If the Big East were to expand, I think they would take a Catholic School. Siena or Dayton because of their location come to mind.

I see the chances of the Big East expanding to be very low.

Remember, by far the number one reason conferences expand is to grow, or at least sustain, revenue. History shows that those revenue sources include: (1) a conference network, which the Big East is never going to get even if they added Texas, Ohio State, and Florida; (2) renegotiating a television contract, which Fox will not due because they're already paying above market rate, and any increase would only be pro rata; (3) a football championship game, which the Big East isnt ever going go have.

Beyond those factors, there is the possibility of more tournament credits, but that is a gamble. More members would REQUIRE more NCAA bids just to break even since the money would be divided by more teams, and to get more money per team, more teams would have to make deep runs into the tournament. That is entirely possible with the teams the Big East already has.

I cannot come up with any financial incentive the Big East would have to expand.

As for non-financial incentives, I guess there is improving perception. But the Big East is perfectly capable of doing that by just having a few more years with 5-6 bids, a few more shots falling their way and getting more teams into the second weekend.

(03-29-2016 05:58 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  WSU would go to the Big East with VCU in a heartbeat over the AAC....I would if I were them.

Of course they would. Why wouldn't they want to play in a "basketball" only league. I have made that point before when people talk about adding these good basketball schools...they will be off to the BE as soon as their invited. Better to focus on schools that offer all sports for the AAC...like the MWC schools not named Boise.

I know a Shocker fan... they are definitely exploring football and recently tweeted out photos of their football uni's and helmets. Things like that tell me they are at least seriously thinking about football, and trying to float that balloon amongst their alumni, students, staff, etc.

If they are serious about football, they would be nuts to look at the Big East, unless their high aspirations are FCS or cUSA. The Big East is having a good year, but our first year in BB was much better than theirs (thanks UConn). At a minimum, we are competitive with the Big East, especially with schools like Memphis, Cinci, SMU, etc. Other than Big East fans, I don't think anyone else sees them as towering above the AAC in basketball.

Football drives the bus. Heck even Nova was looking to upgrade football, they just frittered away their opportunity.

Cincy and UConn are moving to the Big East. The B12 forwarded Ono's videos to P rovidence and they were quite impressed. The Bearcats will play football in the MAC (bus rides to all games!) Nobody is really sure what happens with UConn football.

(03-30-2016 09:09 AM)HP-TBDPITL Wrote:  

(03-29-2016 05:58 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  WSU would go to the Big East with VCU in a heartbeat over the AAC....I would if I were them.

Of course they would. Why wouldn't they want to play in a "basketball" only league. I have made that point before when people talk about adding these good basketball schools...they will be off to the BE as soon as their invited. Better to focus on schools that offer all sports for the AAC...like the MWC schools not named Boise.

Well, for WSU, they're considering football. Are they considering football because they need it to get out of the Valley, or because they want football in general. That's a major question. AAC would give them a path to FBS, which Big East doesn't do. WSU is the one school on the list of semi-plausible Big East aspirants that would consider the AAC over the Big East.

Plus, I think Wichita is in position to draw more students from trips to Tulsa, Dallas and Houston than Chicago, Omaha and St Louis, I think. (The rest are further than you probably want to travel to get a degree from Wichita State.)

Out of curiosity, has Aresco made any comments since the formation of the AAC regarding potential non-football members? One would think that the combo additions of VCU/WSU would really elevate basketball. VCU alone, to pair with football-only Navy, seems like it would make a ton of sense.

Personally, I think VCU and/or WSU have a slim chance of ever getting a Big East invite. I don't think the AAC should/would worry about losing them.

(03-30-2016 10:01 AM)vick mike Wrote:  Cincy and UConn are moving to the Big East. The B12 forwarded Ono's videos to Providence and they were quite impressed. The Bearcats will play football in the MAC (bus rides to all games!) Nobody is really sure what happens with UConn football.

AAC heaquarters are in Providence.

Big East headquarters are in New York.

(03-30-2016 12:02 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  

(03-30-2016 10:01 AM)vick mike Wrote:  Cincy and UConn are moving to the Big East. The B12 forwarded Ono's videos to Providence and they were quite impressed. The Bearcats will play football in the MAC (bus rides to all games!) Nobody is really sure what happens with UConn football.

AAC heaquarters are in Providence.

Big East headquarters are in New York.

Relax, he was trolling.

(03-30-2016 10:05 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(03-30-2016 09:09 AM)HP-TBDPITL Wrote:  

(03-29-2016 05:58 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  WSU would go to the Big East with VCU in a heartbeat over the AAC....I would if I were them.

Of course they would. Why wouldn't they want to play in a "basketball" only league. I have made that point before when people talk about adding these good basketball schools...they will be off to the BE as soon as their invited. Better to focus on schools that offer all sports for the AAC...like the MWC schools not named Boise.

Well, for WSU, they're considering football. Are they considering football because they need it to get out of the Valley, or because they want football in general. That's a major question. AAC would give them a path to FBS, which Big East doesn't do. WSU is the one school on the list of semi-plausible Big East aspirants that would consider the AAC over the Big East.

Plus, I think Wichita is in position to draw more students from trips to Tulsa, Dallas and Houston than Chicago, Omaha and St Louis, I think. (The rest are further than you probably want to travel to get a degree from Wichita State.)

We should have a pretty good understanding of where we stand in regards to football by the end of next month. We are seriously considering it not only to get out of the MVC, but to grow the University and improve student life on campus. There are a lot of things going on in the academic side of things to help with all of this as well. New buildings, new dorms, new partnerships with national and international businesses. Wichita would definitely prefer to be in the AAC over the BE.

And with how we recruit for students and athletes in Oklahoma and Texas, it would be beneficial. I believe we're offering in state tuition to students in the OKC and Tulsa metros and working on doing the same for Dallas. Once Dallas happens, I wouldn't be surprised to see them expand that to Houston. I believe we're also offering discounted out of state tuition to qualifying students not in those metro areas. Something like a 33% less.

The goal of our new president is to get more students on campus and eventually push enrollment to the 20k-25k range.

(03-30-2016 10:01 AM)vick mike Wrote:  Cincy and UConn are moving to the Big East. The B12 forwarded Ono's videos to P rovidence and they were quite impressed. The Bearcats will play football in the MAC (bus rides to all games!) Nobody is really sure what happens with UConn football.

Funny stuff....must have taken you a while for you to think of this...

(03-30-2016 10:01 AM)vick mike Wrote:  Cincy and UConn are moving to the Big East. The B12 forwarded Ono's videos to P rovidence and they were quite impressed. The Bearcats will play football in the MAC (bus rides to all games!) Nobody is really sure what happens with UConn football.

Uc could compete in the mac. Not so sure about Connecticut

(03-30-2016 11:14 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  Out of curiosity, has Aresco made any comments since the formation of the AAC regarding potential non-football members? One would think that the combo additions of VCU/WSU would really elevate basketball. VCU alone, to pair with football-only Navy, seems like it would make a ton of sense.

Personally, I think VCU and/or WSU have a slim chance of ever getting a Big East invite. I don't think the AAC should/would worry about losing them.

The only comments he has made was that we didn't want to go down that path again.