(10-12-2021 11:08 AM)GeminiCoog Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 07:08 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 02:32 AM)TroyTBoy Wrote:  

(10-11-2021 11:12 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  "the NBE has tiny fanbases" ...

Where do you come up with this nonsense?

From a Marquette writer.

"The “newness” of FOX Sports 1 and the relative small fanbases of the 10 Big East schools have combined to draw middling to weak ratings the past two years. However, this was expected by both conference officials and network head honchos. (And this blogger, as well.) There are no giant state schools with enough alumni to colonize a small moon."

https://painttouches.com/2015/09/11/does...onference/

Do you seriously believe those schools grew bigger fanbases, since going from playing Syracuse to playing Butler instead?

Georgetown has like 20k students, and that means a lot of alumni.

St. John’s might not have a lot of diehards, but they definitely bring a lot of fair weather NYC fans when they’re good.

UConn is back and is a large state school with like 32k students.

I don’t know much about Providence and Seton Hall, but PC seems to have a strong local following and SHU is now the only show in town.

I think Villanova is doing just fine.

The problem with Georgetown is they play in a stadium that has a capacity of less than 5,000 after finally completing construction on it. (I believe it’s completed, anyway.)

As for Villanova, if I remember correctly, they were in talks with the football side of the old Big East to move up and join them while they (the old Big East) were still an AQ league in the BCS. The only reason they were ultimately passed up in favor of re-inviting Temple had to do with their reluctance to secure a stadium that met FBS-attendance requirements. If ‘Nova had expanded their stadium to 30K or more, they’d be an FBS school and it’s possible the Big East would still sponsor football. (But of course, we know what happened.)

I don't think that is quite what happened. My recollection was that Villanova was invited to move up to play Big East football. They took a long time to decide but finally decided to do it. Then, Syracuse and Pitt bolted triggering more moves. Finally, Villanova decided not to play in the league that became the AAC but instead to leave with the non-football schools to reform the Big East as a non-football league (as it was originally formed). There were issues with a stadium but there was a plan in place to expand some local soccer stadium if they were going to pursue Big East football.

It was the right move. Villanova football lacks the fanbase to support a major FBS program. The northeast is not an area with strong interest in college football (Penn State is apparently the exception but it is culturally more like the mid-west than like Philly, NYC or Boston. The only reason Villanova was considering the move was to protect their other sports from ending up in a bad conference. They played D1 football for a long time but dropped it in the 80s due to lack of interest.