(03-23-2016 02:15 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(03-22-2016 06:51 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  The only knock on Richmond is the lack of recent basketball success, as they have just three NCAA tournament appearances since 2000. They clearly have the institution (Private), location (Richmond), facilities, academics and endowment. Chris Mooney has had five of his eleven seasons where he did not reach a postseason tournament.

If Richmond gets more consistently competitive in the A-10, they would get a serious look.

IMO, Saint Louis, Dayton, Richmond and Davidson are the top-4 realistic candidates available.

They're not a basketball powerhouse, but they're usually pretty respectable with surges of being very good. They haven't had a sub-.500 season since 2006-07 (cynics might say that turning down a third-tier tournament this season had at least something to do with maintaining that stretch, since they were 16-16 after the A-10 tourney). They're more consistent than St. Louis, which has largely been nowheresville in modern history, outside of a few years of the Charlie Spoonhour era and their recent three-year stretch of Rick Majerus and Jim Crews coaching Majerus's players.

Their biggest issue might be that the market they're in a) isn't tiny but isn't huge either, and b) is always going to be shared with VCU. Right now it's more of a VCU town, but even if UR passes them, neither team will ever be the city's 600-pound gorilla. That said, if Georgetown is as pro-Richmond as we've heard it claimed, then that's a paint that can cover up a multitude of sins.

Well stated.

(03-23-2016 10:40 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I like the big east jumping to 16 with St Louis, Dayton, WS, Temple, VCU and Umass.

Temple? did you mean someone else, what with the whole FB thing and all?

The original Big East conference, which had at one point 16 members, never went to divisions. The B1G, SEC, ACC and PAC-12 all do not employ divisions for basketball, and they all have 14 or more members.

Why would the Big East go to divisions in basketball?

(03-23-2016 06:18 PM)sportsrankings Wrote:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/sports....html?_r=0

Do you think Mark Few is happy with the WCC?
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/ma...n-for-wcc/

Realistically, the Big East could add Gonzaga and St. Louis, now you have 2, 6 team divisions. Gon, St. L, Creighton, Dep, Mar, and Butler. Xavier, Seton Hall, Pro, Georgetown, Vil, and St Johns. The olympic sports are the only downfall to Gonzaga since only MBB and WBB fly charter which is 2-3 hr flight to most of the cities listed in their conference.

Divisions have been almost completely done away with at the D1 level in basketball and are no longer existent in major conferences.

(03-22-2016 09:08 AM)el_norte Wrote:  I'm trying to figure out a way to split the new Big East conference into two great 10-team basketball only conferences. I have the western schools figured out:

Bradley
Butler
Creighton
Dayton
DePaul
Drake
Evansville
Marquette
St. Louis
Xavier

Now I'm struggling to finish off a 10-team league with the eastern schools. I have eight:

Georgetown
Holy Cross
Loyola (MD)
Providence
Seton Hall
St. John's
St. Josephs
Villanova

What other two could best finish this league off? I want to keep them all catholic and within the DC-Boston corridor but legitimate options are lacking. My thoughts were LaSalle (but that would be 3 in Philly), Manhattan, Boston U (not catholic), Duquesne (not really in sync geographically), Fordham...?

The Bonnies

Awaiting the day Detroit gets the invite.

(03-23-2016 12:17 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  To the OP: Why?

Because...I felt like it? This is a conference realignment forum where 90% of posts discuss unrealistic/hypothetical conferences, no?

(03-24-2016 11:58 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  The original Big East conference, which had at one point 16 members, never went to divisions. The B1G, SEC, ACC and PAC-12 all do not employ divisions for basketball, and they all have 14 or more members.

Why would the Big East go to divisions in basketball?

actually they did for at least one season. prior to the the ACC raid. I would have to look up which year it was but I seem to remember a 6-7 split. does anyone else recall this?

(03-22-2016 09:13 AM)SubGod22 Wrote:  The MVC would thank you for taking away Drake and Evansville.

Drake never bothers me being in the MVC. Des Moines perfect city for the league and every league needs a whipping boy.

(03-24-2016 07:54 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 11:58 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  The original Big East conference, which had at one point 16 members, never went to divisions. The B1G, SEC, ACC and PAC-12 all do not employ divisions for basketball, and they all have 14 or more members.

Why would the Big East go to divisions in basketball?

actually they did for at least one season. prior to the the ACC raid. I would have to look up which year it was but I seem to remember a 6-7 split. does anyone else recall this?

Yeah, from 01 to 04, the Big East had 2 divisions. It sucked. One year Providence didnt play Syracuse at all. They also had only 12 teams go to the BET, and so a couple of teams couldn't play at MSG.

The move to one 16 team superleague with no divisions, with a 5 round tourney, ended up being pretty smart.

(03-22-2016 09:08 AM)el_norte Wrote:  I'm trying to figure out a way to split the new Big East conference into two great 10-team basketball only conferences. I have the western schools figured out:

Bradley
Butler
Creighton
Dayton
DePaul
Drake
Evansville
Marquette
St. Louis
Xavier

Now I'm struggling to finish off a 10-team league with the eastern schools. I have eight:

Georgetown
Holy Cross
Loyola (MD)
Providence
Seton Hall
St. John's
St. Josephs
Villanova

What other two could best finish this league off? I want to keep them all catholic and within the DC-Boston corridor but legitimate options are lacking. My thoughts were LaSalle (but that would be 3 in Philly), Manhattan, Boston U (not catholic), Duquesne (not really in sync geographically), Fordham...?

Butler isn't Catholic either

(03-24-2016 07:40 PM)el_norte Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 12:17 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  To the OP: Why?

Because...I felt like it? This is a conference realignment forum where 90% of posts discuss unrealistic/hypothetical conferences, no?

Gonzaga if 1500 miles east would be a shoo-in...kinda ridiculous being in Spokane, WA joining the BE.

(03-24-2016 09:59 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 07:40 PM)el_norte Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 12:17 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  To the OP: Why?

Because...I felt like it? This is a conference realignment forum where 90% of posts discuss unrealistic/hypothetical conferences, no?

Gonzaga if 1500 miles east would be a shoo-in...kinda ridiculous being in Spokane, WA joining the BE.

Yeah, I never mentioned gonzaga

(03-24-2016 10:16 PM)el_norte Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 09:59 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 07:40 PM)el_norte Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 12:17 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  To the OP: Why?

Because...I felt like it? This is a conference realignment forum where 90% of posts discuss unrealistic/hypothetical conferences, no?

Gonzaga if 1500 miles east would be a shoo-in...kinda ridiculous being in Spokane, WA joining the BE.

Yeah, I never mentioned gonzaga

You're right...my apologies...I thought Gonzaga was in there...that is why I wrote that.

Carry on friend...actually not a bad huge conference...I just don't think the BE would want to water down and/or share their brand with all those schools.

(03-22-2016 10:26 AM)MU88 Wrote:  Really? Marquette and Creighton usually are in the top 25 in attendance and often in the top 10 (22nd and 7th respectively, this year). The BE tourney drew almost 20,000 fans for the final.

Creighton --- I was initially a little dubious on them in the Big East. But they are doing a very nice job in terms of both fan support and credible teams. They're looking like a certain-NCAA team in 2017. Credit to the Blue Jays for that.

I definitely like the Big East's future going forward. Very solid 10-team core, and looks pretty stable in the longer-term.

(03-24-2016 08:50 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  

(03-22-2016 09:13 AM)SubGod22 Wrote:  The MVC would thank you for taking away Drake and Evansville.

Drake never bothers me being in the MVC. Des Moines perfect city for the league and every league needs a whipping boy.

I don't have major issues with them other than fan and administrator apathy. They have more potential than Evansville if they ever pull their heads out of their asses. Plus they've been in the MVC longer than anyone else I believe. Guess I'm just tired of being in a conference where half of the schools don't even try and a couple of others just seem incompetent.

Evansville just fielded their best team in forever and didn't even try to make the NCAA and that got them left out of the NIT as well. Indiana State hasn't done anything outside of a few years where they lucked into a hometown kid that ended up being a pretty good PG. Illinois State has some potential. Muller can recruit, but most of that talent has been transferring out and his in game coaching is questionable. SIU is a financial disaster and trying to recover from a coach that over paid for winning with other guys players and then proceeded to take them to the abyss. Bradley I hope is finally turning it around. Most potential I think for any IL school in the MVC. Loyola has money but won't spend it. They're sticking with a coach who has a proven track record of not succeeding.

I do think MSU has potential but is sometimes scared to take chances. Maybe I'm wrong. Lusk has been pretty iffy but has a nice young core, finally, to do something with. Time will tell if he can get it done or if MSU will move on after next season should they play on Thursday again. I do think the conference can be OK if MSU and Bradley can get things turned around. They're two of the larger fan bases in the conference outside of Wichita and have a great deal of potential. UNI should be fine as long as Jacobson is around and I don't see him going anywhere.

Evansville just sucks.

(03-23-2016 06:08 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  

(03-23-2016 10:40 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I like the big east jumping to 16 with St Louis, Dayton, WS, Temple, VCU and Umass.

Temple? did you mean someone else, what with the whole FB thing and all?

Yeah really.

(03-24-2016 08:50 PM)billyjack Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 07:54 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  

(03-24-2016 11:58 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  The original Big East conference, which had at one point 16 members, never went to divisions. The B1G, SEC, ACC and PAC-12 all do not employ divisions for basketball, and they all have 14 or more members.

Why would the Big East go to divisions in basketball?

actually they did for at least one season. prior to the the ACC raid. I would have to look up which year it was but I seem to remember a 6-7 split. does anyone else recall this?

Yeah, from 01 to 04, the Big East had 2 divisions. It sucked. One year Providence didnt play Syracuse at all. They also had only 12 teams go to the BET, and so a couple of teams couldn't play at MSG.

The move to one 16 team superleague with no divisions, with a 5 round tourney, ended up being pretty smart.

I don't remember there being any pattern to the divisions either. like a north/south or east/west thing