Well, this discussion is all from the perspective of you guys who were fans of the old BEAST, and I know you had a great league and that a lot of old rivalries are gone. BUT, and as an XU fan, I can tell you that there are a lot more opportunities for intense rivalries for the Muskies now than there were before the new BEAST got formed. XU/UC (the Crosstown Shootout) is about as intense as a rivalry gets, but other than that and to a lesser extent Dayton, XU never had truly intense rivals.

Now we've already developed a very intense rivalry with Butler, and I think there's a pretty good chance that XU-Marquette and/or XU-Georgetown can become intense as well. XU and Marquette have disliked each other ever since the XU President went to MU and MU immediately left the old MCC for the Big East, while he made some derogatory comments about XU athletics. WE REMEMBER. And do any of you go back far enough to remember the "twin towers" game in the 1990 tourney, when XU's pair (Derek Strong and Tyrone Hill) outplayed Georgetown's pair (Mourning and Mutumbo) to pull off the upset? WE STILL DO!

The new BEAST is truly a league of very similar schools --all private, all Catholic (except Butler, and they're church affiliated), all with relatively strong academics, all basketball and not football driven, and maybe that's why they're so strong in soccer as well. Clearly we've done great in our first 2 years together. Our common identity and our lack of football should obviously appeal to lots of quality kids who are looking for D1 basketball or soccer scholarship offers, and that should enable us to keep getting stronger and stronger in coming years.

The only schools I see out there that fit our new identity and could bring something to the table, including the potential for more intense rivalries, are St. Louis and Dayton. St. Louis is a great fit, but has been much stronger historically in soccer than in basketball. They do bring a strong media market, and they would be a natural rival for lonely Creighton way out there in the corn. Dayton scores big on the "fit" and basketball quality metrics, and they did have a very strong rivalry with XU until we left them in the A10, but they bring no new media market. So maybe it makes sense to add one or both of them, and maybe not.

Intense rivalries take years and years to develop; we only have a 2 year old league identity so far. So give it time, and look forward, not back, my friends.