Bay Area Billiken

Time is of the essence.

Gonzaga built its program over decades by dominating the mid-major WCC and later getting a number of WCC concessions, including (1) multi-byes to the extent the top 2 WCC teams only have to play 2 games and one of them win 2 games in the WCC Tourney to snare the WCC's automatic bid; (2) reduction in WCC conference games for Men's BKB (not Women's) from 18 to 16 games, thereby giving Zags 2 additional games to schedule big time non-conference opponents: (3) scrapping former WCC shared revenue of NCAA Units, thereby allowing Zags to keep more of the NCAA Units it earns: (4) permitting Gonzaga to blackball (fellow Jesuit) SeattleU from readmission into the WCC. The problem for SLU is it doesn't have 10, 20, 30, 40 years to pull a Gonzaga in a mid-major or low con conference. The Marquette Method (outlined by Torch above) is the only one available for SLU. With a $1.8B endowment, 4th highest (or at worst 5th) among Catholic Universities, with 1 of the mere 4 Catholic medical schools, while playing in the #21 TV market (Fox), SLU has a lot going for it, a lot to put in its Big East application and prospectus.

The whining label is a Power 5 apologist's characterization. Rather, mine states the new reality, as designed/schemed by the Power 5 Overlords, with more below that destroys the opposing narrative. The bottom line is SLU, as is, had an NCAA Tourney at large bid qualifying RPI (the metric previously used by the NCAA) of 53 on Selection Sunday, which would have made SLU the 2nd to last team in the NCAA (and thereby likely would have been snubbed anyway after the Committee needed to service more Power 5 also rans). In contrast, under the new Power 5 rigged NET, SLU's NET on Selection Sunday was 99, well out of even the NIT, this despite winning 21 games, 20 vs. D-1 competition. There is virtually no longer any margin for error for SLU as long as it "remains a proud member of the Atlantic 10 Conference." The Power 5 made its hit on the mid-majors (a pejorative term in the SLU context, but used here for nomenclature) to extract no less than 6 NCAA Tourney at large bids, 2 from C-USA, and 1 each from the A10, MVC, Sun Belt, and ASUN, and transfer them to the Power 5 + 1. Those extra bids went to the Big XII (1), B1G (3), Pac-12 1, and Big East 1. The goal posts have been moved. Sidebar: Seven (7) of the eight (8) Big Ten teams failed to make the NCAA Sweet 16. SLU is not dropping down to change conferences. SLU needs to be "moving on up" to the Big East.

Fixed.

It’s not quite that simple, if you mean to get a NCAA at large, Win nearly All your games. SLU probably needed to win 5 more games just to be on the bubble to get snubbed, again. VCU received the A10’s automatic bid by virtue of winning the A10 Tourney.

Not all of this decline is the A10’s fault. The Power 5 Overlords have moved the goalposts. That is the biggest reason the A10 became a 2 and now Juan Bid league.

Torch’s idea is well taken. However, SLU doesn’t have the benefit of the time it would take to bear fruit. The just completed selection of the NCAA Tourney field, the transfer of 6 NCAA at large bids to the Power 5 + 1, is an ominous foreshadowing of what many of us see coming, the Power 5 Overlords splitting D-1 CBKB into 2 divisions like in Football. We need SLU to be above that cutoff line, not below it.

So SLU needs to prove it belongs. SLU does that by winning. What I’m saying is SLU can be proactive, doesn’t have to await a BE invite. It’s like at the Bank, if you don’t ask, the answer is always No.

SLU is not dropping down to a low con conference. While there is dated precedence, namely SLU moving from the rugged Metro to the then mid-major Midwestern City (now Horizon) in 1982, the SLU program was at rock bottom at the time, unable to compete in the Metro, in need of a major rebuild. The program is nowhere near that low level currently. What SLU needs to do is be proactive and move up to the Big East. The Big East has already earned $13.5M in ‘23 NCAA Tourney Units with 3 teams still to earn more Units, as 3 are in the Sweet 16. In contrast, the now Juan Bid A10 earned 1 NCAA Unit (VCU), estimated at $1.5M in total value, which trickles down to about $25K to SLU. The Power 5 has already earned an estimated $81M in ‘23 NCAA Units, with 8 teams still standing in the Sweet 16, all 8 to earn more Units.

SLU needs to be in the Big East.

They justify all those teams by their rigged, Power 5 skewed metric, the NET, along with conference dictated scheduling in refusing to play mid-majors on the road. This scheme gives them an artificial appearance of worthiness. Look at Mizzou yesterday, from the Power 5 SEC. Mizzou got boat raced in Sacramento, run off the court by Ivy Leaguers from Princeton. Mizzou was never in that game, except for a late first half 7-0 MU run. The Mizzou fan turnout was easily the lowest of the four teams playing yesterday in Sacramento, only one of which, UCLA, was from the West.

The scheme of the Power 5 Overlords has been exposed, while the Power 5 laughs all the way to the bank.

8 Big Ten teams were in the NCAA Tourney, 7 received at large bids. 6 of the 8 are already OUT, with 2 left, but playing today, Indiana and Mich. State.

Jaime Jaquez, Jr. ️

Mizzou has to be better than this.