Are Creighton & St. Louis "Must-Adds"?
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:13 am
(This is coming from an "outsider")
Everyone knows that the Big East is in New York (Madison Square Gardens). At the same time, it seems like your North-Eastern New Jersey and Rhode Island television markets are plenty locked up. The conference could use some more exposure in middle-America. Currently, Marquette (Wisconsin) and DePaul (Illinois) are on a bit of a geographic island in the conference. This immediately points to two other private, religious basketball teams in the area that make total sense:
-Creighton (Jesuit-Roman Catholic, Nebraska, 18,560-seat arena, RPI of #24 last year).
-Saint Louis (Jesuit-Roman Catholic, Missouri, 10,600-seat arena, RPI of #31 last year).
There are plenty of great options for school #10 (Xavier, etc.). But I think that schools #8 and #9 are the most important. Missing on either on them could make things in the conference difficult right off the bat. The last thing the new Big East needs is division (including football schools such as UConn, Cincy, Memphis, etc.). Just my two cents.