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I went to the A10 final on Sunday, between Dayton and VCU, and was really surprised by what I saw. I've heard so much about the fantastic support Dayton gives to their team, but it was the VCU fans that blew me away. They must have had at least 5,000 that made the trip from Virginia, and they were as enthusiastic a group as I've ever seen. All dressed in nutty VCU attire and screaming at the refs and their team from start to finish. I asked the guy sitting next to me what the average VCU fan thinks about joining the BE, and he said for all of them it would be a dream come true.

I know we've gone back and forth around here about the pros and cons concerning expansion. But there are three things this team would bring to the conference. First, is a quality program that will compete for an NCAA bid most years. Second, a huge fan base that will travel and put fannies in the seats at MSG for the BET. And third it's another market getting a few more eyeballs for FOX, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Also, even if Shaka left, I'm convinced this program is big enough that they will do what they have to do, and spend what they have to spend, to make sure they get another quality coach. The one thing I'd hate to see happen is for someone like the AAC beat us to the punch and grab them first.

No.

They did have Anthony Grant that won at VCU. I was thinking the same about VCU watching them all week on NBCSN, CBSSN and CBS.

While I'd prefer we remain an all-private conference, I'd be OK adding non-FBS football public schools in our existing footprint. Key word being schools (two or more together). If we can get UCONN and VCU together (unlikely, I know) I'd be very pleased. I don't think it's going to happen though. I see that realignment is over for the time being and with the Big East happy with 10 schools, the conference isn't going to expand until the next dominoes fall (which might be in five years, ten years, or maybe even twenty years).

I think it would take someone like UCONN to come aboard before the presidents would let another public school like VCU in.

VCU is in Richmond, VA. Washington, D.C. where Georgetown is touches Virginia. Also, VCU is a large public institution with 31,752 students. The largest school by student enrollment in the Big East is DePaul, which has 23,799 students. That makes VCU 7,953 students larger than any Big East school. I'm sure this would be taken into consideration if the Big East ever expands to 12. Richmond, also in VCU's same city has 4,180 students which is smaller than the smallest Big East school, Providence College with 4,585 students.

Pass