davidnark Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 The two articles linked below propose the following two division catholic conference. This conference would be a dream come true for SLU and should have long-term stability. WEST Dayton DePaul Marquette Notre Dame (non-football only) Saint Louis Xavier EAST Georgetown Providence St. John's St. Joseph's Seton Hall Villanova http://www.fanstop.com/fanclub/news/All/ar...am=ALL&id=37416 http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/1...guestory16.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 I can't think of a better senario for SLU than to land in a Great Papal conference that includes ND, Georgetown, and Marquette. To play the Golden Domers and Marquette twice in the same year not to mention the X-Men ... awesome! I feel for Creighton and Butler though if this comes to pass. These are teams with better success in the last 5 years than SLU but they shall get squeezed out ... small markets. Creighton is also farther west. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted May 19, 2003 Author Share Posted May 19, 2003 Butler has had great success the last few years, but I wonder if they haven't achieved their highest level of success. SLU and DePaul have much bigger upsides, particularly if SLU builds its new arena. This detail shouldn't matter, but Butler is also not a Catholic university. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O Fallon 88 Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 I doubt few would consider Butler and Indianapolis as a small market. That catholic requirement could be an issue though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 This scenario is well-thought out and complete but still a pipe dream (of pro-Cincy aspirations). First, while it is likely that Miami will leave the Big East; the Big East is currently making a counteroffer to Miami. Neither Syracuse nor BC *want* to go to the ACC but *have* to go to keep football megadreams alive. They *will* follow Miami but there will be some grumbling. If and when these 3 leave, the direction the others will follow is unclear at best. The Big East will try to stay together and would offer some C-USA football schools/"reoffer" Temple/make a run at Penn St. Of course, C-USA will offer to some Big East football schools. Who will win? The proposed landscape changes then extend to Big 10 and Big 12 if Big East football schools become free agents (Pitt to Big 10? etc/.) The basketball schools (mostly Catholic, but not all) from the A-10, Big East, and C-USA all come into play as future partners. I know this Catholic idea and the loyalty of Marquette, DePaul, and SLU toward each other have people speculating that they be in a Big East conference without football; BUT the Big East has talked to some non-football A-10 schools independent of the midwest Catholics (St. Joe's, LaSalle, UMass, Rhodey, Richmond, all get mentioned as future Big East basketball schools too). The point is that SLU has to have three options (all revolve around an undying loyalty to DePaul and Marquette). 1. CUSA and the Big East are "majors" and consequently they will have power (Big East is currently in the BCS for football and still appears the most likely place for a reformulated football conference). They may stay in a slightly changed CUSA--although this option would be worst in my opinion if Cincy, Louisville, Memphis, ? leave. 2. That SLU is part of a new basketball conference with a former Big East focus (this may keep the name Big East but maybe not). This is possible even in the unlikely scenario that the Big East stays together by booting its non-football members. 3. That SLU is part of a midwest conference (this is where all of the Butler, Creighton, Valpo, misc Horizon/MVC talk comes into play). This comes into play if the Big East is able to survive reformulated with a east coast flavor (add UMass, Rhodey, Richmond, in addition to the East coast catholics). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 >I doubt few would consider Butler and Indianapolis as a >small market. That catholic requirement could be an issue >though! Out of curiousity, I did a quick search for facts on metro size. I found the MSA data for 1999 pretty quickly: http://www.demographia.com/db-met99r.htm St. Louis .... 18 (2.6 mill) Indy ..... 29 (1.5 mill) Omaha .... 61 (700k) I think, to be fair, Indy is neither large nor a small market in a national sense. Metro size and geographic isolation certainly hurts Creighton though in the coming conference shakeout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 i for one believe to "boot" a school from a conference for no better reason than they dont have football, is not an easy task. at the very least i am sure the booted school would have a nice payday. but the point is to boot 3-5 schools as the big east or conference usa have apparently considered in an effort to form a solid major conference might be very prohibitive financially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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