The Ball talks Big East basketball

[Bill Marsh]

No way in HELL do we bring in BYU! They are the same as UConn or Cincy right now. They have the wandering eyes and will ditch us in a second for a F5 conference. No way are we dealing with that shit again. That would be a big black eye for the conference to get raided again. NO FB SCHOOLS ALLOWED!!!!

I would be okay with Gonzaga if we can make it work and expand past 12, but no BYU. Never ever ever.

I imagine you'd take Notre Dame and BYU is the same as Notre Dame with regard to football. They're committed to independence. They've turned down a couple of opportunities to play in football conferences. Instead, they're playing with Catholic schools in the West Coast Conference.

If you think they have a wandering eye and are waiting around for an invitation to a P5 conference, then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with them.

[R Jay]

No way in HELL do we bring in BYU! They are the same as UConn or Cincy right now. They have the wandering eyes and will ditch us in a second for a F5 conference. No way are we dealing with that shit again. That would be a big black eye for the conference to get raided again. NO FB SCHOOLS ALLOWED!!!!

I would be okay with Gonzaga if we can make it work and expand past 12, but no BYU. Never ever ever.

I imagine you'd take Notre Dame and BYU is the same as Notre Dame with regard to football. They're committed to independence. They've turned down a couple of opportunities to play in football conferences. Instead, they're playing with Catholic schools in the West Coast Conference.

If you think they have a wandering eye and are waiting around for an invitation to a P5 conference, then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with them.

You can't honestly tell me that you believe that they'd turn down the Big 12 if they came offering, can you? If they had the chance to put all of their sports into a major conference, why wouldn't they? Particularly when they could tap into a major recruiting pipeline of Texas.

[Bill Marsh]

Don't know about BYU but there are quotes from the Gonzaga AD saying they want in the Big East and that logistically, it would work for them. The east coast Big East presidents are the ones holding it up. I think in the long run, we do need to get to 14 teams to compete with the F5 but if their names aren't UCONN, Gonzaga or BYU, we can wait....

I have never seen those quotes. Maybe in some tj corbs corbs bleacher report junket, but I can't recall ever seeing that said.

And besides uconn, gonzaga or BYU, there really are not other viable candidates. Notre dame, syracuse and Boston college are gone and not coming back. We aren't raiding another major conference for any teams. There is nothing in the Atlantic ten or mwc or MVC that really fits. I would hope that all ten o the schools presidents are holding up dipping into the a10 for schools at this point (not just the east coast schools holding it up)

So just be patient. Focus on the ten teams we have. If the opportunity to grow presents itself, then I am sure it will happen. No need to rush.

I don't have time to do the googling for you, but those quotes from Gonzaga have absolutely been out there right from the beginning. Gonzaga would join the Big East at the drop of a hat.

They have already figured out how to deal with long travel because even in the West Clast .conference they're already making long trips. In addition, they' play a national schedule, having games east of the Mississippi and to the Deep South on their schedule every year. They have their own private charter and don't wait on lines for commercial flights in airports, nor do they deal with transfers to connecting flights along the way.they fly direct.

I agree with you about GU, BYU, and UConn being the only viable candidates right now. And UConn is out of the question. But sometimes a conference has to add members who are not fully ready for other reasons. The Big East did it at the beginning with Seton Hall and UConn. The B1G just did it with Rutgers. In both instances potential, location, and meeting the conference's needs mattered more than 100% readiness. VCU, UMass, and Dayton are all ready enough.

[Bill Marsh]

And Bill marsh, regarding BYU/zags:
If those two schools were to call Val and say: "hey Val, you got a great thing going, we want in, we think we can make it work, let's do this..."

Then I think we should absolutely consider them and try to make it happen.

I am not sure I think that call has been made. It is actually a much bigger burden on those two than it is in the current ten schools, and I am not sure they are committed to, or ready, for it to happen. Maybe they will decide it makes sense at some point, but as of today I don't know if that opportunity has even presented itself to the conference.

Morman's and Catholics do not go together. Scrap BYU. More likely to pick up university of San Diego than BYU.

No offense, but . . .

That idea is laughable. This is a basketball conference, not an ecumenical outreach. BYU averages 16,000 fans per game. San Diego averages about 1600. There's absolutely no comparison. BYU would be an enormous boost for the BE and it's TV profile.

In addition, SD is a much longer flight and USD doesn't have the resources to deal with long distance travel. Besides Gonzaga, no one in the WCC does. But BYU does.

[Piratefan]

I would hold out for Uconn as I believe that it will be forced to de-emphasize or drop football. 11 schools is ideal as we can keep home and homes which is yet another distinctive characteristic of the BE. It likely makes more sense to establish a conference-wide, long term scheduling agreement with Gonzaga, BYU, WSU, and VCU or the like.

[NJRedman]

No way in HELL do we bring in BYU! They are the same as UConn or Cincy right now. They have the wandering eyes and will ditch us in a second for a F5 conference. No way are we dealing with that shit again. That would be a big black eye for the conference to get raided again. NO FB SCHOOLS ALLOWED!!!!

I would be okay with Gonzaga if we can make it work and expand past 12, but no BYU. Never ever ever.

I imagine you'd take Notre Dame and BYU is the same as Notre Dame with regard to football. They're committed to independence. They've turned down a couple of opportunities to play in football conferences. Instead, they're playing with Catholic schools in the West Coast Conference.

If you think they have a wandering eye and are waiting around for an invitation to a P5 conference, then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with them.

Bill, they turned down the MWC's offer to come back. They are not Notre Dame and don't get the consideration as a F5 school like ND does. They are considered a G5 school. They would take an offer from the Big XII or Pac-12 offer in a heart beat. Let me repeat that so you understand. IN. A. HEARTBEAT!!!

[NJRedman]

First a word about Ball. His musings and rants on the Nova pay board and elsewhere are the stuff of legend. I swear there are guys on the Rutgers board who would shoot him on site if they had the chance. Personally, I've never been bothered, even by his most outlandish posts, since they are made with the express goal of pissing off 90% of whatever team board he's visiting (including Nova's), which delights him no end. So just accept the inevitable incendiary attacks on your school as Balls way of having fun and don't take it personally. He is very capable of offering constructive suggestions when the mood strikes him.

About the importance of selling out the Garden (or at least coming close to it)......the suggestion that each school should be forced to buy 2000 tickets, thus insuring a sellout, is not a bad one on its face, but MSG wants more than just a sellout, they want juice in the building. Because that juice transmits over the airwaves and into peoples homes, which drives ratings.

As someone who as never missed a Big East tournament at the Garden, there has always been plenty of juice in the building during the quarter, semi and final games. Last year's tournament had that juice, thanks in large part to all those Creightonites that made the trip from Omaha, and to the Providence fans that flooded into town for the final.

But as Bill Marsh noted, the Big 10 is coming. And I'm not convinced that they are only looking at this as an occasional fling.....I think they'd like to make it a permanent arrangement. It will be up to the fans of each Big East school to make a good showing, and also to stick around for entire tourney. even if your team gets sent packing.

Well we have a few things going for us. A long term contract with MSG that just started abd the fact that a predominantly mid-west conference will never have their tourny annually in msg. The fans would match to the B1G headquarters and lynch whoever happens to be the commish when that is announced. They aren't really happy coming every few years.

[TheBall]

No way in HELL do we bring in BYU! They are the same as UConn or Cincy right now. They have the wandering eyes and will ditch us in a second for a F5 conference. No way are we dealing with that shit again. That would be a big black eye for the conference to get raided again. NO FB SCHOOLS ALLOWED!!!!

I would be okay with Gonzaga if we can make it work and expand past 12, but no BYU. Never ever ever.

I imagine you'd take Notre Dame and BYU is the same as Notre Dame with regard to football. They're committed to independence. They've turned down a couple of opportunities to play in football conferences. Instead, they're playing with Catholic schools in the West Coast Conference.

If you think they have a wandering eye and are waiting around for an invitation to a P5 conference, then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with them.

You can't honestly tell me that you believe that they'd turn down the Big 12 if they came offering, can you? If they had the chance to put all of their sports into a major conference, why wouldn't they? Particularly when they could tap into a major recruiting pipeline of Texas.

I thought they did turn down the big 12, so the big 12 grabbed wvu and tcu? They wanted bYU first.

[R Jay]

I don't remember that, but I'll look for articles and repost if I find any.

[NJRedman]

[quote="Bill Marsh]

I imagine you'd take Notre Dame and BYU is the same as Notre Dame with regard to football. They're committed to independence. They've turned down a couple of opportunities to play in football conferences. Instead, they're playing with Catholic schools in the West Coast Conference.

If you think they have a wandering eye and are waiting around for an invitation to a P5 conference, then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on with them.[/quote]
You can't honestly tell me that you believe that they'd turn down the Big 12 if they came offering, can you? If they had the chance to put all of their sports into a major conference, why wouldn't they? Particularly when they could tap into a major recruiting pipeline of Texas.[/quote]
I thought they did turn down the big 12, so the big 12 grabbed wvu and tcu? They wanted bYU first.[/quote][/quote][/quote]

No, they took TCU first and it was between WVU and UofL. They never offered BYU though people were talking about them as an option early on like how folks were talking about Gonzaga when we were looking to add 3.