The Gonzaga Thread... with Poll...

[billyjack]

The BE had divisions for a bunch of years in the early 2000's. The problems included, or today would include:

- western and eastern teams playing only once a year, every year. So Marquette would never get a round robin with Villanova.

- as a result of the problem above, the conference as a whole would tend to loosen its ties between east and west, at a time when we're trying to bond into one solid unit.

[gtmoBlue]

I've been holding out from this poll - looking for a trend or some kind of indication on how to proceed.
Finally voted - yes.

Toronto Rapture is echoing ol' git's points and some of Bill Marsh's too.

Be proactive, assertive, while acting from a position of strength. Waiting on tomorrow for a better or perfect scenario is a fools game, as both tomorrow AND your perfect scenario may never arrive.


Take the Zags while we are hot, while they have shown excellent consistency for 20 years or so and have set the pattern for X, Creighton, and others to follow. They are the best available candidate. Take one of St. Louis or Duquesne or St Bonnie's and help them develop/rebuild their program - with the financial windfall from joining us. The regrouping candidate (from one of Duquesne, the Bonnie's, or SLU) will struggle for a few years while adjusting and building, but in time will be a good addition.

Hold at 12 & wait for the next FF shuffle - take the best of the fallout from the football carnage- whether public (KU/KSt, an ACC or SEC school, former BE defectors, etc.) or private (Duke, ND, S'cuse, Vandy, etc.). Picking for best fit and needle moving. I have no love for Duke, ND(ugh), nor S'cuse (the cheating b'stards) - but would warmly and openly welcome them to boost the BEast back to the #1 conference.

As for divisions - that was an AD talking. Probably not needed. JPSchmack covered all this in great detail and there was another member who detailed scheduling for up to a 13 team configuration, that would work well.
I don't recall hearing any fallout from the BE, other than football vs basketball stuff. Cohesion never "appeared" to be an issue. Of course back in the day, we couldn't get a "buy game" with youse jerks, don't even think about an H&H ...whether in unison or in disarray. But that's all water under the bridge now.

[BEXU]

gtmo - you ever been to the reilly center (5k+ seating) in Olean NY in the dead of winter? How about the Duke's Palumbo Ctr? (4k+)

[_lh]

While I don't think any expansion candidate currently checks all of the boxes, I also don't think the conference should wait until it has to expand out of necessity.

I don't get this thinking. Waiting and seeing makes the most sense to me. Where is Gonzaga going to go? Not the PAC 12. The BE can always add Gonzaga if forced to expand.

The AAC is not going to add anyone else as a bball school, so all of the A10 candidates will be around if the BE is forced to expand. The pool of current candidates (not good ones, except for Gonzaga) will all be available in 2025, 2035, 2045, etc.

Basketball conferences don't have to be more than 9 or 10 teams so what's the rush to go to a bloated 12 or 14? If football causes chaos, then by remaining at 10, the BE can be very selective on adding football realignment losers as the BE sees fit. If the BE expands with two A10 level teams now, they have less room for better teams if the conferences shakeup again.

[topdog]

I only have one question...Why would Gonzaga want to be in the BE? They seem to be doing just fine right now and for the past 2 decades.

[NJRedman]

Comments from the Gonzaga AD.

Even Gonzaga AD Mike Roth addressed the interest in his school over the weekend the Final Four.

“If someday the Big East and their financial partners come together and say, ‘You know what we’ll call it the Big East but we’ll be in all four time zones and really get after that four-letter monster [ESPN] that lives in Bristol, Connecticut,” Roth said. “In that case, can other schools in the West join Gonzaga and split into two [divisions].”

If adding Gonzaga means splitting into divisions then i'm even more against the move. I am the biggest advocate for no divisions in basketball. They make no sense whatsoever.

What is the drawback to having divisions, and specifically for the BE? I'm just curious.

I voted yes.

While I don't think any expansion candidate currently checks all of the boxes, I also don't think the conference should wait until it has to expand out of necessity. By that time, the pool of expansion candidates may be even shallower, even if some think schools like Wichita (and Dayton and VCU) would leave the AAC or whatever conference they are in at that time in a heartbeat to join the BE. It may not be that simple. I also wouldn't count on other schools from current P5 conferences becoming available during the next P5 realignment. So, while I agree that the BE in a good position right now and does not need to expand, I think this might actually still be the best time to expand. There is no guarantee the expansion climate will be better down the line. At least at this time, there are some reasonable choices for expansion, if not ideal. And down the line, the BE can consider a Duquesne or similar schools. I wouldn't even be opposed to the addition of an SLU right now; their addition to the conference might help them along faster.

They don't work in basketball. You have set in stone unbalanced schedules. You have no flexibility with scheduling. All the east schools HAVE to play each other twice and all the west schools HAVE to play each other twice and cross over just once. If one division is clearly better than the other you ensure that the better teams have more losses and that the better teams in the other division have worse RPI's. There is a good reason almost every conference except the OVC have left that concept behind on the trash heap of sports history.

[EMT]

Unless a P5 conference adds Gonzaga to their conference, I don't see the Zags leaving the WCC without a call to the BE if to see if there is any interest. If they end up in the AAC, it's because the BE passed. We absolutely do not need a preemptive strike to get the Zags or lose them.

[CrawfishBucket]

The poll looks very close to split.

Here are the winningest programs since 2011. The Zags are #2 on the list. It's safe to say they'd bring more to the conference than they'd take out. Wichita is fixin to be very good. They are a consensus Top 10 program next year.

[Bill Marsh]

While I don't think any expansion candidate currently checks all of the boxes, I also don't think the conference should wait until it has to expand out of necessity.

I don't get this thinking. Waiting and seeing makes the most sense to me. Where is Gonzaga going to go? Not the PAC 12. The BE can always add Gonzaga if forced to expand.

Gonzaga could go to the AAC just as Wichita State did. The Gonzaga program is at its peak right now. The best way for them to capitalize on their success and build further from this point would be to move to a higher level of competition. Sure, the Big East could wait, but they might just get a program that has declined from where they are now.

The AAC is not going to add anyone else as a bball school

I haven't read this, but I might have missed it. Do you have a link?

so all of the A10 candidates will be around if the BE is forced to expand. The pool of current candidates (not good ones, except for Gonzaga) will all be available in 2025, 2035, 2045, etc.

Basketball conferences don't have to be more than 9 or 10 teams so what's the rush to go to a bloated 12 or 14?

To boost TV ratings. There may be another way, and I'm open to other ideas, but it's ratings and future revenue that are the issues.

If football causes chaos, then by remaining at 10, the BE can be very selective on adding football realignment losers as the BE sees fit.

Highly unlikely. I don't see the BE returning to a hybrid, and football schools are going to want to be where they can play football.

[quote\If the BE expands with two A10 level teams now, they have less room for better teams if the conferences shakeup again.[/quote]

Who are the better teams?

[Bill Marsh]

I only have one question...Why would Gonzaga want to be in the BE? They seem to be doing just fine right now and for the past 2 decades.

You might want to consider posting this question on the Gonzaga message board since it's Gonzaga who has expressed the interest. It's a question for them to answer. They were very open about their desire to be included back in 2012/13 and Mark Few again expressed interest within the past year.