History of NCAA Conference Realignment and the Big East

[gosports1]

gosports1 wrote:

... these two were replacements when Temple and Rutgers said "no" ...

Temple was never invited to join the Big East as a full member, despite their strong interest in doing so

They were offered or at least approached when the BE first formed. Syracuse didn't want to be the only non catholic school. So temple and Rutgers were the original targets. Neither wanted to leave Penn St, and told Gavitt they weren't interested. So he quickly moved on to solid second choice (imo should have always been 1sT choice) Villanova.

[NJRedman]

I love this thread! I had no idea the history of the MVC and the Horizon. How did the A-10 form?

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Temple was never invited to join the Big East as a full member, despite their strong interest in doing so.

They were offered or at least approached when the BE first formed. Syracuse didn't want to be the only non-Catholic school. So Temple and Rutgers were the original targets. Neither wanted to leave Penn State, and told Gavitt they weren't interested. So he quickly moved on to solid second choice (imo should have always been 1st choice) Villanova.

(1) There's a huge difference between 'being approached' (whatever that means) and 'being offered an invitation to join the Big East'.

(2) The Big East was first formed in 1979. Temple was not associated with Penn State in basketball nor football in 1979.

(3) Temple basketball was a member of the defunct East Coast Conference from 1958 to 1982.

(4) Temple football was Independent from 1970 to 1991.

Temple Owls Football History - Temple Owls official website

Temple Owls Football - Wikipedia

After the 1969 season, the Owls became an independent again to upgrade their schedule and compete against the top teams in the East.

Temple joined the Big East Conference in 1991, but had difficulty competing against teams with better facilities and bigger budgets. The Owls would not win a conference game until 1995. Temple would only win 16 conference games during their 14-year run in the league. Overall, they had a 14–80 record against Big East foes during their time in the conference. In part due to the Owls' noncompetitiveness, poor fan support, and lack of institutional support, the Big East voted to expel the Owls at the end of the 2004 season.

Note that the Yearly Records table in the Wikipedia article incorrectly states that the Temple Owls were a member of the Mid-Continent Conference from 1978–1990, when in fact, they were Independent.

In any event, if Temple was offered an invitation to join the Big East as a full member, they certainly would have accepted it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love this thread! I had no idea the history of the MVC and the Horizon. How did the A-10 form?

Please see the bottom of my second post on Page 1 of this thread.

[bluejayfanatic]

The history of the MVC is one of the most interesting in college basketball. There are very few good hoops programs in the Midwest that weren't in the MVC at some point.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Former Members:
• Creighton University (1928-1948 and 1976-2013)

Creighton Bluejays Men's Basketball - Wikipedia

Post-war era (1948–1959)

The post-war era was full of change and mediocrity for the Jays. Creighton would leave the Missouri Valley Conference and switch from Division I to Division III during this era. In 1959, Athletic Director Duce Belford made it a priority to bring back the once proud Creighton basketball program.

John 'Red' McManus era (1960–1969)

John J. 'Red' McManus came to Creighton after a successful career of eight seasons at St. Ambrose Academy and a year as head freshman and assistant varsity coach at Iowa. The 1959–60 Bluejays were a far cry from the previous year's team. Whereas the team had previously utilized a slow methodical type of basketball, McManus brought a fast break offense and a box zone defense. Utilizing sharp recruiting and tough coaching, Red quickly had the Bluejays back on the road to becoming a national power.

The 1961–62 Creighton Bluejays men's basketball team finished 21-5 and reached the Sweet Sixteen of the 1962 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, going on to win the third spot in the NCAA Regional.

bluejayfanatic (or any other Creighton fan) – can you shed any light on information missing from the Wikipedia articles?

Specifically, (1) what year did Creighton rejoin Division I, and (2) were the Bluejays an Independent in basketball from 1949 to 1975, or were they a member of another conference (or conferences) before rejoining the MVC? Just curious...

[bluejayfanatic]

Creighton played as a Division I independent from 1949 to 1977, as did several other Midwestern Catholic schools (such as Marquette and DePaul). These independents had an unofficial conference-like affiliation in scheduling each other as opponents each year.

Some excerpts from a book that came out a few years ago chronicling Creighton's basketball history shed some light on your other question:

"[I]n 1947-48, Creighton received an ultimatum from Missouri Valley Conference officials: Either Creighton would resume playing football or the conference would ask the school to relinquish its membership."

I don't think it's true that Creighton ever left Division I. The book explains that the 1950s were lean times for Creighton basketball but they did schedule other Division I opponents as an independent during that time. "By 1955, school officials had become convinced that their de-emphasis of athletics was not working out."

Regarding Creighton's 1977 re-entry into the MVC, "[t]he Valley finally ended its requirement that schools play football and in March 1976 invited Creighton to rejoin the league, effective at the start of the 1977-78 season." Head Coach Tom Apke was quoted as saying, "I don't know if too many of our fans thought it was that big a deal that we were rejoining the Valley." The author explains that NCAA changes were driving strong independent programs to join conferences which made it important for Creighton to leave the ranks of the independents. Recall this was also around the same time that the Big East began forming and attracting strong independent basketball programs in the Northeast.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

.
Great stuff bluejayfanatic! Thank you very much for your excellent and well-documented clarification. You truly are a Bluejay fanatic.

[beltwaybluejay]

The Jays were D III or NAIA in the early '50s but the Pres Carl Reinhart S J realized things could go south fast so he pushed us back into DI and hired Red McManus in ' 60.

[bluejayfanatic]

The Jays were D III or NAIA in the early '50s but the Pres Carl Reinhart S J realized things could go south fast so he pushed us back into DI and hired Red McManus in ' 60.

I know this is a common belief (evidenced by the fact that it appears on our athletics Wikipedia page) but I just don't think there's any evidence for this. I think people confuse "de-emphasis of athletics" to mean it was carried out to the extent that WashU, UChicago, and Grinnell did by entirely abandoning Division I. Creighton was headed in that direction but never did. Look at the Jays' basketball opponents in the early 50s (several opponents appeared more than once per year):

1950-51: KU, Wichita State, Seton Hall, Villanova, Syracuse, Drake, Iowa State, Marquette.
1951-52: Wichita State, Iowa State, KU, Fresno State, Villanova, Seton Hall, Drake, Oklahoma City (a D1 power at the time).
1952-53: Loyola Chicago, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Drake, Marquette, Iowa State, Oklahoma City.
1953-54: Michigan State, Marquette, Wichita State, Drake, Iona, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Iowa State.
1954-55: Tulsa, Marquette, Iowa State, Gonzaga, Drake, Loyola Chicago.

I stopped with 1955 because the author of the book I quoted earlier identified 1955 as the year Creighton ended its experiment with de-emphasizing athletics. But it's clear from a reading of the basketball schedules in the early 1950s that Creighton never left Division I (although the deemphasis of athletics is clear from the large number of L's against those schedules).

[beltwaybluejay]

There were no NCAA divisions before 1973 and I found no Creighton membership in NAIA before the years in question - so I was wrong!