Where there's smoke....

[yorost]

Because these sports are not revenue generators, conferences don't seem to be all that concerned if a school pops out or in for that nonrevenue sport. They have a big problem however, if their conference members try to move the revenue sports. For example, the WCC will never allow Gonzaga to move only their basketball program to the new conference, but if Gonzaga wanted to move crew, the WCC probably couldn't care less.

I wouldn't count on that. Are there any examples of an all sports member moving any sponsored sport out of its conference but staying in all else? I think a conference would have a big problem with that unless there were extenuating circumstances. It's one thing to not move a sport in, but moving out does affect the rest of the conference. Other schools are relying upon the scheduling and being able to play the stronger teams. It would set precedence that any time a school has a successful program it can move it out to a better conference. You could end up with your good teams in all the sponsored sports not being in the conference.

Also, with lacrosse, if the B1G adds John Hopkins and forms it's own conference, that will provide openings for the BE7 lacrosse programs in the conferences they're departing. They can just wait while trying to get someone else to up the sport. Not like some of our schools haven't done that already. before the Big East sponsored it.

[thegalen]

Sorry if this is a duplicate post, as I don't see my original response anywhere. But my basic point was that if things come down to UR needing to make a certain financial commitment in order to be in this league, then we're in. We're already spending $15M+ to renovate the Robins Center after this year and renovate an adjacent gym into a basketball practice facility. We certainly have the resources to come up with more money if needed, especially for this cause.

I'm also becoming a little more curious about our decision to go D1 in lacrosse next year – something that was pretty unpopular with many on campus because adding it caused us to axe men's soccer and cross country/track. However, I'm now wondering if the administration did so with this very scenario in mind in part at the urging of someone like a Georgetown? Perhaps not with any assurance that we'd be in if we did so, but with the understanding that we would look more attractive if we had it. I have no idea if lacrosse plays a role in this or not, but adding things up makes me feel that it might for us.

I think someone's point on another thread here makes sense as it relates to us and VCU – if the league wants this market, then it can probably get it by picking either of us. Does the value that VCU brings so far outweigh the value of what UR brings that it would be worth making VCU the ONLY public school in the league and having to open all league books to FOIA stuff? I would suspect not.

I think this, and several other posts that talk about markets, misunderstand a few things. Fox is not looking for college basketball to drive carriage of Fox Sports. There just isn't enough demand for that unless we're talking a Kansas or a Kentucky, and we're not, so... Fox Sports will be picked up in X number of states, and Y number of metro areas in states where statewide carriage doesn't sell. The main products FS will be pushing are NASCAR, MLB then, way down that list, comes college basketball. So FS isn't looking for teams a la MD that will "deliver" new state X or metro area Y (let's be serious, UR doesn't deliver Richmond anyway); rather, they're looking for teams in state X or metro area Y that will deliver viewers in a market they already have. FS will be carried statewide in VA because of NASCAR alone, so adding UR doesn't get you a whole lot (only 1/3 of your 50k alums live in VA, and even fewer live in Richmond). Long story short, UR has a lot going for it, but delivering Richmond or VA isn't one of those things.

[Moliva]

I guess the question it boils down to is this:

How many additional tv sets in Central Virginia must be turned on to justify subjecting the league to the wants of the State politicians and FOIA requests?

[gmoser1210]

As someone said, Butler is a good bet to bring lacrosse back with the influx of money. I'd like to see DePaul add it, too.

I'm the one that mentioned Butler bringing back lacrosse, but I never said it was a good bet. In fact, I think it's pretty unlikely.

[yorost]

Sorry, then. As I understand it they shut it down because they could no longer afford it, right? I'm not sure why it wouldn't be on their radar to re-up the program if they move into a better financial situation. I don't mean overnight, but you'd think they'd want back a program that already has some value tied to it.

[jimijon]

If adding a non private school would cause the having to open the books problem with all the private schools, then it's a no brainer.......No public schools will be added. Private non Catholic schools yes but no public schools. Why show the big brother government anything you don't have to.
Some on this site were unsure, however, that adding a public school would actually result in the private schools having to open up their books.
Even if it's a grey area, with all the other major things having to get done forming the new conference, the Priests aren't going to be wanting to add anymore legal BS to the already considerable tasks.
POINT....unless it's written in stone that adding a public school would not cause the private schools to have to open their books, there will be positively no public schools added.

[SixTwentySix]

If adding a non private school would cause the having to open the books problem with all the private schools, then it's a no brainer.......No public schools will be added. Private non Catholic schools yes but no public schools. Why show the big brother government anything you don't have to.
Some on this site were unsure, however, that adding a public school would actually result in the private schools having to open up their books.
Even if it's a grey area, with all the other major things having to get done forming the new conference, the Priests aren't going to be wanting to add anymore legal BS to the already considerable tasks.
POINT....unless it's written in stone that adding a public school would not cause the private schools to have to open their books, there will be positively no public schools added.

I agree. No reason to add a public school when there is enough solid private ones to choose from.

[flyerlax06]

While I do think Richmond fits the profile over all, I think them coming out of nowhere recently is more a result of ESPN propoganda. The 5 teams that seem like locks to me from what I've heard are:

Xavier
Dayton
Butler
Creighton
Saint Louis

[gmoser1210]

There were several reasons why the program was cut including financial reasons and Title IX issues (the men's swim team was also cut). I can't verify it, but I've heard rumblings that many administrators were happy to see the program cut because of continual behavioral issues. They had difficulty finding lacrosse players who bought into the core tenets of The Butler Way, and it showed off the field. Again, I can't verify this info but I've heard it from people who I respect enough to believe it.

[Eight Legger]

Pretty sure that ESPN was not using Richmond for some personal gain. What is there to gain?

More likely is that we've been on the board all along and either ESPN just found out about it or someone in the C7 wanted to float us out there to gauge the response. Our lacrosse program announced today that it will play in the Atlantic Sun conference next year, which seems a peculiar fit except that word is we may only stay in it for one year. In retrospect, it's starting to seem to some of us that there was a pretty good reason we pushed the lacrosse thing very quickly and axed soccer and cross country out of the blue in order to do so.

As a UR grad, I have a good feeling about this.