Well reports were that Gonzaga asked to be included as a candidate for the league, so clearly they think they are gaining something.

(02-04-2013 07:20 PM)nathanhm Wrote:  Well reports were that Gonzaga asked to be included as a candidate for the league, so clearly they think they are gaining something.

Do you have a link?

If it's Gonzaga in play I could see the 10 team model very easily.

C7 Xavier Butler Gonzaga and call it a day.

(02-04-2013 06:05 PM)AMDG Wrote:  Except the Western US isn't like the Eastern US. Unless Unless you're talking maybe Portland as Gonzaga's partner, and that's still 350 miles. And even then I ask, what is important enough about making the jump that Gonzaga would do it? What do they gain?

BYU is one candidate for a travel partner (~700 miles, 10 hours). That may sound like a lot (and it is), but BYU would be a very valuable addition to the league in this hypothetical situation. Otherwise you are looking at a team like Portland or Seattle or no travel partner.

Again, Gonzaga gains nothing but the chance to compete on a higher level and a larger budget. If they want to move up to the next level (as a top team in a major conference), this is their only realistic avenue. They may value that more than money.

(02-04-2013 05:54 PM)AMDG Wrote:  the C7 schools don't like flying to Miami.

We've been flying to Miami for conference games for 20 years now, and no one's complained since the early '90s. We've been flying to Chicago and Milwaukee for 7-8 years, and everyone's fine with it. This is the big leagues, sack up and get on the plane.

Quote:That's driven by football which generates waaaaay more money than basketball. This is what is at the core of the entire split. The schools that make the conference will all be schools within 300 miles of current C7 schools, partly because of that reason.

If SLU can travel to Charlotte and Amherst and St Bonaventure on an A-10 budget, then the C-7 can travel to Creighton. We were about to be traveling to Dallas, Houston, Orlando and Tampa for pete's sake. And, because at this point I'm assuming you don't know this, the C-7 never got any Big East football money.

(02-04-2013 07:36 PM)College Basketball Fan Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 06:05 PM)AMDG Wrote:  Except the Western US isn't like the Eastern US. Unless Unless you're talking maybe Portland as Gonzaga's partner, and that's still 350 miles. And even then I ask, what is important enough about making the jump that Gonzaga would do it? What do they gain?

BYU is one candidate for a travel partner (~700 miles, 10 hours). That may sound like a lot (and it is), but BYU would be a very valuable addition to the league in this hypothetical situation. Otherwise you are looking at a team like Portland or Seattle or no travel partner.

Again, Gonzaga gains nothing but the chance to compete on a higher level and a larger budget. If they want to move up to the next level (as a top team in a major conference), this is their only realistic avenue. They may value that more than money.

Mormons with Catholics? That relationship is not going to last long. How about St. Marys? Loyola Marymount? Portland...OK those are the only ones I could think of- Gonzaga is on an island out there.

(02-04-2013 05:32 PM)AMDG Wrote:  Why would a travel partner help defray cost? Are they going to carpool?

That was actually really funny, I chuckled when I read that.

(02-04-2013 07:25 PM)AMDG Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 07:20 PM)nathanhm Wrote:  Well reports were that Gonzaga asked to be included as a candidate for the league, so clearly they think they are gaining something.

Do you have a link?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colleg...-1.1219416

A source at one of the schools said Gonzaga had approached them through back channels with an interest to be involved. Adding the high-profile Zags could make a television contract more valuable, but the costs in travel would have to be measured. A source at another school mentioned trying to get a team in the Boston market.


http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketbal...g-big-east

Sources say the Zags would love to part with the West Coast Conference and be a member of a national, branded basketball conference...Still, the Zags are looking out for themselves and would like to be positioned with fellow national Catholic-based schools instead of regional ones in the WCC. Gonzaga might not have a choice, but is starting to be a bit more proactive if an opportunity arises.

(02-04-2013 08:29 PM)ivet Wrote:  Mormons with Catholics? That relationship is not going to last long. How about St. Marys? Loyola Marymount? Portland...OK those are the only ones I could think of- Gonzaga is on an island out there.

BYU is currently a member of the WCC conference, which is composed of seven Catholic schools and one non-Catholic religious private school. They shouldn't be upset by moving from a Catholic conference to a better Catholic conference.

St. Mary's is still in California (869), and Loyola Marymount is 1,000 miles away from Gonzaga.

Interesting rumor on HoyaTalk about a 14 team national conference. No St. Louis or Dayton. Some of the west coast schools listed are new names but Gonzaga would be in the league. Anyone else hearing this?

(02-04-2013 08:41 PM)nathanhm Wrote:  Interesting rumor on HoyaTalk about a 14 team national conference. No St. Louis or Dayton. Some of the west coast schools listed are new names but Gonzaga would be in the league. Anyone else hearing this?

Not sure which one you are mentioning...

I've seen mention of C7 + Xavier/Butler/Creighton/BYU/Gonzaga for 12.

(02-04-2013 08:39 PM)College Basketball Fan Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 08:29 PM)ivet Wrote:  Mormons with Catholics? That relationship is not going to last long. How about St. Marys? Loyola Marymount? Portland...OK those are the only ones I could think of- Gonzaga is on an island out there.

BYU is currently a member of the WCC conference, which is composed of seven Catholic schools and one non-Catholic religious private school. They shouldn't be upset by moving from a Catholic conference to a better Catholic conference.

St. Mary's is still in California (869), and Loyola Marymount is 1,000 miles away from Gonzaga.

BYU did that because they wanted to get their football independence, and the only conference out west willing to take them in is the WCC. That's why I stopped talking after naming those 3 schools...Gonzaga really is an island out there when trying to find a descent (competitive) group of schools to compete against.

Spokane to Los Angeles - 1,280
Spokane to Omaha - 1,400
Spokane to Chicago - 1,700
Spokane to Providence - 2,700

I'll just a basketball only invite from there and each school will only need to travel out every other year.

(02-04-2013 08:50 PM)ivet Wrote:  BYU did that because they wanted to get their football independence, and the only conference out west willing to take them in is the WCC. That's why I stopped talking after naming those 3 schools...Gonzaga really is an island out there when trying to find a descent (competitive) group of schools to compete against.

Spokane to Los Angeles - 1,280
Spokane to Omaha - 1,400
Spokane to Chicago - 1,700
Spokane to Providence - 2,700

I'll just a basketball only invite from there and each school will only need to travel out every other year.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a "basketball only" invite, because the NCAA treats a school's basketball conference as their home conference.

However, for practical purposes there is not much difference between 1,000 and 2,000 miles. You are going to fly either way. The problem , of course, is that non-revenue sports generally try not to fly very often. I don't know what Gonzaga currently does for those sports, because it seems almost every school in their conference is already near flying distance.

(02-04-2013 02:02 PM)nathanhm Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 01:38 PM)AMDG Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 01:17 PM)College Basketball Fan Wrote:  

(02-04-2013 12:27 PM)AMDG Wrote:  SLU the worst basketball school under consideration? Hardly. As I said before, we've beaten all of the schools under consideration at home and on the road in the last 13 months (except for VCU and Creighton). Look it up. We have the best facilities. We have a major donor who was referred to as the Mark Cuban of college basketball the other night on CBSsports network, who's goal it is to win a national championship.
Non-existent in our market you say? Hardly. 6000+ season ticket holders, almost 20,000 in attendance in two games in the last week.

You've been the the tournament one more time in the history of your school than Xavier has been to the Sweet 16 in the last 23 years.

Same thing for the other schools. We are talking about post-season success here, and SLU does not have that.

And having a major donor doesn't mean you are the best school. To use examples I know off the top of my head, you have Warren Buffett for Creighton ($50 billion net worth), and the Koch brothers for Wichita State ($60 million combined net worth). I'm sure the same could be said for every other school in contention.

And while getting some fans is impressive, there are a fair number of schools in the C7 with similar numbers. Heck, Wichita State has had over 10,000 fans (in a 10,506 arena) for over 100 straight games (again, using it because I don't want to research every other college).

In a market 48 spots lower than SLU's. St. Louis is the 21st largest market in the country, 31 spots above the current lowest market in the C7, Providence. Wichita is 17 spots lower than Providence, Omaha is 24 spots below.

St. Louis is 300 miles from Chicago (the current city farthest west in the C7). Omaha is an additional 200 miles, Wichita is an additional 400 miles. These presidents know that money adds up when you're sending your field hockey team that additional distance.

St. Louis has 8 fortune 500 companies, Cincinatti has 6, Omaha has 5, Wichita has 0.

Like I said, anyone who pays attention to the factor that matters (money) knows that SLU comes out ahead of everybody. WE BRING MORE TO THE TABLE, NOT LESS

OMG you are so right, how could we forget to count Fortune 500 companies when choosing our league partners.

Lets add in other useful metrics like miles of highway, number of redheads, and average price of movie tickets.

I know its a lot of work AMDG but since you are so talented at finding these valuable numbers could you continue to show us how amazing St. Louis is by adding the additional metrics I suggested.

The city also sponsored the worlds fair in 1904 AND the Olympics. The ice cream cone was invented in st louis as well... so they have that goin for them....

Fairfield County in Connecticut, 30 minutes from NYC, home of the Fairfield Stags, has a ton of corporate money, way more than St Louis.

I just want to see something concrete one way or another.

Also hoping the Billikens will be part of it.

i am now even more pro slu than i was before reading this thread! amdg will certainly keep things intersting... unless of course he's really mike or tallgrass in disguise!

I'll vouch that AMDG is his own person. He's a good Billiken fan.

I'm the psychotic Billiken fan. I wanted us to be Kentucky.

Maybe the Zags make the contract worth going past 12?

Butler
Xavier
SLU
Dayton
Creighton
Richmond
Gonzaga

Bills looking good. Ready to face some tough competition in the new conference.

Haven't seen it mentioned yet but SLU has some nice all-time records against the C7 and other schools being considered. I got this from our message board
:
SLU 41 Wichita State 19
SLU 17 Butler 11. I was there Thursday night, and SLU thoroughly dominated Butler. I thought SLU would win, but that performance was most impressive. Anyone could see that SLU has the better team.
SLU 8 St. John's 3
SLU 2 Georgetown 0 (albeit the last meeting was in 1948)
SLU 2 Villanova 0
SLU 2 Seton Hall 0