Biondi "very positive" regarding Big East

[Box and Won]

I was under the impression that men's soccer is fully funded.

[JMM28]

Do you know this to be a fact or is this your speculation? I would be shocked if we were picked over because we don't fully fund scholarships for women's swimming or track.

Partly speculation, partly I know as a fact in MVC discussions. It isn't necessarily about the women's swimming having 3 scholarships or whatever. It is about the commitment to athletic excellence that Creighton put forward in every single sport not just men's basketball. It costs a lot less to commit to those sports than it does basketball. I don't think baseball allows more than 13 scholarships total? And that is one of the higher end numbers.

I know basketball drives the car, but you still don't want to be the school that is the doormat in every other sport in the conference.

Look at it as each school being a player. Would you rather have the Tommie Liddell that is coasting on his natural talents (market size, etc.) or would you rather have the Kevin Lisch that doesn't have as good of a natural talent but works his ass off for everything he gets (fully funded programs, great donor base, consistent sell outs, etc.)?

[waldo027]

I'm just a message board moron, but I think Creighton got in first because of the MVC's lower exit fee, that's it, nothing more.

[NH]

Partly speculation, partly I know as a fact in MVC discussions. It isn't necessarily about the women's swimming having 3 scholarships or whatever. It is about the commitment to athletic excellence that Creighton put forward in every single sport not just men's basketball. It costs a lot less to commit to those sports than it does basketball. I don't think baseball allows more than 13 scholarships total? And that is one of the higher end numbers.

I know basketball drives the car, but you still don't want to be the school that is the doormat in every other sport in the conference.

Look at it as each school being a player. Would you rather have the Tommie Liddell that is coasting on his natural talents (market size, etc.) or would you rather have the Kevin Lisch that doesn't have as good of a natural talent but works his ass off for everything he gets (fully funded programs, great donor base, consistent sell outs, etc.)?

Unfair criticism to say Tommie coasted on his talent. He worked noticeably on his game over four years. Perhaps he didn't mesh well with Majerus' system and and perhaps that is on him, I don't think you can say he coasted.

Just my two cents.

[kshoe]

As an aside to the whole Creighton vs. SLU thing, I found this post from Holylandofhoops very interesting:

If anyone is curious this is how Creighton's invitation process occurred:
Around the 4th of March they received a call not an invitation but a call with a question: If Creighton was invited would you say yes?
Creighton had already discussed the matter on the board and told the caller that they would say yes.
Creighton then proceeded to hire an attorney for the negotiations they needed to find an attorney that was independent of current conference realignment proceedings. They hired an attorney who had worked with Boston College on their move to the ACC.
Then after waiting about a week they received the formal invite on March 13th with an invitation to the conference and NY for the announcement a week later on the 20th the one we are all familiar with.
Pretty crazy that they made all this happen in really just two weeks.

http://www.holylandofhoops.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1089&sid=33f62b8c79129e5497a65be9374f82e9

Where this really gets interesting is that if you think back to the timeline, on March 5, Jase Bandelow (who works at Fox Sports) had the following tweet:

JASE BANDELOW ‏@JASEBANDELOW

Official word on new C7/Big East today at 3. Big news for #Billikensfans according to source close to situation.

There was quite a bit of speculation for the next few days whether SLU or Creighton would be team number 10. This obviously got resolved to the negative about a week later.

But what this all tells me about the timing was that SLU was likely called on March 4 with the same question and we probably thought we were in at that point (hence the leak to Bandelow). Obviously, the call we received on March 13th was dramatically different than the one Creighton got. That being said and given the lack of panic from any of our administrators, Biondi's recent comments, the recent expansion of the A-10 on the East Coast, the rumors on the UMass message board about the A-10 internal meeting where SLU and Dayton reportedly said they were leaving before 2014-15, and the overwhelming belief by nearly everyone on the two message boards devoted to the Big East that we will be included when they move to 12, I remain confident.

[JettFlight5]

As an aside to the whole Creighton vs. SLU thing, I found this post from Holylandofhoops very interesting:

If anyone is curious this is how Creighton's invitation process occurred:[/size]

Around the 4th of March they received a call not an invitation but a call with a question: If Creighton was invited would you say yes?[/size]

Creighton had already discussed the matter on the board and told the caller that they would say yes.[/size]

Creighton then proceeded to hire an attorney for the negotiations they needed to find an attorney that was independent of current conference realignment proceedings. They hired an attorney who had worked with Boston College on their move to the ACC.[/size]

Then after waiting about a week they received the formal invite on March 13th with an invitation to the conference and NY for the announcement a week later on the 20th the one we are all familiar with.[/size]

Pretty crazy that they made all this happen in really just two weeks.[/size]

http://www.holylandofhoops.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1089&sid=33f62b8c79129e5497a65be9374f82e9

Where this really gets interesting is that if you think back to the timeline, on March 5, Jase Bandelow (who works at Fox Sports) had the following tweet:

JASE BANDELOW ‏@JASEBANDELOW

Official word on new C7/Big East today at 3. Big news for #Billikensfans according to source close to situation.

There was quite a bit of speculation for the next few days whether SLU or Creighton would be team number 10. This obviously got resolved to the negative about a week later.

But what this all tells me about the timing was that SLU was likely called on March 4 with the same question and we probably thought we were in at that point (hence the leak to Bandelow). Obviously, the call we received on March 13th was dramatically different than the one Creighton got. That being said and given the lack of panic from any of our administrators, Biondi's recent comments, the recent expansion of the A-10 on the East Coast, the rumors on the UMass message board about the A-10 internal meeting where SLU and Dayton reportedly said they were leaving before 2014-15, and the overwhelming belief by nearly everyone on the two message boards devoted to the Big East that we will be included when they move to 12, I remain confident.

I think you're probably pretty close to 100% right. I doubt there was any call made to any school outside the 3 "winners" after the early part of March. But your connection of the facts we do have makes sense.

[JMM28]

Agreed with your last point kshoe. Between the recent additions to the A10, the MVC adding Loyola, and the previous rumors I am feeling pretty good about the Big East right now.

If the a10 had added Belmont and Valpo, I'd say we were stuck there for awhile. The MVC was going to wait to see how the Big East shuffle played out specifically in regards to Dayton and SLU, but they just invited Loyola.

[DeSmetBilliken]

As an aside to the whole Creighton vs. SLU thing, I found this post from Holylandofhoops very interesting:

If anyone is curious this is how Creighton's invitation process occurred:[/size]Around the 4th of March they received a call not an invitation but a call with a question: If Creighton was invited would you say yes?[/size]Creighton had already discussed the matter on the board and told the caller that they would say yes.[/size]Creighton then proceeded to hire an attorney for the negotiations they needed to find an attorney that was independent of current conference realignment proceedings. They hired an attorney who had worked with Boston College on their move to the ACC.[/size]Then after waiting about a week they received the formal invite on March 13th with an invitation to the conference and NY for the announcement a week later on the 20th the one we are all familiar with.[/size]Pretty crazy that they made all this happen in really just two weeks.[/size]

http://www.holylandofhoops.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1089&sid=33f62b8c79129e5497a65be9374f82e9

Where this really gets interesting is that if you think back to the timeline, on March 5, Jase Bandelow (who works at Fox Sports) had the following tweet:

JASE BANDELOW ‏@JASEBANDELOW

Official word on new C7/Big East today at 3. Big news for #Billikensfans according to source close to situation.

There was quite a bit of speculation for the next few days whether SLU or Creighton would be team number 10. This obviously got resolved to the negative about a week later.

But what this all tells me about the timing was that SLU was likely called on March 4 with the same question and we probably thought we were in at that point (hence the leak to Bandelow). Obviously, the call we received on March 13th was dramatically different than the one Creighton got. That being said and given the lack of panic from any of our administrators, Biondi's recent comments, the recent expansion of the A-10 on the East Coast, the rumors on the UMass message board about the A-10 internal meeting where SLU and Dayton reportedly said they were leaving before 2014-15, and the overwhelming belief by nearly everyone on the two message boards devoted to the Big East that we will be included when they move to 12, I remain confident.

Good digging. Hopefully something like this is what has actually happened and we will get in.

[kshoe]

I think you're probably pretty close to 100% right. I doubt there was any call made to any school outside the 3 "winners" after the early part of March. But your connection of the facts we do have makes sense.

See, I differ there. I think we probably got a call around the 13th too. It wasn't a pure rejection call but rather a call to tell us that the Big East was only going to 10 now and you are at the top of our list for 2014 when we go to 12. Just keep your mouth shut publicly and we'll bring you in when its time. It certainly fits in with the UMass story about the A-10 tourney meeting.

At least that's what I hope...

[JettFlight5]

See, I differ there. I think we probably got a call around the 13th too. It wasn't a pure rejection call but rather a call to tell us that the Big East was only going to 10 now and you are at the top of our list for 2014 when we go to 12. Just keep your mouth shut publicly and we'll bring you in when its time. It certainly fits in with the UMass story about the A-10 tourney meeting.

At least that's what I hope...

I'm a lot more cynical than you (as far as I gather). The only calls that had to be made were to Xavier/Butler/Creighton, and most of the time, just the minimum is done. If it would have been a pure rejection call, I think SLU would have been more aggressive with the A-10 about the expansion candidates being further west. The "keep your mouth shut" statement is probably 100% accurate as well. Can't have somebody's mouth messing with the progress. The UMass thing is concerning, but if the Big East is going to happen in 2014, I'll take a 1-year A-10 tournament ban. We won't need the conference tournament next year anyway.

[slu72]

Or we got the call on the 4th and the pink message sat on Fr. B's desk while he took off for Asia.

[billikens747]

Nice digging kshoe. I'll drink the kool-aid, keep it coming.

[jimbofive]

I'm just a message board moron, but I think Creighton got in first because of the MVC's lower exit fee, that's it, nothing more.

"message board moron" is fast becoming one of my favorite phrases, right up there with "punkass blowhard".

[kshoe]

I'm a lot more cynical than you (as far as I gather). The only calls that had to be made were to Xavier/Butler/Creighton, and most of the time, just the minimum is done. If it would have been a pure rejection call, I think SLU would have been more aggressive with the A-10 about the expansion candidates being further west. The "keep your mouth shut" statement is probably 100% accurate as well. Can't have somebody's mouth messing with the progress. The UMass thing is concerning, but if the Big East is going to happen in 2014, I'll take a 1-year A-10 tournament ban. We won't need the conference tournament next year anyway.

Agree they didn't HAVE to make a call on the 13th to SLU and Dayton but good business etiquette simply suggests you would. They didn't have to promise anything directly at that time but its not hard to call SLU, tell them they didn't get in but they are at the top of the list for the next round of expansion. Again, if there is any truth to the UMass story of what happened at the A-10 meetings we would only say something like "we plan on leaving before the 2014 season" if we had received a call from the Big East indicating that was a likely outcome.