December "Saint Louis Sports Magazine"

[billiken_roy]

http://www.stlsportsmag.com/magazine.php#currentIssue

Page 34 "Slu Athletics...A Competitive & Financial Rebirth Awaits"

by Dr Patrick Rishe

Contains probably the best printed explanation of why the billikens are in the A-10 i have ever read.

Make copies for your uninformed MVC fan friends when they ask again.

Thank you Dr Rishe!

[SShoe]

I once met with Patrick Rishe. He is sort of a guru in the field of "sports and economic development."

[Cowboy]

http://www.stlsportsmag.com/magazine.php#currentIssue

Page 34 "Slu Athletics...A Competitive & Financial Rebirth Awaits"

by Dr Patrick Rishe

Contains probably the best printed explanation of why the billikens are in the A-10 i have ever read.

Make copies for your uninformed MVC fan friends when they ask again.

Thank you Dr Rishe!

this should be required reading

roy, did you send this to randy karraker (?sp) and others that don't have this figured out?

i am trying to think of a come back to this and can't

[NashvilleBilliken]

A good Majerus quote for those who seem to think he won't be here more than three years...

“This is a process,” Majerus said. “I know there are a lot of expectations for this year, but I’m more concerned with years four, five and six. We’re trying to create a basketball culture here. I’ve been able to put together a great staff and we’ve recruited well so far, which makes the future look good.”

[kshoe]

this should be required reading

roy, did you send this to randy karraker (?sp) and others that don't have this figured out?

i am trying to think of a come back to this and can't

How about that the majority of his argument is based on the Big East dissolving, something that may never happen.

[Cowboy]

How about that the majority of his argument is based on the Big East dissolving, something that may never happen.

i disagree - i think his major argument is that the arena HAS THE ABILITY to radically change every thing about slu athletics

if DONE RIGHT it COULD lead to an invitation to join a new conference with those schools he mentions

but the arena and the result of it BEING DONE RIGHT could put slu in a position where it is not now

in my mind FrB's committment was first, arena being built is 2nd, hiring Rick is 3rd step, lots of steps to come, icnluding hiring the right AD and Rick having big success in a couple/few years

but let's also realize....this is slu...but perhaps the worm has turned as we have taken steps as never before

[kshoe]

i disagree - i think his major argument is that the arena HAS THE ABILITY to radically change every thing about slu athletics

if DONE RIGHT it COULD lead to an invitation to join a new conference with those schools he mentions

but the arena and the result of it BEING DONE RIGHT could put slu in a position where it is not now

in my mind FrB's committment was first, arena being built is 2nd, hiring Rick is 3rd step, lots of steps to come, icnluding hiring the right AD and Rick having big success in a couple/few years

but let's also realize....this is slu...but perhaps the worm has turned as we have taken steps as never before

I agree with all of that but even if we become the best team in the A-10, the only way we get an invite to join all those teams he mentioned is if the Big East dissovles. Some believe it is only a matter of time. I think its possible but I think it is just as possible that the Big East never dissolves. That article considered it virtual certainty.

[provos528]

The East Coast controls the Sports Media, sucking up to them gives more popularity to the school than by being part of a "hick-MVC" conference.. That's how I understand the article..

[JMM28]

http://www.stlsportsmag.com/magazine.php#currentIssue

Page 34 "Slu Athletics...A Competitive & Financial Rebirth Awaits"

by Dr Patrick Rishe

Contains probably the best printed explanation of why the billikens are in the A-10 i have ever read.

Make copies for your uninformed MVC fan friends when they ask again.

Thank you Dr Rishe!

I really liked the quote about "SLU is more likely to attract students from the east coast than Valley towns like Peoria, etc.

I guarantee there are more SLU students from Peoria, Illinois; Wichita, Kansas; or Omaha, Nebraska than from the east coast cities represented by the A10. Guaranteed!

Isn't SLU=in=the=A10 for that bogus "Well if this, this, this this, this, this, this, that, this, those, that, this, them, there, when, that, who, this, this, there, and this happen we can move into the Big East" reason kind of the same as Majerus sacrificing this season and "next" for the sake of the system? Similarities?

[SLURadioBoy]

I really liked the quote about "SLU is more likely to attract students from the east coast than Valley towns like Peoria, etc.

I guarantee there are more SLU students from Peoria, Illinois; Wichita, Kansas; or Omaha, Nebraska than from the east coast cities represented by the A10. Guaranteed!

But how can that be when according to the article, SLU has more alumni in Philadelphia than all the Valley cities combined? I guess they could have moved there after graduating, but at least some would probably be PA natives.

[kshoe]

But how can that be when according to the article, SLU has more alumni in Philadelphia than all the Valley cities combined? I guess they could have moved there after graduating, but at least some would probably be PA natives.

The MVC cities are generally quite small but what happens if one starts to include the town next to Carbondale in the numbers or the towns that surround Peoria, etc. For that matter how would stats like that compare to the Big 12, which is composed almost entirely of college towns? Seems like an appropriate stat would be to say there are x alumni living within 1 hour of Philly and y alumni living within all the MVC schools. something tells me y would be bigger.

[Clock_Tower]

The MVC cities are generally quite small but what happens if one starts to include the town next to Carbondale in the numbers or the towns that surround Peoria, etc. For that matter how would stats like that compare to the Big 12, which is composed almost entirely of college towns? Seems like an appropriate stat would be to say there are x alumni living within 1 hour of Philly and y alumni living within all the MVC schools. something tells me y would be bigger.

Believe you mean "within 1 hour of A10 cities" and not just Philly." If so, I'd be curious as well. I truly don't know where the out of town kids are coming from.

[brianstl]

Believe you mean "within 1 hour of A10 cities" and not just Philly." If so, I'd be curious as well. I truly don't know where the out of town kids are coming from.

I have heard, outside of the metro area, SLU has more students from the state of Ohio than any other state.

[Clock_Tower]

I have heard, outside of the metro area, SLU has more students from the state of Ohio than any other state.

Re-read the article and note the good Dr. was, in fact, comparing Philly to ALL the MVC schools. Sounds like if all A10 cities are included, the numbers greatly favor the A10. Got to believe that since the MVC are somewhat close together (only 3 hours or so between Carbondale and Springfield (MSU) and Kansas City is within an hour of Springfield, Omaha is not far from Kansas City, only 2 hours or so between Carbondale and Peoria, etc.), you would be including much of the populated areas of Missouri, Illinois, Kansas etc. as opposed to the A10 cities which are more geographically spread out.

Also, keep in mind that basketball and the sports program might be the only/best source of exposure and recruiting for kids in Southwest Ohio, Philly and NY whereas kids from rural areas like Illinois, Missouri and Kansas and the MVC cities already know about SLU and, because of their proximity/friends/family/alums, might be coming to SLU anyway. Hence, less real net gain from MVC cities.

[billiken_roy]

this should be required reading

roy, did you send this to randy karraker (?sp) and others that don't have this figured out?

i am trying to think of a come back to this and can't

randy is a major contributor to slsm. i would think he read it.

[Pistol]

But how can that be when according to the article, SLU has more alumni in Philadelphia than all the Valley cities combined? I guess they could have moved there after graduating, but at least some would probably be PA natives.

This doesn't surprise me so much. I think of the student body currently attending SLU there might be more from the Valley areas, but the graduates move on to different, bigger, more spread out cities. I look at my group of friends from SLU, a lot from the areas of St. Louis, Milwaukee, KC, Indianapolis, Columbus, Bloomington/Peoria, Chicago, Omaha, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and various small towns in the Midwest, and the ones who have left St. Louis have gone on either to the bigger of those cities (Chicago, KC, Cincy) plus NYC, Boston, DC, Phoenix, Houston, Denver, and a lot of other big cities in the US and overseas. I guess my point is that a lot of students may come from surrounding cities and small towns in the Midwest, but they don't necessarily go back there after finishing SLU because the good jobs are mostly in the big cities. Where SLU gets students from and where they disperse are much different. That said, I'd like to see the school be able to recruit more from the coasts and have more of a geographically diverse student body.

[billiken_roy]

i talked to the admissions office when my son was initially enrolling at slu (four years ago) about the demographics. i was told that other than the immediate area surrounding st louis (and i believe the woman i was talking to said 50 miles) the rest of the midwest is not a hotbed for current slu enrollment. she told me that second is ohio, and third was the new jersey/new york city area and fourth was the philadelphia area and i think she said boston was after that.

that was for incoming students. not alumni. i did not ask about alumni locations, but i would be surprised if our students are graduating from slu and then locating in carbondale, peoria, terre haute, evansville, bloomington, etc. as was mentioned above the greater likelihood is that our graduating students are in fact headed to the metropolitan areas of the A-10 cities, not the likes of the mvc cities.

[Taj79]

My only reply to this is to JMM28: you need to quote actual stats to support your statement. I'm not arguing its validity because frankly, I don't know if you are right or wring. The issue is you can't guarantee anything in this regard. In my time at SLU, I knew about a dozen guys and gals from the DC-to-Boston corridor. I knew two from Peoria. In the grand scheme, that means nothing except who I knew. Why did I know them? You can't make those kinds of guarantees.

In a "60 Minutes" story on Cancer Alley in Louisiana, a local pharmacist started an uproar because, by her count, she tabulated that one in every three local girls was having a pregnancy miscarriage. Alarmed, she raised quite a stink and the story evolved into the "60 Minutes" piece. Guess what? At the time, 33% was the national average for miscarriages. Some might argue that rather then being abnormal, the area was right on normal. Numbers are numbers, they don't mean much until put into context and as an old boss once said to me, you can prove anything you want with statistics. If you can't dazzle them with briliiance, baffle them with statistics. Numbers are numbers, they don't one way or the other until the spin doctors show up and need to prove their point.

On the other hand, the bulk of the folks I knew seemed to be from Chicago and Cincinnati. Go figure.

[cheeseman]

What the article says is that Philly has the largest alumni base from SLU - it does not say that all those alums were orginally from that area. I can not argue with the author's point that being in the A10 is best for SLU right now. This guy knows what he talks about and speaks all over the country on sports economics. He is more likely to be right then wrong about the Big East. What I also liked about this article is that the author who I have heard several times on the radio as a guest does not speak the company line - he has taken other unpopular positions in the past if he thinks those positions are wrong. So, his position on SLU and A10 is now even more validated than any know-nothing sports writer who only reads the comics and SI or USA Today to get their info. Rou, thanks for sharing.

[billiken_roy]

and cheese, if the alumnus becomes a resident of philadelphia or charlotte or wherever, that doesnt lessen the likelihood that as a proud parent he/she isnt going to encourage their child to also go to saint louis university. i know my kids are "strongly urged" to attend slu. one down and one to go.

[Box and Won]

Alumni stats from SLU.edu:

Boston - 1,016

Chicago - 4,009

Cincinnati - 871

Cleveland - 572

Dallas - 1,173

Denver - 1,139

Houston - 930

Kansas City - 1,606

Louisville - 434

Los Angeles - 1,219

Milwaukee - 672

Minneapolis/St. Paul - 742

New York City - 1,934

Omaha - 432

Philadelphia - 659

San Francisco - 1,958

Seattle - 894

Tampa/St. Petersburg - 744

Washington, DC - 1,730

[billiken_roy]

Alumni stats from SLU.edu:

Boston - 1,016

Chicago - 4,009

Cincinnati - 871

Cleveland - 572

Dallas - 1,173

Denver - 1,139

Houston - 930

Kansas City - 1,606

Louisville - 434

Los Angeles - 1,219

Milwaukee - 672

Minneapolis/St. Paul - 742

New York City - 1,934

Omaha - 432

Philadelphia - 659

San Francisco - 1,958

Seattle - 894

Tampa/St. Petersburg - 744

Washington, DC - 1,730

i am assuming for kshoe's benefit that terre haute, peoria and springfield, mo are next on the list.

[alameda bob]

Alumni stats from SLU.edu:

Boston - 1,016

Chicago - 4,009

Cincinnati - 871

Cleveland - 572

Dallas - 1,173

Denver - 1,139

Houston - 930

Kansas City - 1,606

Louisville - 434

Los Angeles - 1,219

Milwaukee - 672

Minneapolis/St. Paul - 742

New York City - 1,934

Omaha - 432

Philadelphia - 659

San Francisco - 1,958

Seattle - 894

Tampa/St. Petersburg - 744

Washington, DC - 1,730

SF is 2nd, with more than NYC? Hard to believe I'd say.

[jimbofive]

SF is 2nd, with more than NYC? Hard to believe I'd say.

Not that hard to believe, Rainbow Alliance is well supported at SLU.

And yes, before anyone gets upset, any reference to SanFran is fair game for homosexual references. Period.

[bonwich]

Most common states of residence for class of 2011 (from slu.edu)

Missouri 564

Illinois 425

Ohio 92

Texas 76

Wisconsin 65

Source

PS -- That comprises more than 75% of the class.