cgeldmacher Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 The A-10 is currently composed of 8 catholic institutions and 8 non-catholic institutions. When Temple and Charlotte leave, the numbers will be 8 Catholic - 6 not. If the "Catholic 7" from the Big East join, the numbers would be 15 Catholic - 6 non-Catholic. That's about as "Catholic" as a league can get. I know people have had crazy dreams of a "Catholic" league that spans from Georgetown to Gonzaga, but that's not realistic. These decision are made based upon money and a field hockey team or a swimming team traveling from D.C. to Seattle is not a financially sound concept. I promise everyone that the "Catholic 7" in the Big East think of themselves as the "Basketball Only 7" in the Big East, not the "Catholic 7" for purposes of making a decision. If inviting Butler or VCU to come to their conference makes the most sense in their eyes, as opposed to a Catholic university like SLU, no one at their school is going to stop them and make them choose from a list of Catholic schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUBillsFan Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I wonder if the best play of the A-10 would be to pick off some of/all of the lower level "Catholic/Basketball only 7" schools such as St. Johns, Seton Hall, Providence, and Depaul and expand to up to 18 teams. Basically go to these schools and say "look Marquette, G-Town, & Nova are looking out for themselves. Eventually they'll chase money and leave you holding the bag in a terrible big east conference with no where to go." Essentially offer them the chance to decide their fate rather than letting the bigger names decide for them. After adding these schools, the A-10 can then drop say Fordham, St. Bonaventure, LaSalle, & Rhode Isand to drop back to 14 teams especially since they will still have those markets covered with other teams. Now you have a very solid top to bottom 14 team conference that would be very attractive to the likes of Marquette, G-Town, & Nova. After adding those 3 to expand to 17 you could go after Creighton to expand to 18 or drop George Washington to go down to 16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bk18 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I wonder if the best play of the A-10 would be to pick off some of/all of the lower level "Catholic/Basketball only 7" schools such as St. Johns, Seton Hall, Providence, and Depaul and expand to up to 18 teams. Basically go to these schools and say "look Marquette, G-Town, & Nova are looking out for themselves. Eventually they'll chase money and leave you holding the bag in a terrible big east conference with no where to go." Essentially offer them the chance to decide their fate rather than letting the bigger names decide for them. After adding these schools, the A-10 can then drop say Fordham, St. Bonaventure, LaSalle, & Rhode Isand to drop back to 14 teams especially since they will still have those markets covered with other teams. Now you have a very solid top to bottom 14 team conference that would be very attractive to the likes of Marquette, G-Town, & Nova. After adding those 3 to expand to 17 you could go after Creighton to expand to 18 or drop George Washington to go down to 16. I'd really like to see Fordham and St. Bonaventure go. Maybe even GWU. But is this allowed. Can a conference just give a school the boot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 slightly off topic, but I have now heard this idea from two completely different people, and seeing if anyone else has heard this. talks for the braggin rights game between mizzou and illinois being a little different in the future. It would be the same thing we saw in KC, four teams two night but at the scott trade center. it would be battle of the states between the winner of SLU mizzou and the winner of either northwestern and ILL or SIU and ILL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARon Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 slightly off topic, but I have now heard this idea from two completely different people, and seeing if anyone else has heard this. talks for the braggin rights game between mizzou and illinois being a little different in the future. It would be the same thing we saw in KC, four teams two night but at the scott trade center. it would be battle of the states between the winner of SLU mizzou and the winner of either northwestern and ILL or SIU and ILL. I'LL and Northwestern wouldn't do it because they are in the same conference and do not want to play against each other in a non-con tourney. Are teams allowed to play in multiple regular season tournaments per year? I thought they weren't. If not I doubt Mizzou or Illinois would take part in a tournament with only regional interest when they can go after invites to Maui, Coaches vs Cancer, Battle for Atlantis etc. The same thing would probably keep Marquette out of a tournament centered around Majerus connected schools. Now that doesnt preclude single game special events, just tournaments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NextYearBill Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Rick Majerus Classic. Ball St., Marquette, Utah, and SLU would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 Rick Majerus Classic. Ball St., Marquette, Utah, and SLU would be awesome. actually I think they for sure should do that next season.. everyones wears black warm ups, sounds tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I'LL and Northwestern wouldn't do it because they are in the same conference and do not want to play against each other in a non-con tourney. Are teams allowed to play in multiple regular season tournaments per year? I thought they weren't. If not I doubt Mizzou or Illinois would take part in a tournament with only regional interest when they can go after invites to Maui, Coaches vs Cancer, Battle for Atlantis etc. The same thing would probably keep Marquette out of a tournament centered around Majerus connected schools. Now that doesnt preclude single game special events, just tournaments. i think you are correct aron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I'LL and Northwestern wouldn't do it because they are in the same conference and do not want to play against each other in a non-con tourney. Are teams allowed to play in multiple regular season tournaments per year? I thought they weren't. If not I doubt Mizzou or Illinois would take part in a tournament with only regional interest when they can go after invites to Maui, Coaches vs Cancer, Battle for Atlantis etc. The same thing would probably keep Marquette out of a tournament centered around Majerus connected schools. Now that doesnt preclude single game special events, just tournaments. -I believe the tournament rule is that a team can play in an 'exempt' tourney where all the games played count as just one game, in the example presented the teams could do it but it would count as two games, as there is a limit as to how many games can be on the schedule Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 http://www.suntimes.com/sports/16971737-419/depaul-among-7-catholic-schools-set-for-big-east-exodus.html Sounds like ND might be in play as well. Makes sense for them to be in a basketball only conference. The only problem is would UND being included leave SLU out?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbizzle09 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 http://www.suntimes....ast-exodus.html Sounds like ND might be in play as well. Makes sense for them to be in a basketball only conference. The only problem is would UND being included leave SLU out?! Not sure. It seems to me like the end-game of all of this is one large, basketball-only conference that hits as many major media markets as possible. SLU is in St. Louis and is the only legit D-1 presence in the area (not counting SIU-E.) I think that whoever the decision makers are going to be in this whole situation are going to look at market-size, presence, facilities, etc. when deciding on who is 'in' or 'out' of whatever conference develops from all of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 fan Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 http://www.suntimes.com/sports/16971737-419/depaul-among-7-catholic-schools-set-for-big-east-exodus.html Sounds like ND might be in play as well. Makes sense for them to be in a basketball only conference. The only problem is would UND being included leave SLU out?! ND=Notre Dame? They're off to the ACC for everything but football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 ND=Notre Dame? They're off to the ACC for everything but football.t that or north dakota, dakota would bring a nice level of hockey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettFlight5 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 While people may be dreaming, you thinking makes no sense. Leave the best mid-major conference to be closer to home...ok...yeah... It's been a few minutes since somebody said go back to the MVC. Now there's a new idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 ND=Notre Dame? They're off to the ACC for everything but football. The article linked mentions they might be more interested in a basketball dominated conference for their other sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Not sure if this has been posted yet. http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/21379753/big-east-in-a-state-of-perplexity-with-possible-breakaway Says we were mentioned with butler and Xavier in the Sunday meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 If you think we are bad with the return to MVC talk, some Dayton fans don't want to go to the Big East?!?!?!?! http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/entries/2012/12/11/could_big_east_hoop_schools_be.html/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basketbill Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Interesting article, Zags, St. Mary's want out of the WCC, perhaps a little far fetched but so was San Diego State for Big east football http://www.slipperst...ys-with-the-wcc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJHawk Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Schools like NC and Duke would go to one of the 16 school conferences. Those 64 schools then leave the NCAA to form its own basketball post season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
For-DaLove Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Schools like NC and Duke would go to one of the 16 school conferences. Those 64 schools then leave the NCAA to form its own basketball post season.You're dreaming. There's way too much money in the current set up for college basketball. And a lot of that is due to the possibility of mid-majors upsetting power conference teams in the tourney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Update: 7 Catholic Schools Leaning Towards Leaving Big East http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8742607/seven-catholic-schools-leaning-leaving-big-east-sources-say Also, I don't know where else to post this, but the end of the St. Joe's-Nova upset was entertaining http://deadspin.com/5967898/saint-josephs-player-gives-villanova-fans-the-finger-then-blows-the-game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milwaukeebill Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 -'Nova and Temple in the same tv market and already in the Beast Temple wouldnt be in the Basketball BEAST though correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 You're dreaming. There's way too much money in the current set up for college basketball. And a lot of that is due to the possibility of mid-majors upsetting power conference teams in the tourney. however if the tv world believes that those 64 schools will always compose of the more or less best schools for basketball and football, they will continue to pay them the big bucks and the remaining ncaa schools would become second class and the ncaa money train will slow down considerably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 Butler not being Catholic is its greatest advantage. Same with VCU; that is why the "Catholic 7" like to drop their names. There will not be a "Catholic" conference (although there certainly might be a conference with a lot of or mostly Catholic teams). Some fans may want that but no TV network (EWTN probably does not have an enough air time) wants a Catholic league. I used to think an all Catholic conference would be cool. But in today's politically correct environment I don't think any network would buy the Papal product. Kind of like what's happening with nativity scenes and people talking about turning Xmas into some sort of all encompassing national holiday season w/o any religious overtones, sort of like the Chinese New Year celebration. I don't know why schools like SLU, X, Dayton, Butler, VCU etc don't initiate some closed door sessions with the 7 Beast schools. A really strong powerful BB only conference would be attractive simply from the point that it would serve as an antagonist to the coming 4 power conferences. And once the bigs get FB just the way they want it, ie 4 conferences, you can bet the farm their next step is to get control over hoops, the second ranked cash cow of college sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deutschkind Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 however if the tv world believes that those 64 schools will always compose of the more or less best schools for basketball and football, they will continue to pay them the big bucks and the remaining ncaa schools would become second class and the ncaa money train will slow down considerably. That would be a serious misreading of what makes people watch March Madness, in my opinion. One of the reasons March Madness became so huge is that it draws in people who don't watch a single game of college basketball Nov - Feb, but are glued to their TV for 3 weekends in March. Take away the David v. Goliath upsets in the first round, or Cinderellas in the second weekend, and they will lose a huge portion of the TV audience. Actual fans of the teams competing will still watch, but casual fans will leave in droves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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