Expansion: UAB to reunite with Marquette and DePaul in NBE?

[Bill Marsh]

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!

Too bad the commissioner isn't a visionary.

If she is, maybe it's just a matter of timing and now isn't the time to announce.

[WaitingPatiently]

Would the league (and 10 private/Catholic schools) be open to adding a public school?

To this point that answer seems to have been a resounding "NO". Despite what posters think...and despite the many logical arguments presented...the presidents seem to be very determined that like-minded institutional fit is far more significant than what the outside believes. They even stated so in the press conference for the announcement back in March 2013. Like minded institutions with a strong basketball tradition. (I believe they were even stated in that order.) But people don't want to take that clear statement because it conflicts with their personal beliefs on expansion. Could it change? Sure. But right now that doesn't seem to be the case. I think VCU has many arguments to have been a better fit than the 3 brought on board...but the presidents voted institutional fit above those reasons. To me that speaks volumes on the subject and makes all the message board pandering for the VCU, UConn, UMass, etc. publics comical.

Another fallacy to me is the belief that Fox has a significant say on expansion issues right now. There's a contract in place for the next 10 seasons following this one. Where is the Fox bargaining power for influence at this point? Obviously I've never seen the complete terms of the contract, nor have any of the other posters. But in general once you have the contract signed, your influence is limited to the terms of that contract. Fox will have influence once that contract is coming up for renewal. Obviously the presidents don't want to anger their partner and will work with Fox. But if the presidents did as they please and followed the terms in the contract there isn't much Fox can do until that contract expires, unless they wanted to rework the contract - which is almost certainly a monetary increase.

[BigmanU]

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]

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.

[Bill Marsh]

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.

Despite the location, adding Gonzaga would be a huge reinforcement to the league's identity as the place where the Catholic basketball elites come to play regardless of all other issues.

I really don't get location as a problem for anyone but Gonzaga themselves and they've already said that they're prepared to deal with it. So, what's the problem?

You"re right about H & H. Adding just Gonzaga would preserve that, so there would be no objections to divisional play, which would be unnecessary.

[Bill Marsh]

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.

Thanks. That's great news.

[WaitingPatiently]

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]

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.

[R Jay]

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.

Than why isn't Gonzaga in the conference? If there are so many pluses shouldn't they be in already?

[ohiohsbball]

Wow...I haven't had the chance to log on for a while, and when I do, I see another expansion thread.

New thread, but the same old posts that I honestly love and never get tired of reading. Here are some of my favorites:

1). Anything posted about Xavier (i.e. whatever that finance stuff was about) is a troll from Dayton. Anything posted about Dayton is a troll from Dayton.
2). Gonzaga is a legit candidate
3). UAB is a candidate to join the NBE.
4). Holding out hope that UCONN drops football and joins the NBE.

Those are just some of my favorites and why I love expansion threads. I agree with an earlier poster that it is a safe topic to speculate on because of how popular this topic was when this conference formed. I understand that this is just a message board of a bunch of fans that really do not have any inside information, which is really what makes it fun because I have come read posts from some really intelligent people that seem to know basketball.

My opinion, and I know a lot of people disagree with me, is that what I said last year at this time. The conference will expand within its first three years and numbers 11 and 12 will be St. Louis and Dayton. I may be wrong, but that is just a gut feeling. Ten teams may be an ideal number, but if what is reported is true about Fox Sports shelling out more money for the conference to go to 12, I just don't see the BE standing pat at 10 too much longer, especially when you have a St. Louis market and a Dayton teams that travels about as well as any team around. I know Xavier and other posters on here dislike Dayton, but facts are facts; they put butts in seats which is why ESPN has Dayton in a lot of tournaments at the beginning of the season and why the NCAA is keeping the first 4 at UD. Who else will get 12,000 fans to a game no one really cares about. Admit it, if Xavier wasn't playing in the first four last year, how many fans on here would have a vested interested in those games? Not me, but the city of Dayton does. While those reasons may not be rational toward conference affiliation, that is just my opinion that I'm sure will be bashed on here. I remember last year this time that St. Louis was a lock and the last spot was between Dayton and Richmond; I haven't heard Richmond on this board in months because they were not good last year.

Ideally everyone wants the league to stay at 10 and if they do, that is great. I like 10 team leagues, but the reality is everything is driven by money. So, IF there is expansion, I see Dayton and St. Louis.

On a side note, the BE has had a great start to the season; 7 teams are receiving votes for the top 25. Hopefully the momentum keeps rolling through conference play and the league can have a multi-bid year in the NCAA.