sciencejay wrote:Not sure if anyone posted this previously, but on Saturday afternoon during the BE VB championship on FS2, they interviewed Val Ackerman between the 2nd and 3rd sets. She unequivocally stated that the BE is not looking to expand right now or in the near future. She said that of course, things may change which may necessitate a different course, but for right now and the foreseeable future, the BE will stand at 10 teams.
And by the way, Creighton's first BE tourney championship goes to the 2014 volleyball team - a top 30 program knocking at the door. Go Jays!
GoldenWarrior11 wrote:Would the league (and 10 private/Catholic schools) be open to adding a public school?
adoraz wrote:I started the first expansion thread last year and after reading the hundreds of posts I'm sticking with my original opinion:
Add Gonzaga and VCU. Next tier would be Dayton and St.Louis. Richmond, UAB, etc? Don't consider it. Yes, I know about the travelling and public school issues but that's still my irrelevant opinion. There's just not many expansion candidates out there. Of course, if a team like UConn ever dropped football they'd be a no brainer.
That said, this year made me feel a little better about not immediately expanding but if I was in charge I'd add two schools for next year. There's power in numbers. Imagine having a school like Gonzaga at the top of this league. They've proven themselves for two decades now.
Bill Marsh wrote:Wizard of Westroads wrote:Anybody know about Boston College's finances? I'd love for them to drop football and join the BE. Or do you guys not want them back?
BC finances are in great shape.
I've heard from someone in Cincinnati that things are not so great at Xavier. Any truth to that?
BigmanU wrote:adoraz wrote:I started the first expansion thread last year and after reading the hundreds of posts I'm sticking with my original opinion:
Add Gonzaga and VCU. Next tier would be Dayton and St.Louis. Richmond, UAB, etc? Don't consider it. Yes, I know about the travelling and public school issues but that's still my irrelevant opinion. There's just not many expansion candidates out there. Of course, if a team like UConn ever dropped football they'd be a no brainer.
That said, this year made me feel a little better about not immediately expanding but if I was in charge I'd add two schools for next year. There's power in numbers. Imagine having a school like Gonzaga at the top of this league. They've proven themselves for two decades now.
Gonzaga because they fit the profile Private & Elite but the location makes it difficult. I wish we could make this work however. I would actually add just them and keep the H & H format w/ 20 league games.
Only other school would potentially be UConn because of historical reasons but, I truly believe only Private schools fit the BEast vision. If they ever dropped football they would be a good test model.
Xudash wrote:Bill Marsh wrote:Wizard of Westroads wrote:Anybody know about Boston College's finances? I'd love for them to drop football and join the BE. Or do you guys not want them back?
BC finances are in great shape.
I've heard from someone in Cincinnati that things are not so great at Xavier. Any truth to that?
I would love to know the idiot or idiots, besides the occasional troll from UD, who keeps spreading this crap around.
The budget adjustments coming into this year were due to yield issues as described earlier, except they were due to selectivity decisions. Importantly, the adjustments also were due to some restructuring to make way for stuff like the following:
http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/111114-Xavier-innovation-center-head-taps-into-regions-creative-mindset.aspx
Beyond that, the endowment is up to about $170 million now. A long way to go, but trending well.
Xavier is preparing for the future as a high end teaching university.
Otherwise, as expansion goes, chat about it all you want, but I would maintain low expectations if you're counting on it happening soon.
WaitingPatiently wrote:Location may not be a problem for MBB, but if they were coming on board for all sports it becomes a huge problem for all teams in the non-revenue sports.
Also 20 conf games hurts the conf RPI a great deal. The fewer zero-sum games you play the better off you are for that. 20 conf games really, really hurts the bubble teams. Even moves some that may be in to the bubble.
Bill Marsh wrote:WaitingPatiently wrote:Location may not be a problem for MBB, but if they were coming on board for all sports it becomes a huge problem for all teams in the non-revenue sports.
Also 20 conf games hurts the conf RPI a great deal. The fewer zero-sum games you play the better off you are for that. 20 conf games really, really hurts the bubble teams. Even moves some that may be in to the bubble.
No, it's not a problem for all teams in non-revenue sports. For many of them, conference competition means a single tournament or all-conference track meet or the like. It's only a problem for a few non-revenue sports which play full com fervency schedules. There are many ways to handle the schedule to ease the travel burden, but if this is truly a basketball-first conference, then those problems should be solvable. The revenue provided by M BB should provide the financial resources to help with the solutions. Bottom line is that non-revenue sports should be able to work with one long distance trip per year. The return that Gonzaga would bring to the conference would be worth it.
I know a lot about RPI but I have no idea why a 20 game schedule would hurt the conference RPI. Nonetheless, the worst that would happen is that they retain the 18 game schedule and everyone matches up with a few teams only once each season. Rotate the singleton match ups and everyone still plays everyone H & H most of the time. The Big 10 worked with an 11 team league and an 18 game schedule for 20 years, so it's certainly doable. The advantages of adding Gonzaga are simply too great to turn down for a few scheduling challenges.
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