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I wonder what you all think about the possibility of forming a basketball only conference? Assuming The Beast doesn't expand.  It would allow for a large national footprint. Gonzaga would  be a must, with a core of SLU, Dayton, VCU and Loyola Chicago. Maybe St Mary's and St Joes. 

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i think gonzaga is a stretch unless you are going to promise them a larger portion of the pie.   it seems to me they have become a legitimate program on the same footing with traditional national powers.   a better chance is to field an 8-12 program conference with the absolutely best basketball centered programs and try to insure they raise through the ranks of conferences and if they surpass the likes of the big east then they become attractive to the likes of Gonzaga and maybe even some of the Big East programs.  will that be easy, nope.   its been a dream of many for 20+ years and nothing even close has ever been proposed. 

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3 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

i think gonzaga is a stretch unless you are going to promise them a larger portion of the pie.   it seems to me they have become a legitimate program on the same footing with traditional national powers.   a better chance is to field an 8-12 program conference with the absolutely best basketball centered programs and try to insure they raise through the ranks of conferences and if they surpass the likes of the big east then they become attractive to the likes of Gonzaga and maybe even some of the Big East programs.  will that be easy, nope.   its been a dream of many for 20+ years and nothing even close has ever been proposed. 

 

12 minutes ago, VeniceMenace said:

Great question....listed as a 2024 instructor at Maryville U:

https://www.maryville.edu/rawlings-sport-business-management-summer-institute/

Looks like he is still active. There is your man  

 

 

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On 8/18/2024 at 10:20 AM, Aquinas said:

I wonder what you all think about the possibility of forming a basketball only conference? Assuming The Beast doesn't expand.  It would allow for a large national footprint. Gonzaga would  be a must, with a core of SLU, Dayton, VCU and Loyola Chicago. Maybe St Mary's and St Joes. 

I've been saying this for years.  It solves the problem of schools that want to be in a certain league for purposes of football or all other non-revenue sports.  I would try to get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Memphis, Dayton, VCU, Loyola Chicago, Umass and then maybe St. Joe's, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Drake.  There are probably several others I'm not thinking of that would thrive outside of the football conference they are forced into.

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22 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I've been saying this for years.  It solves the problem of schools that want to be in a certain league for purposes of football or all other non-revenue sports.  I would try to get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Memphis, Dayton, VCU, Loyola Chicago, Umass and then maybe St. Joe's, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Drake.  There are probably several others I'm not thinking of that would thrive outside of the football conference they are forced into.

you're missing the flagship of this new conference, university of Toronto 

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31 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I've been saying this for years.  It solves the problem of schools that want to be in a certain league for purposes of football or all other non-revenue sports.  I would try to get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Memphis, Dayton, VCU, Loyola Chicago, Umass and then maybe St. Joe's, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Drake.  There are probably several others I'm not thinking of that would thrive outside of the football conference they are forced into.

Memphis, UMass and New Mexico all play football... not very good football, but they do play games.

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I know they don't have alot a history, but always thought UMKC ( guess they go by Kansas City now) could be a sleeper,  and good geological fit... If only they were better

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23 hours ago, ACE said:

Memphis, UMass and New Mexico all play football... not very good football, but they do play games.

Exactly, which means they may be forced into a conference that is not ideal for basketball, because they are trying to accommodate football.  These are programs that may appreciate putting their basketball team in a better basketball only conference.

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5 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Exactly, which means they may be forced into a conference that is not ideal for basketball, because they are trying to accommodate football.  These are programs that may appreciate putting their basketball team in a better basketball only conference.

I'm not sure I follow - UMass just left the A-10 for a much worse basketball conference because of football. New Mexico is in the MWC a league that plays football and has also been a good bball league. Every school that has a D1 football team, even if they have crappy teams, are chasing football first and everything else including basketball is secondary.

As a hoops fan, I hate it, but this is the current college sports landscape unfortunately.

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What I would recommend is that schools join different conferences for different sports. If you have a D1 football team, join a conference based on that, same for basketball, join the conference that makes sense for you BB team. For every other sport, join a conference that minimizes expenses. One of the problems in college sports is that you are forced to be in the same conference for all sports. That’s what needs to be broken up.  There is a ton of money to be saved on expenses that would not change how much money that comes in if you did this.

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2 minutes ago, ACE said:

I'm not sure I follow - UMass just left the A-10 for a much worse basketball conference because of football. New Mexico is in the MWC a league that plays football and has also been a good bball league. Every school that has a D1 football team, even if they have crappy teams, are chasing football first and everything else including basketball is secondary.

As a hoops fan, I hate it, but this is the current college sports landscape unfortunately.

I'm saying that some schools' sports teams are forced into a conference that isn't ideal based solely on football considerations.  What was proposed above by Aquinas, which is something I have proposed as well, is creating a conference just for basketball teams, meaning each of the schools would leave their other sports in the conference they are currently in, but their basketball programs would leave for the newly created basketball only conference.

This happens much more than you would think for other sports. For instance, Fordham has a water polo team that competes in completely different conference since the A-10 doesn't have water polo.  Davidson and George Mason have men's wrestling teams.  Several A-10 schools have women's gymnastics teams.  None of these are A-10 sports, meaning those teams all have to join and compete in different conferences.  The point being that it is not unprecedented to have one of your teams in a conference that is different that the conference you are in for all of your other sports.

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20 hours ago, BLIKNS said:

I know they don't have alot a history, but always thought UMKC ( guess they go by Kansas City now) could be a sleeper,  and good geological fit... If only they were better

Just what we need another nobody team to be in our conference.  By the way what rock do they have that is a good geological fit with us?

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13 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

What I would recommend is that schools join different conferences for different sports. If you have a D1 football team, join a conference based on that, same for basketball, join the conference that makes sense for you BB team. For every other sport, join a conference that minimizes expenses. One of the problems in college sports is that you are forced to be in the same conference for all sports. That’s what needs to be broken up.  There is a ton of money to be saved on expenses that would not change how much money that comes in if you did this.

I am a 100% in agreement and have also mentioned this previously. I think most importantly, football conference affiliations should break away from the rest of the sports. It would solve a lot of problems. 

 

 

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5 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Just in case everyone missed it, we're currently in a basketball only conference. Please see above and advise.
 

By basketball ball only, I mean the teams in the conference only play each other in basketball. Other sports are played in a different conference. SLU could for instance consider the Valley for other sports. 

In my view Gonzaga is the key. Revenue sharing that heavily rewards performance or maybe an initial bigger share might be required. Without them I don't think you have the TV revenue interest or buzz to make it fly. I think a big reason Gonzaga hasn't joined a bigger conferences is their location makes all sports travel impractical  and expensive. 

I would hate to see all Billiken sports travel there, but would love to see men's basketball make that trip every year.

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