Why The Big East Won't Expand - - Round Robin

[Xudash]

A few follow-up comments:

1. I'm not trying to start another two months and twenty pages of expansion discussion, though I understand my original post sets itself up for just that.

2. I only wanted to make a very specific point about how this thing is set up to work well with 10 teams.

3. I thought it was a worthwhile post given that the sentiment was being reinforced from one of our most visible coaches in a national publication.

Would we expand to 11 to keep the round robin were Duke wanting to join us? Sure, I would think they would pull the trigger on that one, but that isn't happening. We otherwise know what the list looks like now - not sufficiently appealing - and what it could potentially look like were football realignment to alter it to our favor, but, unless the Big XII does something this summer, realignment probably settles down for a while.

At the end of the day and looking back, I tend to believe the C7's original "cocktail napkin" thoughts involved a conference numbering from 10 to 12, before considering specific names. What we learned from various sources was that Fox may have been inclined to support a financial package either way: even money for 10 or 12. Then the C7 looked at the board and said "Xavier and Butler." Creighton boarded from there. And the music stopped.

As the A10 was enjoying its anomaly year last year, we read about the importance of having "numbers" in order to maximize bids. We're now seeing that our set-up works just fine.

Summary: in our second year together, we're looking at getting about half the conference into the NCAA Tournament. Recruiting is up. Virtually every Big East program is tracking in the right direction. Fox will continue to develop its platform and our brand will continue to solidify. Take care of our collective OOC schedules, and it will work just fine year in and year out, and with NCAA Tournament Units funding spreading out over a divisor of 10 and not more.

[Bill Marsh]

A few follow-up comments:

1. I'm not trying to start another two months and twenty pages of expansion discussion, though I understand my original post sets itself up for just that.

2. I only wanted to make a very specific point about how this thing is set up to work well with 10 teams.

3. I thought it was a worthwhile post given that the sentiment was being reinforced from one of our most visible coaches in a national publication.

Would we expand to 11 to keep the round robin were Duke wanting to join us? Sure, I would think they would pull the trigger on that one, but that isn't happening. We otherwise know what the list looks like now - not sufficiently appealing - and what it could potentially look like were football realignment to alter it to our favor, but, unless the Big XII does something this summer, realignment probably settles down for a while.

At the end of the day and looking back, I tend to believe the C7's original "cocktail napkin" thoughts involved a conference numbering from 10 to 12, before considering specific names. What we learned from various sources was that Fox may have been inclined to support a financial package either way: even money for 10 or 12. Then the C7 looked at the board and said "Xavier and Butler." Creighton boarded from there. And the music stopped.

As the A10 was enjoying its anomaly year last year, we read about the importance of having "numbers" in order to maximize bids. We're now seeing that our set-up works just fine.

Summary: in our second year together, we're looking at getting about half the conference into the NCAA Tournament. Recruiting is up. Virtually every Big East program is tracking in the right direction. Fox will continue to develop its platform and our brand will continue to solidify. Take care of our collective OOC schedules, and it will work just fine year in and year out, and with NCAA Tournament Units funding spreading out over a divisor of 10 and not more.

Good post.

I'm even more optimistic than you are about the number of teams making the tournament. I'm seeing 6-7.

One of the things I like about Fox this year is that they're putting more Big East games on the regular Fox network stations, not just on their cable sports channels. Did they have any games on their regular network channels last year? This is giving conference games a lot more exposure to a general audience, something that ESPN can't do. Hopefully, some of those viewers will migrate over to FS1. I also like the fact that I'm seeing more games on FS2 this year instead do showing up on CBSSN.

[FormulaX]

"It may be annoying, but the only reason it exists is because there were reports out of the conference and Fox from day one that the conference was expected eventually to grow to 12. These comments were then reinforced almost a year later by the Xavier AD when he said that the conference could be expected to expand to 12 within 5 years."


Sorry, I just thought, they might add after the first year. Only, because they asked a couple of schools to hold off or Fox would ask them. The BE probably doesn't mind expansion speculation. It is good PR. I just never could see any reason why. Why would any of the schools, the Presidents of private/Catholic Universities and succeeding BBall coaches, want to? The BE is unique and successful. They created the "Catholic Conference" (besides Butler) I wouldn't change a thing for at least 5 years. Then only if FOX or another large TV contracts, made it worth it.

[Bill Marsh]

"It may be annoying, but the only reason it exists is because there were reports out of the conference and Fox from day one that the conference was expected eventually to grow to 12. These comments were then reinforced almost a year later by the Xavier AD when he said that the conference could be expected to expand to 12 within 5 years."


Sorry, I just thought, they might add after the first year. Only, because they asked a couple of schools to hold off or Fox would ask them. The BE probably doesn't mind expansion speculation. It is good PR. I just never could see any reason why. Why would any of the schools, the Presidents of private/Catholic Universities and succeeding BBall coaches, want to? The BE is unique and successful. They created the "Catholic Conference" (besides Butler) I wouldn't change a thing for at least 5 years. Then only if FOX or another large TV contracts, made it worth it.

I'd rather keep the conference as is, but I can think of at least a couple of reasons why they might at least consider expansion:

1. TV ratings were poor last year. It's great to have a big TV contract,but if the league wants to get another one, the ratings must improve.

2. After many years of consecutive sell outs, the BE tournament failed to sell out last March. That needs to be rectified - especially in the face of possible competition for the Garden during tournament week, something that didn't exist in the past.

It's better to be proactive about these issues than to put them off to the future. I'm not saying that there aren't other possible solutions to these and other problems, just that I can see why expansion would be on the table when there are discussions about how to improve the conference.

Again, not pushing for expansion because I prefer the 10 team format and would hope that they keep it.

[Xbus]

I say we only expand for one school and only one school. Uconn. Period. Realistically, Uconn will most likely never drop their football dreams despite what we may hope. Too much money invested, too much money to be made in the future. Therefore, we stay at 10 for the foreseeable future, unless there is a clause in our fox contract that we don't know about that will force us to 12 in year 4 or 5.

[78 friar]

Someone had mentioned earlier the thought of adding only one team making it a 20 game conference schedule instead of 18. Kind of a cool idea. Don't know if the coaches would be in favor, but if one team could help accomplish the things we'd like to accomplish by expanding (better tv ratings, better MSG attendance, more exposure , etc.), then do it. That said, I can't think of one team that would realistically consider leaving football money behind if they're a football school or one team that's a non-football school that would help accomplish the expansion goal. VCU, maybe, Dayton, nope, Notre Dame, won't leave, UConn, still thinks it has a major football team. Any others?

[Bill Marsh]

Someone had mentioned earlier the thought of adding only one team making it a 20 game conference schedule instead of 18. Kind of a cool idea. Don't know if the coaches would be in favor, but if one team could help accomplish the things we'd like to accomplish by expanding (better tv ratings, better MSG attendance, more exposure , etc.), then do it. That said, I can't think of one team that would realistically consider leaving football money behind if they're a football school or one team that's a non-football school that would help accomplish the expansion goal. VCU, maybe, Dayton, nope, Notre Dame, won't leave, UConn, still thinks it has a major football team. Any others?

I agree.

So instead of football schools, turn to a school that perfectly fits the conference profile - Gonzaga.

I wonder if anyone realizes how much the travel problems with Gonzaga have been exaggerated. Using New York as an example of East Coast travel, here's what it looks like.

1. Set up the schedule to pair Creighton and Gonzaga in the same road trip.

2. A flight from NY to Omaha is 2.5 hours in the air. So is the flight from Omaha to Spokane.

3. Instead of flying home from Omaha, fly to Spokane. No travel has been added because. It's a 2.5 hour flight that the team would have been taking anyway on the return flight.

4. That leaves a once a year, one-way 5 hour flight between NY and Spokane to fly home as the only travel that's been added.

One 5 hour flight per year per team is too much to ask? Gonzaga is the one who actually bears the travel burden and they've already said that it's no problem for them. An 11 team Catholic schools conference that included Gonzaga would be really cool.

Obviously travel times from other East Coast cities will vary a little bit, but the principle is still the same.

[billyjack]

Someone had mentioned earlier the thought of adding only one team making it a 20 game conference schedule instead of 18. Kind of a cool idea. Don't know if the coaches would be in favor, but if one team could help accomplish the things we'd like to accomplish by expanding (better tv ratings, better MSG attendance, more exposure , etc.), then do it. That said, I can't think of one team that would realistically consider leaving football money behind if they're a football school or one team that's a non-football school that would help accomplish the expansion goal. VCU, maybe, Dayton, nope, Notre Dame, won't leave, UConn, still thinks it has a major football team. Any others?

I agree.

I wonder if anyone realizes how much the travel problems with Gonzaga have been exaggerated. Using New York as an example of East Coast travel, here's what it looks like.

1. Set up the schedule to pair Creighton and Gonzaga in the same road trip.

2. A flight from NY to Omaha is 2.5 hours in the air. So is the flight from Omaha to Spokane.

3. Instead of flying home from Omaha, fly to Spokane. No travel has been added because. It's a 2.5 hour flight that the team would have been taking anyway on the return flight.

4. That leaves a once a year, one-way 5 hour flight between NY and Spokane to fly home as the only travel that's been added.

One 5 hour flight per year per team is too much to ask? Gonzaga is the one who actually bears the travel burden and they've already said that it's no problem for them. An 11 team Catholic schools conference that included Gonzaga would be really cool.

Obviously travel times from other East Coast cities will vary a little bit, but the principle is still the same.

If we had to add, i agree that going to 11, keeping the round robin, and inviting Gonzaga would be fantastic. They would be a absolute home run needle-mover.

[Bluejay]

Great post......The premature expansion chatter has been so annoying.

"We're just getting started!"

It may be annoying, but the only reason it exists is because there were reports out of the conference and Fox from day one that the conference was expected eventually to grow to 12. These comments were then reinforced almost a year later by the Xavier AD when he said that the conference could be expected to expand to 12 within 5 years.

And yet, no matter how many times administrators or coaches from the Big East have said there are no plans to expand and back-track from those earlier comments, a few continue to hold on to these old comments because they express what those particular listeners want to hear...

[Bill Marsh]

Great post......The premature expansion chatter has been so annoying.

"We're just getting started!"

It may be annoying, but the only reason it exists is because there were reports out of the conference and Fox from day one that the conference was expected eventually to grow to 12. These comments were then reinforced almost a year later by the Xavier AD when he said that the conference could be expected to expand to 12 within 5 years.

And yet, no matter how many times administrators or coaches from the Big East have said there are no plans to expand and back-track from those earlier comments, a few continue to hold on to these old comments because they express what those particular listeners want to hear...

Or maybe it's because we've heard those same kinds of empty denials so many times in the past that we no longer believe them.