CrazyPaco
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RE: Xavier AD "I think the Big East will expand"
(09-06-2013 03:26 AM)NJRedMan Wrote: (09-06-2013 02:59 AM)CrazyPaco Wrote: (09-06-2013 02:17 AM)NJRedMan Wrote: (09-06-2013 12:37 AM)CrazyPaco Wrote: (09-05-2013 11:00 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote: And for good reason as Duquesne has been a joke for a very long time now. However, if - and it's admittedly a BIG if - Duquesne ever were to decide to get serious about competing in men's basketball, they would draw just fine and would easily fill up Palumbo and/or the lower bowl of Consol. And, in time, and for big games, they might even fill up both levels of Consol.
Remember, this wouldn't be St. Joseph's and St. Bonaventure coming to town, it would be schools like Georgetown, Villanova and St. John's - all well known and well respected commodities in Pittsburgh. Perhaps even more so than some of Pitt's new ACC foes?
I'm just saying that the natural resources are there. Duquesne is a good school with a ton of local alums - many of whom are quite successful and who would support their program if the program warranted such support.
The Dukes also have a state-of-the-art arena literally located across the street from their Uptown campus.
How many schools have that many things going for them who would also expand their television reach into a top 25 US market? Not many.
So I agree entirely that without a FIRM commitment from them to upgrade their recruiting. facilities, etc., this is all moot. Where I disagree is in the assertion that it couldn't work if they did commit. It absolutely could work if Duquesne wanted it to work.
The Dukes could easily replicate what Xavier has done in Cincinnati, Butler in Indianapolis and what schools like St. Louis, Providence and Villanova have done in their respective cities. However you have to pay to play and for too long Duquesne has been content to sit on the sidelines and be a fringe mid-major A-10 team. That option is quickly drying up and the leadership at Duquesne had better recognize it soon or they are going to be joining Robert Morris in the NEC before it is all said and done.
I'm not sure it would work if they did commit, at least to the level that it would work at other places that are the primary show in their respective town, but the word commit is sort of loaded with conditional vagueness. Playing more regularly, as they are, at the Consol shows some improved commitment. They played WVU and Xavier last year at the Consol and drew a reported 6.2K and 6.5K respectively but I have a feeling that was generously reported. I remember them playing fairly highly ranked teams to pretty sparse crowds. And I just don't know if Georgetown and Villanova resonate in Pittsburgh like they did in the 1980s when they were elite powers, and I don't know if those schools are going to retain that high major status down the road anyway.
Maybe you are right, and all it would take would be for Duquesne to win. I wish they would get in the Big East. I'm also pretty sure that is a pipe dream, unfortunately, and I would agree with the other poster they are behind the Flyers and the Bilikens no matter what because I think it is a mistake for the BE to just go after media markets...and I think that is why the BE took Creighton, because they realize that. But for Duquesne, it is now or never if they are going to try to make anything out of that program.
Why would they be dropped to mid-major level? I know the ACC would love for that to happen but thats not really in the cards. It's like an AAC fan wishing the ACC drops out of the P5. It's not going to happen, no matter how much posters and some people want it to. The TV people have already backed them as a major conference.
I have no personal wish for that to happen. I hope it doesn't because I am a fan of many of the Big East teams (in fact, Lou Carnesecca is one of my all-time favorite coaches), but the writing is on the wall with the way things are moving. Not division realignment, just the matter of $. And I don't blame anyone for questioning that, and I hope it isn't true, but ask yourself why Villanova was so desperate to add football to either get into the Big East football league and was begging to get into the ACC? Why did UConn move its football up? The writing is on the wall, I'm afraid, even a decade ago. You know, CUSA with Louisville, Cincy and Memphis in their prime was a mid-major too, as was the Great Midwest, and the A10 as well even with a Calipari-coached UMass, a Mark Macon running the point at Temple, and Jarvis at GW.
Villanova is very happy they didn't move their FB up. Also when were they begging the ACC for entrance? You must have them mistaken with one of the former FB playing members of the Big East.
The conference has about as much money as the other BBall programs in the P5. The schools don't have to sponsor a very expensive sport like FB. Each school is making over 4 mil a year in TV money and the top schools in the conference all have lucrative contracts with either Nike or Under Armour. They are in no position to be left behind in the money race.
UConn certainly wishes it didn't move up the ladder. They would have been making more TV money from their BBall in the BE than it would make from both FB and BBall in the AAC.
It seems like the former Big East members really hope we fail, no matter what they say publicly. It would support the narrative that the C7 were the ones holding everyone of the FB schools back and they can then justify their dishonesty to their conference mates. At least thats the way it comes across to me.
I hope the BE succeeds, and I'd love Duquesne to be part of it, but Duquesne won't be unless something completely unexpected happens. I don't think the BE fails, per se, I just think it will be "the best of the rest"...sort of like CUSA in its hey day. At least I hope that is the worst case scenario for the Big East. That's not horrible. You can still field great teams in a situation like that, just look at the MVC or the WCC. I just think it is a cold reality that it is going to be a much tougher place to compete with all the other conferences, particularly with some of the financial disparity involved, in the homebase region.
Villanova lobbied (while it could, right along with UConn and all the other football schools) for the ACC after Pitt and SU left, with the promise of still trying to move football up. It would have been a huge mistake for them to do that in the Big East though. That school has no ability to support a quality FBS football program as it is currently construed. Their gameplan to move football up was a joke aimed solely at protecting the basketball program, and it showed. I do believe, given the possible scenarios, they have found themselves in just about the best position possible (and that goes for GU, SJU, SHU and PC too). For Nova, the split was doubly important in separating itself from Temple.
I believe, in retrospect, UConn made a huge mistake by deciding to move their football up in the late 90s. Now, it was simply impossible for UConn to know when they made the decision to move up what was going to happen over a decade later, and at the time and for the decade thereafter it looked very much like the correct decision, but at the present it really appears that it hasn't worked out for them at all in retrospect, particularly with them being shut out of the Big East and relegated to Conference American. That football program is, I believe unfortunately, going to be an albatross for their athletic department. If I was them, I'd take the football program independent (or stick in the MAC or somewhere else as a football affiliate) and find my way into the Big East...and I think the Big East should take them even if they are going to always be looking to leave (because they likely never will). Otherwise, for the BE, I'd take a serious look at elevating UMass (particularly if UMass gives up on its misguided foray into the FBS) in order to neutralize the UConn/BC presence in New England because PC isn't going to get it done. The Big East with Dayton, St. Louis, UConn/UMass, and Duquesne/Richmond (yeah, I had to throw the Dukes a bone) would be a pretty ideal and formidable 14 team conference, IMO, but I still think it will lag in perception behind the five football power conferences.
(This post was last modified: 09-06-2013 04:02 PM by CrazyPaco.)
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