearly. The Zags fit every criteria except distance.