I know this is going to be redundant but i searched a number of these threads and never saw this breakdown - so gonna put my thoughts in here and well if i'm beating a dead horse sorry.

BE Basketball Conference: GTown, St. John's, Villinova, Providence, ND, Marquette, Seton Hall, Depaul - to get to 10 team conference add UMass and Xavier, 12 team GW and URI

BE Football

North

WV
Syracuse
Pitt
Rutgers
Cincinnati
UConn

South

USF
Memphis
UCF
East Carolina
Louisville
Marshall

Nomar33 Wrote:I know this is going to be redundant but i searched a number of these threads and never saw this breakdown - so gonna put my thoughts in here and well if i'm beating a dead horse sorry.

BE Basketball Conference: GTown, St. John's, Villinova, Providence, ND, Marquette, Seton Hall, Depaul - to get to 10 team conference add UMass and Xavier, 12 team GW and URI

BE Football

North

WV
Syracuse
Pitt
Rutgers
Cincinnati
UConn

South

USF
Memphis
UCF
East Carolina
Louisville
Marshall

The basketball conference would probably add 4 catholic schools. Dayton, Xavier, St. Joes, St. Bonnie.

Everybody is against your football conference because it looks too much like Conf USA. I'm like eff UConn, Rutgers and Syracuse, and make it a southern conference.


Dirty South Conference
ECU
Louisville
Cincy
Memphis
WV
Pitt
Charlotte (Basketball only, Football later)
USF
UCF
USM
(later you can add any sunbelt teams that come up)

firmbizzle Wrote:The basketball conference would probably add 4 catholic schools. Dayton, Xavier, St. Joes, St. Bonnie.

Two probs: St. Joe's won't get in because Temple has never been invited for full membership; think Villanova would allow St. Joe's?

St. Bona is one of the prime examples of a barnacle. If the A10 could get rid of them they most certainly would.

Xavier and then, maybe St. Louis would get a call. No basketball league in the right mind should go over 9 or 10. Look at how the A10 is doing with 14 members. Those suck teams get an upset and kill the leaders RPI. Rhode Island, Dayton, UMass etc. have all fell victom to the lowly late season miracle upset.

Dayton would be the next best option followed by Creighton (too far) and Duquesne (not quite there perfomance-wise).

These are just my opinion, but I feel confident enough about them that I would start with them as givens in any Expansion/Split scenario discussion:

1. The only scenario in which St. Joseph's (or La Salle) is invited to the Big East is if there's a split and Villanova sides with the footballers, which is only likely to happen if Nova moves to FBS. Otherwise, Nova will block any other Philadelphia school from achieving all-sport membership. Forever and ever. Period.

2. The above also applies with respect to George Washington and Georgetown, only GW is an even longer shot because they're not Catholic and G'town isn't anywhere remotely close to being able to field a FBS team.

3. URI has the same problem with Providence.

4. Fordham has the same problem with St. John's, though at least Fordham is Catholic.

5. Xavier will never get into the Big East pre-split because of the presence of Cincinnati, but post-split, X will surely receive the very first phone call from the non-football half of the Big East. If invited, Xavier will push hard for the inclusion of Dayton, another Catholic school and their long-time ally/rival.

6. St. Bonaventure will never be invited into the Big East, pre- or post-split, because they suck, have no budget, have no arena, and have no market. The A10 wouldn't invite them today if they had the chance to do it over. The Bonnies belong in the NEC.

7. UMass will never be added to the Big East as a non-football member, pre-split or post-split, unless it's as a non-football member of the post-split football conference (and that's a longshot). The Catholic bloc does not want us, because we're a threat to move to FBS and we're not Catholic. I don't think that latter point gets enough emphasis. Every single non-football member of the Big East is a Catholic school. And take it from someone who is a fan of a program in the Catholic-dominated A10, the Catholic schools have each others' backs. They stick together. I think post-split, the Catholic half would sooner invite Holy Cross than UMass. Another program that's never mentioned but probably should be is Duquesne. Small budget, but they cover the Pittsburgh market if Pitt leaves, and they're a Catholic school. St. Louis does get mentioned and probably gets an invite post-split unless one side or the other isn't happy with the size of the conference footprint.

My best guess as to the post-split (non-football) Big East's wishlist, in order:
1. Xavier
2. St. Louis
3. Dayton
4. Duquesne
5. Holy Cross

My guess is they stop at 10 members, 11 if they get their top 3 choices. I don't think a non-Catholic gets in, and I don't think anyone with a market overlap gets in.

We need a 12 team football conference for a championship game - which would give the BE needed revenue and exposure.

LastMinuteman Wrote:These are just my opinion, but I feel confident enough about them that I would start with them as givens in any Expansion/Split scenario discussion:

1. The only scenario in which St. Joseph's (or La Salle) is invited to the Big East is if there's a split and Villanova sides with the footballers, which is only likely to happen if Nova moves to FBS. Otherwise, Nova will block any other Philadelphia school from achieving all-sport membership. Forever and ever. Period.

2. The above also applies with respect to George Washington and Georgetown, only GW is an even longer shot because they're not Catholic and G'town isn't anywhere remotely close to being able to field a FBS team.

3. URI has the same problem with Providence.

4. Fordham has the same problem with St. John's, though at least Fordham is Catholic.

5. Xavier will never get into the Big East pre-split because of the presence of Cincinnati, but post-split, X will surely receive the very first phone call from the non-football half of the Big East. If invited, Xavier will push hard for the inclusion of Dayton, another Catholic school and their long-time ally/rival.

6. St. Bonaventure will never be invited into the Big East, pre- or post-split, because they suck, have no budget, have no arena, and have no market. The A10 wouldn't invite them today if they had the chance to do it over. The Bonnies belong in the NEC.

7. UMass will never be added to the Big East as a non-football member, pre-split or post-split, unless it's as a non-football member of the post-split football conference (and that's a longshot). The Catholic bloc does not want us, because we're a threat to move to FBS and we're not Catholic. I don't think that latter point gets enough emphasis. Every single non-football member of the Big East is a Catholic school. And take it from someone who is a fan of a program in the Catholic-dominated A10, the Catholic schools have each others' backs. They stick together. I think post-split, the Catholic half would sooner invite Holy Cross than UMass. Another program that's never mentioned but probably should be is Duquesne. Small budget, but they cover the Pittsburgh market if Pitt leaves, and they're a Catholic school. St. Louis does get mentioned and probably gets an invite post-split unless one side or the other isn't happy with the size of the conference footprint.

My best guess as to the post-split (non-football) Big East's wishlist, in order:
1. Xavier
2. St. Louis
3. Dayton
4. Duquesne
5. Holy Cross

My guess is they stop at 10 members, 11 if they get their top 3 choices. I don't think a non-Catholic gets in, and I don't think anyone with a market overlap gets in.

He's probably right. What about Detroit?

Detroit Mercy? They fit the profile, except in facilities and money. Right now they have about half the athletic budget of DePaul, which has by far the smallest budget in the Big East. At about $6.8 million, Detroit's peers are Mt. Saint Mary's (not to be confused with St.Mary's, the tournament team) and St. Bonaventure. Maybe if Detroit Mercy got an invite they could find more money, but a whole bunch of schools would say the same thing, so I think they're further down the list than the other names mentioned.

One last bit on UMass: if UMass getting into the non-football half of the conference was at all plausible, it would have happened back when Boston College left. That UMass never even received a phone call but DePaul got in tells you all you need to know about what the admission criteria was. We have a better chance of getting into the Pac-10 than the Catholic half of the Big East.

Umass wont be in the BE because it is considering upgrading to 1a FB. Nova and Gtown have commited to BB 1st and have no aspirations to upgrade FB programs. If UMASS had the same agenda they would be a great fit for the BE BB schools. If the upgrade FB they would be good fit for the BE FB since they would bring in the boston market. mmmm boston market

What about Siena as a possible new BB member. Albany market , alumni base in nyc area, good program of late. Budget might be too low