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The worst thing about move away from hard tickets is you lose a thing you could collect.

Sometimes that's a good thing. My going on 3 daughter can't handle all the noise at the mens games but she can't wait to watch the women play. I bought a ticket package, we will be at several games.

the list of donors at slubillikens.com in the article about the facility is a nice touch as well. https://slubillikens.com/news/2021/10/19/billiken-athletics-billikens-introduce-o-loughlin-family-champions-center.aspx personally i would like to thank these boosters for doing their part to enrich our billiken athletes.

The A-10 has to reach out Wichita St. to see about their interest in joining up. Failing to do so would be a massive leadership failure.

I guess you didn't look at the betting odds - virtually every site had him as the clear favorite.

i think the p5 schools underestimate the value of the rest of D1. as most people realize, the david goliath matchups early in the tourney make a lot of excitement particularly when the upsets happen. or when a david goes past the second round. it creates excitement. but we all know the greed and arrogance of the p5 schools. enough said.

Fans don’t make the decisions and fans don’t get it done. One can waste a lot of time discussing the topic with Big East fans. They would want: Gonzaga Notre Dame Kansas. The last two they understand they are slim to no chance. It’s a wish list a dream list. Others may add an additional high profile team or two. Gonzaga is the main discussion. Can the Big East double the money with its new tv deal etc…? Unfortunately the teams already in the Big East, are already in the Big East regardless of how they are doing or have been doing. SLU can help itself by winning more games. More inside the bubble than outside of the bubble. SLU needs to win more than they do and have. Relationships. Those needed to have been building for some time, and need to be strong. Facilities, budgets, coaching hires etc…. Gonzaga is first in line. They may or may not get an invite. I think they’d accept if they do. They may not get invited. Will they expand beyond one team? That would help SLU’s chances. They would still have a chance if only one team expansion and Gonzaga is not in play. Until then win the A-10, make NCAA Tourneys. Do some damage.

I would not consider myself older, but I totally agree with you. I think going digital-only is a bad decision that potentially alienates segments of the fanbase. Digital + print if requested is the sweet spot IMO.

Older fans like me do not like the digital tickets but it is the only way I can get in. I figured this was coming so it’s time for me to learn how to use it. I still print out my Southwest tickets even though it’s on my phone. I printed out seven six flags passes plus 7 fright passes last weekend, I am a mess and a tree hater.

Box and me deliver but we don't fill the bag. I hope we don't make the same mistake we made with Nesbitt where the bag was a bit short and we had to make a 2nd trip down to Memphis to deliver a 2nd bag.

You can always count on Anthony Bonner!

I for one think Carter rarely gets the credit he deserves. He regularly breaks stories before our actual beat writer and puts out the most written Billiken content. Just because we don't agree with every take means he deserves the hate he gets here. I really just don't understand the negativity he gets every time his name is mentioned.

Obviously being accepted to the Big East would be great for SLU. If not chosen the A10 is our next best place to be. It's really not a bad basketball league except for the bottom. The most important thing for me is that they are like minded schools. Exposure on the east coast is a plus. We have little in common with the AAC school's But don't worry, we are going to the Big East. We are the perfect fit for what they need.

I believe Butler was in the A10 for ONE year. But long enough to get beat 3 times by the Bills.

The backlash on this would be similar to when the top Euro soccer owners tried to create their own Champions League. Can’t see it. The casual fans tune into the NCAA tournament to see the Cinderella’s.

I’d like to hear your reasoning for this take.

I was reading the Twitter comments and was happy to see that 95% of people were very against the idea. It blows my mind that these greedy a-holes think a mediocre Washington State team vs a mediocre Minnesota game is more appealing than watching a talented Drake team take down one of these P5 teams.

ND and Cuse giving up FB and the ACC is a total pipe dream. Is the Beast $$$ anywhere near the $$$ level of the ACC? Doubtful. And ND football as an independent isn’t as big a draw as it used to be. Beast fans are dreaming on this one. Zaga hoops is the big frog in a little pond that virtually assures them a permanent annual tourney invite. They would risk this in the Beast. Although, they would be very competitive as long as Few sticks around. I don’t see it, but I never expected to see Joe Biden get elected as President either. We’ll see.

If the P5 schools are smart they will completely avoid going anywhere near Huggy's idea. The current setup keeps away the antitrust challenges and more importantly doesn't draw in the attention of Congress.

good point. my man cave bar has seasons of my season tickets framed hanging on the wall. guess that decorative item is never again. i am not a fan of the digital tickets. i dont live and die on my phone like the more recent generations so my knowledge and expertise is imo somewhat limited. it made me nervous last year to get my tickets for the games in this manner. initially i struggled making it work and understanding the process. i eventually was fine, but i never felt comfortable and kept thinking i'd rather have the hard tickets. i am guessing though the AD saved a lot of money going to this. just a sign of the times and i'm sure we will all get used to it eventually. i guess we have to eventually.

FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, UT-San Antonio, Rice, UAB accept invites to AAC: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32445087/florida-atlantic-charlotte-north-texas-utsa-rice-uab-set-join-american-athletic-conference Any "would it have made sense to stay in the MVC?" discussion around here will pale in comparison to what's happening in Wichita.

I received mine a few weeks ago via email. They’re going digital this year.

Look, We just deliver. For obvious reasons we don't even know who actually fills the bag. Just between us though I hear talk though and suspect that the money men are the Shoe's ( mostly K and S as I hear Willie has a few vice's that take up a lot of his money ), Roy and Taj.

-GET IT RIGHT!!

FWIW --- this idea appears to be quite young in its infancy. Over on ESPN, Huggy Bear and Jamie Dixon are talking about the P5 conferences taking over March Madness in order to control the money. They say it needs to be done ala football where the teams control it, not the NCAA. Argument is that they then get richer and remain TV relevant. Just like football --- where you see Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma year after year --- you'd get the same take with the basketball tournament as well. Huggy says all the other schools can start their own tournament and go from there. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/32439931/bob-huggins-says-major-conferences-create-own-college-basketball-postseason-event-ditch-ncaa-tournament Over on The Holy Land of Hoops, their MBM board is talking three distinct teams for expansion. Gonzaga, Notre Dame and Syracuse. The arguments bounce all over the place with pros and cons. Once they are done there, they bounce "down" to second tier candidates ... mentioned as in VCU, Dayton and us. We get the smallest amount of support and pub. There is also talk of going East/West and if you add Gonzaga, why not St. Mary's and UNLV? There is just way too much discussion and events going on now but it is all speculation. I am content to be wakened when all the smoke clears. Just go out and win the league we're inb right now. The fact that KenPom has come out and placed us at #92, behind the likes of a rebuilding Dayton and Hyunjung Lee and Luka Brajkovic at Davidson is just disturbing.

I took my daughters (3 and 5 at the time) to a women's game before COVID hit. They loved it & had way more fun than when I've dragged them to men's games.

I think it has to do with work vs student visas? I base that off a random tweet I saw though, so could be way off here.

That's why all of the girls team was cheering him on so loudly at the open practice

Thatch releasing his own merchandise soon. I like his logo.

-I thought it was Adrienne Barbeau

This should end any Valley speculation, if there ever was…we are not upgrading our facilities to downgrade our conference.

https://www.a10talk.com/4-takeways-from-slus-friday-scrimmage/

That’s 1 thing I’ve noticed about #TeamBlue, following the guys on social media. It feels like a family. Everybody posts good stuff about everybody else. They all seem to really like each other. Jimmy Bell left and he’s still posting about the guys all the time. I don’t think Ford gets enough credit for the culture he’s built here.

I know this is just a scrimmage but it provides an example of why I think Hargrove and Thatch will be around 5 ppg this year. Guys who are creative off the dribble AND can shoot (Perkins, Nesbitt, Williams off the bench) will get more shots on a per minute basis than those that can't. Then you add in Okoro as our primary inside option. There's only so much scoring a guy can do when he's the fourth or fifth option on offense playing 15 -20 min a game.

People need to stop thinking in terms of TV markets. That's the 90s. In 2021 it's all about how many subscribers can you bring to the streaming service. Therefore, having 2 teams in a city doesn't really matter to the conference. I recognize that 2 teams in the city matters to the school for recruiting purposes. I'll disagree with @cheeseman on the clause to block a member from entering. For the SEC, I've heard that it was a "gentleman's agreement " we see how far that went for the Gags. I haven't heard of 1 in the B12, I can't think of a time when such a clause has been used. Plus if the entire BE is on board you think the DePaul president is going to hold out? 12 Angry Men style? Nah. So if you're an ESPN+ subscriber or whatever sports streaming service add SLU as a favorite, encourage others. The man behind the curtain pulling the real levers of power, TV contracts, knows who brings the eyeballs. Winning will bump our numbers.

Belmont has had more than a few years of success. Their sustained success over multiple conferences, with two coaches and the Nashville market make them an attractive target. I don't remember many on here really pining over Valpo. Valpo hasn't been able to maintain their success and the market offers absolutely nothing.

It would be nice. I'm a lot more interested in us winning league titles than adding more teams. Adding Valpo is like adding George Mason at this point. It doesn't make the league better.

You could reach out to them directly via Twitter. Everyone on the board should be following these guys on Twitter if they aren't already, more followers looks better for potential NIL deals. Yuri Collins - @smoovYC1 - DMs open Markhi Strickland - @MARKHIXV - DMs open Javonte Perkins - @javontep - DMs open Francis Okoro - @chibestfrank88 - DMs open Rashad Williams - @snipashad - DMs open Marten Linssen - ??? Andre Lorentsson - @andrelorentsson - DMs closed Jordan Nesbitt - @jneszz - DMs open Fred Thatch Jr - @FredThatchJr - DMs closed Terrence Hargrove Jr - @TerrenceHargro1 - DMs closed Lassina Traore - @LassinaJunior - DMs closed Gibson Jimerson - @JimersonGibson - DMs open DeAndre Jones - @deandrefrfr - DMs closed You can message any of the guys with open DMs privately. For the other guys, you'd have to tweet at them publicly and/or ask them to follow you to allow you to DM them. Alternatively, if reaching out to teenagers/early 20s guys on social media seems a little creepy, you could reach out to someone in the athletic department. Here is the staff directory: https://slubillikens.com/staff-directory. Someone in the compliance department would probably be best I'd guess.

I think the ‘Okoro is not a 4’ argument is going to fail.