RM wants to be in the Valley?

[brianstl]

Did anyone watch the Temple/Dukes game? with about two minutes left and the Dukes down by 6 or 7, the Temple guard took about three obvious steps and heaved a prayer as the shot clock expired. All three refs were somehow the only ones watching the game who didn't see the blatant walk. It really affected the outcome of the game.

I saw it, but wasn't suprised. It is what I have come to expect from this league. The A-10 can't even get it right for their biggest game of the year.

[Midwest BB Fan]

Total body of work. You are going to judge a league based on a few head to head games instead of their total body of work? That isn't objective analysis. Five of those six games were at MVC schools. The A-10 was better than the MVC this season. If we can't agree on that, we might as well not move forward with "objective analysis."

Two years for the MVC, the best in its history, during a brief down period for the A-10, under poor A-10 leadership and commissioner shakeup at the top, poor tv package...etc...and it's still two seasons. Prior to those two years, it's been a landslide, and I'm talking recent few years ago memory.

We haven't even discussed the non-basketball things.

I think the A-10 is a great conference, but I think the the MVC is just as good, and better on some dimensions, when it comes to basketball. Since the major conferance realignment in 2004, what total body of work are you referencing besides Conference RPI, NCAA bids, NCAA results, and head-to-head results? All of those measures would indicate that the two conferences are practically at the same level of quality for basketball for the last 5 seasons. Again, I'm referring to true conference strength and not equating a conference position due to the level of a single program like Memphis in CUSA and Gonzaga in the Big West.

I would put the A-10, MWC, and MVC is the first tier of conferences outside of the BCS leagues. The MWC, which is a pretty well run league, just signed a head-to-head agreement with the MVC for the next few years. With all the effort, the MWC is putting into achieving BCS-level stature, there is no way they would agree to such an arrangement if they did not view playing the MVC as something that would strengthen their non-conference schedules.

Based on the typical school profile, I understand why SLU would not want to throw themselves into an academic relationship with the like of Ill St, Southern Ill and Northern Iowa, but that is based on academics and not quality of hoops. Perhaps the A10 could (or would be interested) in trying to pull in Butler, DePaul, and Bradley to create a six-team western division with X, Dayton, and SLU. The league could then slice off some of the east coast bottom dwellers, like Fordham.

[brownwolves]

Taj79- "As for the schools and the turnout in AC --- the Bonnies I'd give a C-minus to. At least they were there. Go Brown Indians!!!!!! Bob Lanier was a Brown Indian.

Thank you 79. We're trying. Yes, there is plenty of sweet smoke here in Western New York. The turnout for the games here is improving. Our changing demographics and just plain people moving on due to no jobs or better jobs somewhere and the Big Blowup when Coach Baron left really hurt this small ruraltropolus of Olean, NY. Attendance is improving - what else are you going do do when your stuck here in the middle of winter???

RickMa will be long gone before you leave the A-10. After he threw Tommy Lidell under the bus with his comments after they played the Bonnies here, doesn't make me think he's a quality coach. Also, if SLU thinks that just because you play in the A-10 your going to start getting all of these recruits from NYC and Philly your dreaming.

Go Brown Indians!!!!!!

[Bay Area Billiken]

Taj79- "As for the schools and the turnout in AC --- the Bonnies I'd give a C-minus to. At least they were there. Go Brown Indians!!!!!! Bob Lanier was a Brown Indian.

Thank you 79. We're trying. Yes, there is plenty of sweet smoke here in Western New York. The turnout for the games here is improving. Our changing demographics and just plain people moving on due to no jobs or better jobs somewhere and the Big Blowup when Coach Baron left really hurt this small ruraltropolus of Olean, NY. Attendance is improving - what else are you going do do when your stuck here in the middle of winter???

RickMa will be long gone before you leave the A-10. After he threw Tommy Lidell under the bus with his comments after they played the Bonnies here, doesn't make me think he's a quality coach. Also, if SLU thinks that just because you play in the A-10 your going to start getting all of these recruits from NYC and Philly your dreaming.

Go Brown Indians!!!!!!

Brown Indians, again peace be with you on an early Sunday morning on the Left Coast.

I don't believe at this point that SLU is expecting to suddenly start getting basketball recruits from NYC and Philly. SLU does have a national and international basketball recruiting focus, as evidenced by this year's freshman class and the incoming class.

But by being in the A-10, Saint Louis University does get increased East Coast exposure, which hopefully is benefiting the University as a whole.

As for basketball visibility on the East Coast, just this past week, Coach Majerus was interviewed by Mike Francesa on WFAN in NYC, and a principal sports columnist in the Phiadelphia Inquirer had a column about Majerus.

[AlumniFan]

So who is it good for? Baseball? Soccer? Tell me, informed one!

It's about the entire school, its goals, its identity, etc., NOT just sports. Your reply ("Baseball? Soccer?") shows how myopic you and most (not all) people are on this board. So many people think that the choice of conference, for SLU, begins and ends with the basketball team. That may be true for many schools, but it absolutely is not true for SLU and at least numerous other schools that share SLU's perspective.

Believe what you want to satisfy you desires to have SLU in the MVC.

[satrap]

While I think the product on the court is better than the MVC, I think it's a mickey mouse operation.

moytoy is usually the most trenchant observer of SLU hoops, but I never understand what that means, even when Ramsey says the same thing. Besides arcane discussions of the failure of The Devil Linda Blair, or whatever the previous conference commissioner's name was, to get a great basketball contract on TV, what are you referring to?

Here is, in a nutshell, the theoretical advantage of the A10, by my logic: The Eastern US is the nexus of University prestige in the USA and the world. The Eastern US is the media center of the US and world. Therefore membership within and among that group has potential advantages that could never, ever be replicated elsewhere (on a similar playing field i.e not the Big 10 or Big 12). SLU entered, and will remain, on that basis.

[lefty]

moytoy is usually the most trenchant observer of SLU hoops, but I never understand what that means, even when Ramsey says the same thing. Besides arcane discussions of the failure of The Devil Linda Blair, or whatever the previous conference commissioner's name was, to get a great basketball contract on TV, what are you referring to?

Here is, in a nutshell, the theoretical advantage of the A10, by my logic: The Eastern US is the nexus of University prestige in the USA and the world. The Eastern US is the media center of the US and world. Therefore membership within and among that group has potential advantages that could never, ever be replicated elsewhere (on a similar playing field i.e not the Big 10 or Big 12). SLU entered, and will remain, on that basis.

The key word above is "potential" and, as long as the Big East and ACC exist, there will be only paltry leftovers remaining for others less fortunate.

[MB73]

It's about the entire school, its goals, its identity, etc., NOT just sports. Your reply ("Baseball? Soccer?") shows how myopic you and most (not all) people are on this board. So many people think that the choice of conference, for SLU, begins and ends with the basketball team. That may be true for many schools, but it absolutely is not true for SLU and at least numerous other schools that share SLU's perspective.

Believe what you want to satisfy you desires to have SLU in the MVC.

"The entire school, its goals, its identity"? Yep, I heard that before... irrelevant! We are talking hoops.

I get it, Biondi thinks that way, I have heard the arguments, sounds like Obamacrapolla

[AlumniFan]

"The entire school, its goals, its identity"? Yep, I heard that before... irrelevant! We are talking hoops.

I get it, Biondi thinks that way, I have heard the arguments, sounds like Obamacrapolla

'irrelevant'? Wow! You are so remarkably clueless on this University.

[brianstl]

The argument about being in an east coast conference to recruit students from those large Catholic areas is rapidly becoming a worthless one. If you read any of the information in the latest study of religion in America you would have seen how the numbers of Catholics on the east coast is starting to bottom out. Even more disturbing for student recruiting numbers is the Catholics that remain there tend to be older and not the age that SLU would be recruiting. If we were going to be in a conference to recruit Catholic students from we should be in a conference with a base in the southwest not the northeast. The student recruitment argument would have been a good one 20-30 years ago, but it doesn't fly anymore.

[MusicCityBilliken]

The argument about being in an east coast conference to recruit students from those large Catholic areas is rapidly becoming a worthless one. If you read any of the information in the latest study of religion in America you would have seen how the numbers of Catholics on the east coast is starting to bottom out. Even more disturbing for student recruiting numbers is the Catholics that remain there tend to be older and not the age that SLU would be recruiting. If we were going to be in a conference to recruit Catholic students from we should be in a conference with a base in the southwest not the northeast. The student recruitment argument would have been a good one 20-30 years ago, but it doesn't fly anymore.

I don't believe it has anything to do with the religion. You look at SLU religion make-up I think it is around 50% Catholic (I know a lot of students say they are not Catholic to get out of theology requirements, at least that was it when I went). Have you checked the tuition/room & board of SLU? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 grand/yr. You are right Catholicism has grown in the southwest. The reason for that is the influx of Hispanics. Generally speaking, majority of these Hispanics recently arrived and don't have that kind of money. Now if you look at the richest zip codes in the USA. Outside of Chicago and west coast cities, overwhelming majority are suburbs of the northeast cities (NYC-include Long Island, No. NJ and SW Conn, Washington, Phil, etc..). That's the market Bondi wants and needs to tap for SLU to survive.

[brianstl]

I don't believe it has anything to do with the religion. You look at SLU religion make-up I think it is around 50% Catholic (I know a lot of students say they are not Catholic to get out of theology requirements, at least that was it when I went). Have you checked the tuition/room & board of SLU? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 grand/yr. You are right Catholicism has grown in the southwest. The reason for that is the influx of Hispanics. Generally speaking, majority of these Hispanics recently arrived and don't have that kind of money. Now if you look at the richest zip codes in the USA. Outside of Chicago and west coast cities, overwhelming majority are suburbs of the northeast cities (NYC-include Long Island, No. NJ and SW Conn, Washington, Phil, etc..). That's the market Bondi wants and needs to tap for SLU to survive.

It was not just the immigrant population that led to the rapidly rising number of Catholics in the south and southwest. It was the descendants of the Catholics form the industrial midwest and the northeast that have moved to those areas following jobs. Wealth and population have been moving south and west for years now.

[moytoy12]

moytoy is usually the most trenchant observer of SLU hoops, but I never understand what that means, even when Ramsey says the same thing. Besides arcane discussions of the failure of The Devil Linda Blair, or whatever the previous conference commissioner's name was, to get a great basketball contract on TV, what are you referring to?

Here is, in a nutshell, the theoretical advantage of the A10, by my logic: The Eastern US is the nexus of University prestige in the USA and the world. The Eastern US is the media center of the US and world. Therefore membership within and among that group has potential advantages that could never, ever be replicated elsewhere (on a similar playing field i.e not the Big 10 or Big 12). SLU entered, and will remain, on that basis.

Fair point. I find the scheduling, tv/internet exposure, and officiating to be very poor ("mickey mouse") aspects of the conference. As I'm thinking about this, I'm not sure how we compare to other conferences in these aspects.

Further, I think the conference needs to take a real look at its number of members and the commitment from those members.

[brianstl]

Here are two good links on both state income growth and population growth.

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/s...007/spi0307.htm

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/doc...22007-sort.html

[MusicCityBilliken]

It was not just the immigrant population that led to the rapidly rising number of Catholics in the south and southwest. It was the descendants of the Catholics form the industrial midwest and the northeast that have moved to those areas following jobs. Wealth and population have been moving south and west for years now.

Brian, I live and lived in the south most of my adult life. Catholicism has grown in the south because of 2 things, retirees and Hispanics. I went to church last night for 5pm Mass in Hendersonville, NC (near Asheville), I am in my mid-50's and I was the by far the youngest and only one with a kid. Also, every Catholic Church in the south has a 12n or 1pm Spanish Mass. Having done some volunteering at these Masses because I speak some Spanish and have a Social Work degree, most of the Hispanics have recently arrived.

[MusicCityBilliken]

Here are two good links on both state income growth and population growth.

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/s...007/spi0307.htm

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/doc...22007-sort.html

Here is a list of richest zip codes.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/22/cx_sc_042...ml?boxes=custom

[brianstl]

Here is a list of richest zip codes.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/22/cx_sc_042...ml?boxes=custom

How many kids to you think we have a chance to get from those zip codes?

If those kids are not going to an Ivy or Patriot school, the school that they are going to be attending in St. Louis is is Wash U and not SLU. SLU Gets kid from middle to upper middle class backgrounds for the most part. The school is not loading up on kids from old money families on the east coast. It never has and never will. Trying to get kids from those zip codes is a monumental waste of time.

[MusicCityBilliken]

How many kids to you think we have a chance to get from those zip codes?

If those kids are not going to an Ivy or Patriot school, the school that they are going to be attending in St. Louis is is Wash U and not SLU. SLU Gets kid from middle to upper middle class backgrounds for the most part. The school is not loading up on kids from old money families on the east coast. It never has and never will. Trying to get kids from those zip codes is a monumental waste of time.

Years ago in the Univertatis they used have the alum figures from Alumni Clubs. Cities like NY, Washington and Boston had very nice numbers. Atlanta is the only Alumni Club I know of in the south outside of Florida. I would bet the average age of members of Florida is quite mature. A lot kids including myself and would bet even more today, are from the Northeast.

You go into the south and for the most part they have never even heard of SLU. The big prestige thing is what SEC or ACC school you graduated from. I try to make it to most Bills games when they play down here. Unfortunately it is now only Charlotte. Charlotte would always have a few SLU alums I would meet because of the banking industry (this may have changed). When I went to USM, UAB or ECU, they see me with a blue Billiken tee and they look at me like I came in from the moon. Also, sometimes I get close to our bench, like in the case of USM and ECU and I even get this look from our coaches and players>"why are you here"

[brianstl]

Years ago in the Univertatis they used have the alum figures from Alumni Clubs. Cities like NY, Washington and Boston had very nice numbers. Atlanta is the only Alumni Club I know of in the south outside of Florida. I would bet the average age of members of Florida is quite mature. A lot kids including myself and would bet even more today, are from the Northeast selected SLU.

You go into the south and for the most part they have never even heard of SLU. The big prestige thing is what SEC or ACC school you graduated from. I try to make it to most Bills games when they play down here. Unfortunately it is now only Charlotte. Charlotte would always have a few SLU alums I would meet because of the banking industry (this may have changed). When I went to USM, UAB or ECU, they see me with a blue Billiken tee and they look at me like I came in from the moon. Also, sometimes I get close to our bench, like in the case of USM and ECU and I even get this look from our coaches and players>"why are you here"

The fact that we have no presence in those markets is even more of a reason to be in a conference with a southwestern tilt than in one with a northeastern tilt.

Look, I don't buy that arguement when it comes to being in the A-10 or another conference with a southwest tilt. The fact is that the arguement that being in the A-10 to attract students to SLU from the east can be shown to be a very week arguement. It is a region of the country that is losing young Catholics at an alarming rate. Now if SLU wants to drop the school's Catholic indentification and load up on increasingly secular student base strongly opposed to some of the most basic teachings of the Catholic faith....you can make the argument that it makes sense to be in the A-10 to attract students.

[courtside]

The better choice at the time for SLU was the A-10 over the MVC, and it still remains the better choice today.

[AlumniFan]

The fact that we have no presence in those markets is even more of a reason to be in a conference with a southwestern tilt than in one with a northeastern tilt.

Look, I don't buy that arguement when it comes to being in the A-10 or another conference with a southwest tilt. The fact is that the arguement that being in the A-10 to attract students to SLU from the east can be shown to be a very week arguement. It is a region of the country that is losing young Catholics at an alarming rate. Now if SLU wants to drop the school's Catholic indentification and load up on increasingly secular student base strongly opposed to some of the most basic teachings of the Catholic faith....you can make the argument that it makes sense to be in the A-10 to attract students.

Tell that to the BOT.

[brianstl]

Tell that to the BOT.

The BOT is a lot like the St Louis area as a whole. Too many people want to live in the past instead of the future. The east is now overloaded with Catholic universities with a dwindling Catholic population. You add to that schools like SLU, Marquette, DePaul, and Notre Dame that have joined eastern conferences in some measure to help get students out of the area and you got a large number of schools that will be competing for an increasingly smaller number of kids. It is not a wise use of SLU resources.

How many great Catholic universities are in the south or the southwest? Not many come to mind. This is where the future is for schools like SLU. The sooner SLU figures this out the better. I hope people are not shying away from these facts because we are talking about a population that includes a lot of children and grandchildren of immigrants. The children and grandchildren of immigrants are a large part of what made Notre Dame what it is today.

[GOSLU68]

The BOT is a lot like the St Louis area as a whole. Too many people want to live in the past instead of the future. The east is now overloaded with Catholic universities with a dwindling Catholic population. You add to that schools like SLU, Marquette, DePaul, and Notre Dame that have joined eastern conferences in some measure to help get students out of the area and you got a large number of schools that will be competing for an increasingly smaller number of kids. It is not a wise use of SLU resources.

How many great Catholic universities are in the south or the southwest? Not many come to mind. This is where the future is for schools like SLU. The sooner SLU figures this out the better. I hope people are not shying away from these facts because we are talking about a population that includes a lot of children and grandchildren of immigrants. The children and grandchildren of immigrants are a large part of what made Notre Dame what it is today.

and here I thought football is what made Notre Dame what it is today a University in the middle of a cornfield

[AlumniFan]

The BOT is a lot like the St Louis area as a whole. Too many people want to live in the past instead of the future. The east is now overloaded with Catholic universities with a dwindling Catholic population. You add to that schools like SLU, Marquette, DePaul, and Notre Dame that have joined eastern conferences in some measure to help get students out of the area and you got a large number of schools that will be competing for an increasingly smaller number of kids. It is not a wise use of SLU resources.

How many great Catholic universities are in the south or the southwest? Not many come to mind. This is where the future is for schools like SLU. The sooner SLU figures this out the better. I hope people are not shying away from these facts because we are talking about a population that includes a lot of children and grandchildren of immigrants. The children and grandchildren of immigrants are a large part of what made Notre Dame what it is today.

With all due respect, I think I have a little more confidence in the BOT than a guy on an internet board. Maybe the progress SLU has made in the past 15 years does not mean much to you (academic standing, campus rebirth, Chaifetz Arena, hiring Majerus, Doisy, etc.), but a lot of people are pretty impressed with what Biondi and the BOT has done. They do not take big decisions lightly and I think they did a little more research on this than you. I am not trying to be pejorative, but just realistic about the decision to join the A10 and the motives behind that decision.

Here are some facts:

SLU has alumni clubs in the following cities, covering a very diverse geographical area.

Atlanta + Boston + Chicago + Cincinnati + Cleveland +

Dallas/Ft. Worth + Denver + Detroit + Houston + Kansas

City + Los Angeles + Louisville + Milwaukee + Minneapolis/

St. Paul + New York City + Omaha + Philadelphia + San

Francisco + Seattle/Tacoma + Springfield, Ill. + Tampa/St.

Petersburg + Washington, D.C. + Taiwan + Thailand

Catholics in the U.S. are dramatically and significantly more concentrated in Pennsylvania, NJ, New York, Conn., Rhode Island, Mass., Vermont, Maryland, and New Hampshire than anywhere else in the U.S. It will likely be decades, if ever, before other areas catch up. And even if they do, the geographic dispersion is HUGE. The other areas where Catholics are concentrated are southern and western Texas, New Mexico, Montana, the Dakota, Wisconsin, southern Colorado, and then spread out in non-populous states like Iowa, Nebraska, northern Illinois, and Kansas. None of these latter areas come even remotely close to the Northeast in terms of the concentration of Catholics. Moreover, these other areas do not lend themselves at all to any other logical conference affilitation.

Interestingly, Missouri, outside of St. Louis, is not considered a heavily Catholic state at all.

Additionally, having been involved with mentoring students, doing calls to prospective students, etc. I agree with the poster who mentioned that SLU's student population has a large representation of non-Catholics. However, many of them still come from the Northeast, Catholic or not. It was that way back in the 1980's and it is still, if not more so, that way today.

I like the schools we compete with in the A10 and we have a lot of history with teams like Dayton, Xavier, and Charlotte. I just cannot get excited about playing Wichita State, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Indiana State, Drake, etc. We already have good rivalries with SIU-C and Southwest so there is no argument there. Plus, talk about a travel nightmare! Can you imagine getting to some of these small towns by bus all the time? NO THANKS!!!

[brianstl]

With all due respect, I think I have a little more confidence in the BOT than a guy on an internet board. Maybe the progress SLU has made in the past 15 years does not mean much to you (academic standing, campus rebirth, Chaifetz Arena, hiring Majerus, Doisy, etc.), but a lot of people are pretty impressed with what Biondi and the BOT has done. They do not take big decisions lightly and I think they did a little more research on this than you. I am not trying to be pejorative, but just realistic about the decision to join the A10 and the motives behind that decision.

Here are some facts:

SLU has alumni clubs in the following cities, covering a very diverse geographical area.

Atlanta + Boston + Chicago + Cincinnati + Cleveland +

Dallas/Ft. Worth + Denver + Detroit + Houston + Kansas

City + Los Angeles + Louisville + Milwaukee + Minneapolis/

St. Paul + New York City + Omaha + Philadelphia + San

Francisco + Seattle/Tacoma + Springfield, Ill. + Tampa/St.

Petersburg + Washington, D.C. + Taiwan + Thailand

Catholics in the U.S. are dramatically and significantly more concentrated in Pennsylvania, NJ, New York, Conn., Rhode Island, Mass., Vermont, Maryland, and New Hampshire than anywhere else in the U.S. It will likely be decades, if ever, before other areas catch up. And even if they do, the geographic dispersion is HUGE. The other areas where Catholics are concentrated are southern and western Texas, New Mexico, Montana, the Dakota, Wisconsin, southern Colorado, and then spread out in non-populous states like Iowa, Nebraska, northern Illinois, and Kansas. None of these latter areas come even remotely close to the Northeast in terms of the concentration of Catholics. Moreover, these other areas do not lend themselves at all to any other logical conference affilitation.

Interestingly, Missouri, outside of St. Louis, is not considered a heavily Catholic state at all.

Additionally, having been involved with mentoring students, doing calls to prospective students, etc. I agree with the poster who mentioned that SLU's student population has a large representation of non-Catholics. However, many of them still come from the Northeast, Catholic or not. It was that way back in the 1980's and it is still, if not more so, that way today.

I like the schools we compete with in the A10 and we have a lot of history with teams like Dayton, Xavier, and Charlotte. I just cannot get excited about playing Wichita State, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Indiana State, Drake, etc. We already have good rivalries with SIU-C and Southwest so there is no argument there. Plus, talk about a travel nightmare! Can you imagine getting to some of these small towns by bus all the time? NO THANKS!!!

I guess you haven't read the latest study of religion in by Pew and others. It has already changed and the northeast is being passed. The Catholics that tend to ramain there older overall than Catholics in the rest of the country.

From the USA today:

Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest have faded as immigrants, retirees and young job-seekers have moved to the Sun Belt. While bishops from the Midwest to Massachusetts close down or consolidate historic parishes, those in the South are scrambling to serve increasing numbers of worshipers.

"It's not that everyone in New England lost their Catholic faith since 1990. It's not the same people in New England," says sociologist Mary Gautier, senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, the research arm of the Catholic Church in America.

Membership in New England's Catholic churches is shrinking as older Catholics have died or moved to sunnier climates. Young adults are choosing non-Catholic partners, having civil weddings and skipping baptism for their babies. And those moving in to areas served by the churches are young adults who often find their communities of work and friendship online, not in parish halls.

"I sometimes wish I had a sky hook to take people from dying parishes up North and plunk them down in the parishes around Austin or Atlanta — and bring their beautiful buildings with them," Gautier says.

Bishop Gregory Aymond would be happy to have those resources in Austin. He's spiritually delighted and financially challenged as his Texas diocese has doubled in numbers with retirees, Mexican immigrants, students at five major universities and Californians moving in for high-tech jobs.

"And demographers expect it to double again in the next 10 to 12 years," he says.

In Mount Pleasant, S.C., a suburb of Charleston, "everyone from Ohio is here," says Msgr. James Carter, pastor of Christ Our King Catholic Church. The church has grown so big so fast that it has spun off another parish and a mission church, and it plans outdoor split-shift services for Easter to accommodate about 2,500 families.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009...gion-ARIS_N.htm

From the Boston Globe:

The Catholic population in New England, long the most Catholic region in the country, is plummeting, according to a large survey of religious affiliation in the United States.

The American Religious Identification Survey, a national study being released today by Trinity College in Hartford, finds that the Catholic population of New England fell by more than 1 million in the past two decades, even while the overall population of the region was growing. The study, based on 54,000 telephone interviews conducted last year, found that the six-state region is now 36 percent Catholic, down from 50 percent in 1990.

In Massachusetts, the decline is particularly striking - in 1990, Catholics made up a majority of the state, with 54 percent of the residents, but in 2008, the Catholic population was 39 percent. At the same time, the percentage of the state's residents who say they have no religious affiliation rose sharply, from 8 percent to 22 percent.

The Trinity study finds that, even as the number and percentage of Catholics in New England are falling, the percentage in the Southwest and West is growing, so that in California the population is 37 percent Catholic, up from 29 percent in 1990, and in Texas it is 32 percent Catholic, up from 23 percent.

The Vatican has recognized the demographic shift - in 2007 Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Daniel DiNardo of Houston the first cardinal in the American South.

"The other thing is that New England Catholics have become sort of like New England Protestants - not particularly attached" to religion, he said. Northern New England is now less religious than the Pacific Northwest - long the nation's least religious region - the study found.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...holics_tumbles/