Still hearing SLU and Dayton or Richmond in 2014

[yorost]

Even a school like Marquette has twice as many undergraduate students as graduate students.

So does Georgia Tech, and Wisconsin has three times as many undergrads as grad students. Doesn't mean anything. Heck, VCU has four times as many undergrads as grad students but you're saying they aren't undergraduate enough. That proportion isn't very reliable for telling you much.

The classification is not a say all on quality of schools, I'm not saying otherwise, but Richmond's classification does stick out.

[ChicagoX]

5. They outside of one fantastic year wouldn't really be considered. (is that one year enough).

You make some very solid points, but I disagree with this last one. A quick search showed me that VCU has done more than just one flash in the pan run to the Final Four. They have made six NCAA Tournaments in the past decade including four of the past five. They have advanced to the round of 32 four times during that stretch. That is a pretty nice resume over the past decade, and the future appears to be bright for the program. They just finished second in the most competitive season ever for the A10. They seem like a team that could consistently compete to be in the top half of the Big East, whereas Richmond and Dayton just don't seem like they would be able to do that with any kind of consistency.

I guess I just fail to see why they aren't getting more consideration. One could argue that UD and UR bring as much to the Big East as SLU, but it seems to be the consensus that the Billikens will be the next team invited. With SLU seemingly having one foot in the door, I'd really like to see the final piece of the puzzle be a no-brainer in terms of improving the Big East as a men's basketball conference.

[cm5yz6]

5. They outside of one fantastic year wouldn't really be considered. (is that one year enough).

You make some very solid points, but I disagree with this last one. A quick search showed me that VCU has done more than just one flash in the pan run to the Final Four. They have made six NCAA Tournaments in the past decade including four of the past five. They have advanced to the round of 32 four times during that stretch. That is a pretty nice resume over the past decade, and the future appears to be bright for the program. They just finished second in the most competitive season ever for the A10. They seem like a team that could consistently compete to be in the top half of the Big East, whereas Richmond and Dayton just don't seem like they would be able to do that with any kind of consistency.

I guess I just fail to see why they aren't getting more consideration. One could argue that UD and UR bring as much to the Big East as SLU, but it seems to be the consensus that the Billikens will be the next team invited. With SLU seemingly having one foot in the door, I'd really like to see the final piece of the puzzle be a no-brainer in terms of improving the Big East as a men's basketball conference.

This was not the most competitive season ever for the A-10... look at the early years

Villanova
Pittsburgh
Penn State
Rutgers
WVU
Duquesne
George Washington
UMass

[Guest]

This was not the most competitive season ever for the A-10... look at the early years

Then I stand corrected, but it was still the most competitive the conference has been since probably the mid-90s. The point I was trying to make was the VCU proved it could compete and finish highly in what turned out to be a five-bid conference.

[ChicagoX]

Then I stand corrected, but this was still the most competitive the conference has been since the mid-90s. The point I was trying to make is that VCU proved itself capable of competing at a high level in what turned out to be a five-bid conference.

[Bostonspider]

Yes though interestingly of the four other schools that made the NCAA, VCU only beat one of them in Butler, which was by far their most impressive win of the conference season. They lost to LaSalle, Temple, and twice to St. Louis, as well as falling to Richmond. Their best conference win, besides Butler, was probably their win over Xavier, in which they overcame a large halftime deficit after Xaviers best guard got injured. VCU had an interesting season in that in reality they did not beat many good teams, but they won over everyone they were expected to. Their best wins out of conference were over Memphis and Belmont. They lost to Missouri, Duke and Wichita State. Lots of wins over schools like Longwood, Stetson, ODU, WKU, etc. Nothing too bad or too good. They got a very good seed, and blew out their 12th seeded foe, Akron, before getting crushed by 4th seeded Michigan. In many ways it seemed they were overhyped this year based on who they actually won and lost to.

[QueRico]

Whoa, now. The Big East is not primarily undergraduate universities. As a group they take undergraduate education seriously, but most are still research universities. The profs fall between the extremes of full researchers where teaching is secondary and full teachers where research is an afterthought.

There's a difference between being an undergraduate university and taking undergraduate education seriously.

VCU is a research university matching Georgetown. Richmond is in the baccalaureate classification, and would be the only university with that low of a classification if added. I think we have 4 masters level classifications (3 of them the highest level) and 6 research classifications as of now. VCU, St. Louis, Dayton, and Wichita St., I believe, are all research universities. Richmond is the one that doesn't fit in regards to research.

Just for the sake of info, SHU is A Doctoral/Research University with an undergraduate enrollment of 53%.

[IbleedVCU]

I agree with your assessment... and honestly i think you could give good arguments for Dayton Richmond and VCU... but since you asked about VCU.... the negatives..
1. Apparently there are some concerns about future football.
2. Their basketball success is based on dominating a weak conference. SOS since the early '90s was consistently well over 100.
3. They run what some people refer to as a gimmick defense. which is really just a poor mans press, and is has been easily beaten by any team with a point guard.
4. They as a public institution are basing all of their funding on state money and the highest student fees in the nation. If/when the student loan bubble pops/ virginia pulls back on its funding. The program might suffer.
5. They outside of one fantastic year wouldn't really be considered. (is that one year enough).

Wow, there are way too many Richmond fans on this board talking about why VCU shouldn't be in the Big East. Let me go and help answer many of your cons about VCU
1) There is no talk about football at VCU. In fact our AD left and went to Minnesota because he knew VCU wouldn't add football. We hired a new AD that came from a basketball school as basketball is now our only focus. The talk of football happened before VCU went to the final four. In fact, I met with the Assistant AD and talked to him about the potential for VCU football back in 2010. VCU was going to study it in 2011 but that spring, VCU went to the Final Four. Everything changed then and VCU has become 100% a basketball only school.
2) A weak conference? Finishing second in the A-10 which was the next best conference behind the BCS conferences is not a weak conference. When VCU played in the CAA, they were still in the top third of conferences with George Mason and ODU.
3) A gimmick? I will admit, this year we were definitely better on defense than offense but to call our defense a gimmick is crazy. Tell Brad Stevens this year that our style of play is a gimmick and we'll see what he says.
4) I don't know where you are getting the highest student fees in the nation but that is definitely not true. So I went and checked the facts. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/colonial/2011-05-24-vcu-fees-smart_N.htm
A quote from USA Today about VCU student fees towards athletics. "That rate of subsidy, whether from student fees, university or state funds, is near the median for Division I public schools without football, a USA TODAY analysis shows."
5) Since 2004, VCU has made the NCAA tournament 6 times and made it to the round of 32, 4 times. They have at least made it to the Round of 32 the past three years. If we want to go back further, VCU had a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament back in the 80's.

The only con that VCU has and the only reason they haven't already been invited is that VCU is a public school with over 30,000 students. If you look past that con, VCU is a perfect fit for the Big East basketball-only league.

[ljay]

And with the Presidents making the decisions that last point is total poison to VCU's chances which makes me scratch my head as to why their "chances" continue to be brought up over and over and over.....

[BillEsq]

IbleedVCU.... the question was why wouldn't VCU get in for basketball reasons only I just gave some points on why not... all are vaild

1. Ok the football may be a rumor... personally i don't see VCU adding it, but 2011 is not that long ago.
2. The colonial conference was rarely a top 1/3 conference and rarely sent multiple teams. You can see this in the VCU sos which until moving to the A-10 wasn't very good.
3. Yes VCU had its way with Butler but Butler did not have a point guard. You cant beat a press without a point guard. Yes you beat Buter once badly at home, but Butler was barely the 5th best team in the A-10. (sorry Dog fans its true).
4. If you look at the information in that article it states that the ratio of student fees paid to college sports is similar to other schools, not the amount of the fees. If you look at the Database in the articles link you will see that VCU's expenses are much higher then most public basketball only schools, so to maintain the ration they need to add $. The amount of $ of the student fees is not in that article but are somewhere near $1,000 per year.
5. The fact is if VCU hadn't had the one final four run, no one would be seriously considering them.
6. If you look at the article you posted you will see that only public schools are listed in the database. This is because of the FOI request. I agree with you and with most on here that this is the problem with VCU. This league is most likely going to avoid this potential issue and if VCU is not added it is because it just isn't an institutional fit.

I am not a spider fan... however as they do consume large amounts of annoying insects i consider them beneficial