O.T. The ever shrinking mid majors bids

[BLIKNS]

Was having a discussion about the Big XII being the best conference for basketball. The other person was saying  , Texas and Oklahoma are leaving.  Yes, but BYU, Cincinnati ,Houston and UCF are coming in... Made me think , there goes 4 potential mid major conference champion or at large bids , plus you have to figure San Diego State will be in either the Big XII or the Pac 12ish.  , plus whoever else joins.. So now you have Houston and San Diego State in the Sweet Sixteen , but they will be in the P5  soon... 

What happens with the ASUN - WAC merger to form a new conference for football.  Does they get another automatic bid for that conference champion?  Yes that would give another mid major bid, but that would take away an at large bid

[ACE]

10 minutes ago, BLIKNS said:

Was having a discussion about the Big XII being the best conference for basketball. The other person was saying  , Texas and Oklahoma are leaving.  Yes, but BYU, Cincinnati ,Houston and UCF are coming in... Made me think , there goes 4 potential mid major conference champion or at large bids , plus you have to figure San Diego State will be in either the Big XII or the Pac 12ish.  , plus whoever else joins.. So now you have Houston and San Diego State in the Sweet Sixteen , but they will be in the P5  soon... 

What happens with the ASUN - WAC merger to form a new conference for football.  Does they get another automatic bid for that conference champion?  Yes that would give another mid major bid, but that would take away an at large bid

I agree, there are factors working against SLU and mid majors that are far bigger than who our coach is. San Diego State to the Pac 12 is expected to be finalized soon.

[Bay Area Billiken]

SLU needs to get into the Big East.

[Schasz]

4 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

SLU needs to get into the Big East.

We agree...only caveat SLU must get better first. Last time they expanded they took Butler and Creighton. Butler was the one that sure surprised me, but they were arguably a bit better. Like I said before Rick Majerus death was very untimely for SLU. Had he lived long enough I'm pretty sure the Bills would be in the Big East now.

[Pistol]

[Bay Area Billiken]

1 hour ago, Schasz said:

We agree...only caveat SLU must get better first. Last time they expanded they took Butler and Creighton. Butler was the one that sure surprised me, but they were arguably a bit better. Like I said before Rick Majerus death was very untimely for SLU. Had he lived long enough I'm pretty sure the Bills would be in the Big East now.

I was literally at the Eiffel Tower in Paris when my cell phone started exploding with calls from the 314, that Rick Majerus had taken a medical leave of absence.  As fate would have it, many of us were at his last game as SLU Coach, a close Round of 32 Loss to #1 seed Michigan State and Draymond Green.

[BigMouthBilliken]

1 hour ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

SLU needs to get into the Big East.

That would be ideal but doesn’t seem likely. If the Big 10 can have teams in Los Angeles, CA and Rutgers, NJ I wouldn’t be surprised if the Big East calls up Gonzaga and St. Mary’s to add to their basketball centric conference 

[Bay Area Billiken]

2 minutes ago, BigMouthBilliken said:

That would be ideal but doesn’t seem likely. If the Big 10 can have teams in Los Angeles, CA and Rutgers, NJ I wouldn’t be surprised if the Big East calls up Gonzaga and St. Mary’s to add to their basketball centric conference 

St. Mary's basketball brand has certainly risen, but St. Mary's still plays in a 3,500 seat de facto high school gym, has an enrollment of 3,761, of which 2,675 are undergraduates (both as of 2018 per Wikipedia), and has an endowment of $215M as of 2021.  St. Mary's and Coach Randy Bennett are very skittish about playing too much outside the Western United States.  I could be wrong, but I don't see St. Mary's as a viable Big East candidate.

Gonzaga would already be in the Big East if it wasn't in Spokane, Washington.

[BigMouthBilliken]

14 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

St. Mary's basketball brand has certainly risen, but St. Mary's still plays in a 3,500 seat de facto high school gym, has an enrollment of 3,761, of which 2,675 are undergraduates (both as of 2018 per Wikipedia), and has an endowment of $215M as of 2021.  St. Mary's and Coach Randy Bennett are very skittish about playing too much outside the Western United States.  I could be wrong, but I don't see St. Mary's as a viable Big East candidate.

Gonzaga would already be in the Big East if it wasn't in Spokane, Washington.

Makes sense. But could they play at a stadium in San Fran? Kind of how St Johns plays at MSG, Georgetown at the Capital One Arena, and Marquette at the Fiserv Forum. Not out of the realm of possibility, especially when $$$ is involved 

[cgeldmacher]

2 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

SLU needs to get into the Big East.

I still think schools need to keep an open mind to the idea of a basketball only conference.  The concept is not as unusual as its sounds.  There are some schools whose sports teams are in 4 or 5 different conferences.  This is usually if they have a sport that their regular conference does not support (hockey, water polo, crew, etc.)

Let's get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Dayton, VCU, Memphis to join SLU in this basketball only situation.  You can add a few more from the A-10 (St. Joe's, Rhodey, Richmond) or from other conferences (UNLV, Tulane, Boise St., Drake).  Then, we can decide if we want to leave our other teams in the A-10 or if it would make more sense to move them to the Missouri Valley.

I think that in the changing landscape of the NCAA, we are going to need to land in a bigger situation or risk sliding down the hill with a diminished A-10.  I don't think we can wait on the Big East.

[Lord Elrond]

18 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I still think schools need to keep an open mind to the idea of a basketball only conference.  The concept is not as unusual as its sounds.  There are some schools whose sports teams are in 4 or 5 different conferences.  This is usually if they have a sport that their regular conference does not support (hockey, water polo, crew, etc.)

Let's get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Dayton, VCU, Memphis to join SLU in this basketball only situation.  You can add a few more from the A-10 (St. Joe's, Rhodey, Richmond) or from other conferences (UNLV, Tulane, Boise St., Drake).  Then, we can decide if we want to leave our other teams in the A-10 or if it would make more sense to move them to the Missouri Valley.

I think that in the changing landscape of the NCAA, we are going to need to land in a bigger situation or risk sliding down the hill with a diminished A-10.  I don't think we can wait on the Big East.

It’s probably not a bad idea to have football only conferences, basketball only conferences, and everything else conferences. The Football only conferences deal with football tv deals, the basketball only conferences deal with basketball tv deals, and you have everything else in another conference. That way you maximize tv money for each sport, and minimize expenses for the other teams. However, given how the conferences have become marketing tools for the schools in them, I don’t expect this to happen ever.  The only way it would happen is if you were starting from scratch.  

[slufan13]

I honestly think we should look to see if the Big East would take us. We kind of make sense in terms of what kind of school they're looking for. I know it's a little bit of a unique idea but it just seems like the Big East would be an interesting conversation. 

[wgstl]

3 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

I honestly think we should look to see if the Big East would take us. We kind of make sense in terms of what kind of school they're looking for. I know it's a little bit of a unique idea but it just seems like the Big East would be an interesting conversation. 

BE is a dream, I think we should up a level locally first, maybe the B12/10

[thatskablamo]

31 minutes ago, BigMouthBilliken said:

Makes sense. But could they play at a stadium in San Fran? Kind of how St Johns plays at MSG, Georgetown at the Capital One Arena, and Marquette at the Fiserv Forum. Not out of the realm of possibility, especially when $$$ is involved 

Logistically, Moraga would be closer to Oakland (12 miles as the swallow flies) and the now-tenantless Oracle Arena than San Fran, now that the Warriors have left for the new Chase Arena. Like the idea, but SF would be a haul even on the BART from the Orinda stop. 

[Brighton]

This Big East talk needs to cease. We missed our chance. 

[Lord Elrond]

14 minutes ago, thatskablamo said:

Logistically, Moraga would be closer to Oakland (12 miles as the swallow flies) and the now-tenantless Oracle Arena than San Fran, now that the Warriors have left for the new Chase Arena. Like the idea, but SF would be a haul even on the BART from the Orinda stop. 

They could try a home game or two in one of those arenas if they wanted, see if the revenue and fans in the seats outweigh the logistical problems…

[Schasz]

1 hour ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

I was literally at the Eiffel Tower in Paris when my cell phone started exploding with calls from the 314, that Rick Majerus had taken a medical leave of absence.  As fate would have it, many of us were at his last game as SLU Coach, a close Round of 32 Loss to #1 seed Michigan State and Draymond Green.

Bay Area,

I was unable to attend that game in person but watched it and thought that Bills team was going to pull off the upset that day. I was super proud of their effort in that game. Green was a difference maker for Sparty. My very best friend when I lived in St. Louis was at the game and partied with the SLU contingent (guess they had a tent or something like that after that game. His daughter was a MSU Alum. Sure wish we had Rick at a much earlier time of his life. He was a terrific HC and was glad SLU had him for the time we did! Flew back home to watch the Bills play at Chaifetz while he was HC.

[Schasz]

33 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

It’s probably not a bad idea to have football only conferences, basketball only conferences, and everything else conferences. The Football only conferences deal with football tv deals, the basketball only conferences deal with basketball tv deals, and you have everything else in another conference. That way you maximize tv money for each sport, and minimize expenses for the other teams. However, given how the conferences have become marketing tools for the schools in them, I don’t expect this to happen ever.  The only way it would happen is if you were starting from scratch.  

Problem with this notion is the P-5 schools are not only football schools but many have excellent basketball teams, baseball teams, etc. I do think the NCAA is pretty neat when you see a FDU(16) beat Purdue(1). I know it's only happened twice, but found myself rooting for FDU. Actually remember at some time in history SLU played them in hoops and I believe it might have been in the old Kiel Auditorium days. Also I'm positive many on here got a huge kick out of Princeton beating Mizzou. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

1 hour ago, BigMouthBilliken said:

Makes sense. But could they play at a stadium in San Fran? Kind of how St Johns plays at MSG, Georgetown at the Capital One Arena, and Marquette at the Fiserv Forum. Not out of the realm of possibility, especially when $$$ is involved 

My answer is No. St. Mary’s is a small school in Contra Costa County, East Bay, with a relatively small following. USF, Cal and Stanford, are San Francisco’s teams. 

[aj_arete]

SLU had a good enough schedule to get an at-large bid, but the near miss at Auburn hurt.  They outplayed Auburn for much of the game, but couldn't seal the deal.  Then on the other end of the spectrum was the bad loss to SIUE.  If they could have pulled out a couple of more wins, then I think they could have gotten the at-large bid.  Having said that, I think the SLU administration made a short-sighted mistake in not pulling the plug on Travis Ford.  I think he's a solid mid-major coach, but I expect SLU to be making multiple at-large bids with their facilities and NIL infrastructure.  We need to stop thinking small and do an upgrade.  

[dennis_w]

you may get your wish AFTER next season, but suffer you must until at least 2024

[Soderball]

On 3/21/2023 at 1:17 PM, Bay Area Billiken said:

I was literally at the Eiffel Tower in Paris when my cell phone started exploding with calls from the 314, that Rick Majerus had taken a medical leave of absence.  As fate would have it, many of us were at his last game as SLU Coach, a close Round of 32 Loss to #1 seed Michigan State and Draymond Green.

I was there. Those were the good times. I've never been more optimistic after a loss than that day. Just before we had watched SPUMAC and "faith in haith" get taken down by... Norfolk State. And Coach K got way more Lehigh than he ever wanted in his life.

 

That was truly the best basketball trip i've ever been on.

[Bay Area Billiken]

On 3/21/2023 at 12:44 PM, Lord Elrond said:

They could try a home game or two in one of those arenas if they wanted, see if the revenue and fans in the seats outweigh the logistical problems…

St. Mary's does not have that large of a fanbase.  USF, which has a larger alumni base, has played a game each season at Chase Center to sparse crowds.  St. Mary's in Moraga is really close, just on the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel from Cal in Berkeley.  Cal, the flagship campus of the University of California, has a large alumni base, played at the Oakland Coliseum (Oracle) Arena and filled the lower bowl when the roof was literally raised on the former Harmon Gym to make the current Haas Pavilion.

College Sports is different out here.  This is a Pro Sports area primarily.  Cal (3-29 in '22-'23) and Stanford draw well in Hoops when they are winning.  When Cal is losing, tickets to both Football and Basketball are easy to acquire.

[Bay Area Billiken]

8 minutes ago, Soderball said:

I was there. Those were the good times. I've never been more optimistic after a loss than that day. Just before we had watched SPUMAC and "faith in haith" get taken down by... Norfolk State. And Coach K got way more Lehigh than he ever wanted in his life.

 

That was truly the best basketball trip i've ever been on.

Man, SLU came so close to beating Michigan State and advancing to the elusive Sweet 16.

Yes, I remember that Friday night.  We were at the arena bar watching Mizzou lose to Norfolk State, then Duke lose to Lehigh.  The Billikens immediately followed and took down Memphis.

[Soderball]

2 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Man, SLU came so close to beating Michigan State and advancing to the elusive Sweet 16.

Yes, I remember that Friday night.  We were at the arena bar watching Mizzou lose to Norfolk State, then Duke lose to Lehigh.  The Billikens immediately followed and took down Memphis.

Those Memphis fans talked mad s%&$ too. They weren't ready for what went down.