Michael in Raleigh wrote:The always interesting Frank the Tank (to me, at least) gives his thoughts about conference expansion, covering leagues from the A-10, C-USA, and Horizon to the Big East, MVC, MWC, and AAC. Schools discussed include Wichita State, VCU, Dayton, Gonzaga, Saint Louis, and Richmond.
I thought this portion would be most interesting to fans of the Big East:
<I>"Big East Expansion (or lack thereof) – <b>The Big East has the ability to poach any non-FBS Division I school that it wants (which is something that not even the Big Ten or SEC can say at the FBS level).</b> Every school from the Atlantic 10, West Coast Conference, Missouri Valley Conference and any other non-FBS league would take a Big East invite immediately. From there, any Big East expansion would have a massive trickle-down effect on the conferences below them. However, the Big East is sort of in the same position as the Big 12: it really does want to expand (regardless of what their respective commissioners and other PR people might say publicly), but the issue is that there aren’t 2 glaringly obvious candidates."</I>
http://frankthetank.me/2015/03/25/uptow ... -the-line/
The Big East, as noted above, is one of the most institutionally-aligned conferences outside of the Big Ten and Ivy League, where all members are private urban schools with a basketball focus. As a result, Wichita State simply isn’t a viable Big East candidate. The Atlantic-10 has some public universities, but it’s still more similar to the Big East as being private school-centric and the league may very well retrench from the Midwest if/when the Big East takes SLU.
GoldenWarrior11 wrote:I agree with Frank's perspective 100%. What the Big East has right now is, quite possibly, the most institutionally aligned programs in a conference in the country. Each school is private (almost all Catholic), in big cities/markets, and a clear drive and focus on basketball. Our 10 schools are a perfect fit, and the round robin scheduling in basketball is a wonderful asset that the conference controls. Although any expansion would eliminate the round robin format, the end game here is money and exposure - which will constantly push realignment into the forefront for years to come.
Regardless of where opinions lie, Dayton and Saint Louis are the two logical choices at present. They fit perfectly as institutions (both are Jesuit universities), have large markets, and both are focused on basketball. Saint Louis, with the unfortunate passing of Rick Majerus, has taken a very large step back in its efforts to remain as a top basketball program in the A-10. They would still bring a top market, but Jim Crews is on a very short leash for the future. He may only have one more year to show promise with his own guys before administration realizes it has lost the momentum that Majerus started. Dayton is currently a top basketball power in the A-10. Archie Miller is one of the top young coaches in the country. In Dayton's eyes, a Big East-invite may be the only thing that can prevent a Miller from leaving to a P5 program. The only knock against them is that Ohio is already populated by Xavier. Is there a concern about doubling up the state with another market?
I cannot see any scenario where Richmond is seriously considered. They have very little basketball success to go along with their extremely large endowment and strong market. Both similar reasons, I cannot see VCU, Wichita State or UMass being considered. While each school is committed to basketball, each school would be on an island in this conference, institutionally.
UConn is absolutely the only exception to these rules. Although I personally believe the UConn-Big East ship sailed in 2012, I believe the conference would welcome them with open arms if they made the decision to either go independent in football or join another conference as an affiliate member for football.
In the meantime, I am going to enjoy our 10 schools and root like heck for Xavier to pull out a win this week. It is absolutely amazing that they have reached 5 Sweet 16's since 2008.
Michael in Raleigh wrote:From the same Dry blog post:The Big East, as noted above, is one of the most institutionally-aligned conferences outside of the Big Ten and Ivy League, where all members are private urban schools with a basketball focus. As a result, Wichita State simply isn’t a viable Big East candidate. The Atlantic-10 has some public universities, but it’s still more similar to the Big East as being private school-centric and the league may very well retrench from the Midwest if/when the Big East takes SLU.
My larger point wasn't so much about Frank's belief that there is a desire for further expansion by the presidents/commissioner, but rather the observation of the Big East's position of strength.
I do agree that there is not a desire for expansion. The league doesn't have the incentive. It doesn't have a conference network that would allow them to capitalize on new subscriptions in new markets.
Really the Big East needs to get more viewership on FS1. Expansion won't help that.
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