(02-07-2018 12:07 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(02-07-2018 11:27 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  You're out of your element Donnie.

Ohio State and Cincinnati are the two strongest brands in the state, not XU, not Ohio or some unnamed school in the Cleveland area.

There are many metrics I could show you to support this but just one I quickly found is the CLC's top selling institutions (merchandise, gear). You'll notice that Cincinnati is #45 on that list, above a number of P5 institutions-- let alone any other school in the state not named OSU. * Yes this is from 2015, it was the easiest list to find. I know I have read things from our alumni association that has indicated our yearly merchandisee sales have even grown more in the last couple of years.

http://allthingsfsu.blogspot.com/2015/04...s-and.html

Second, to give you an indication of Cincinnati's swing in the state, UC and OSU have for the second year partnered for the Buckeyes and Bearcats Day at the Statehouse. This is forum for the schools to addressing higher learning to the state legislature. Wouldn't you think if UC wasn't all that they would have brought in some MAC school to join the OSU delegation on that day

http://allthingsfsu.blogspot.com/2015/04...s-and.html

You're confusing size of an alumni base with the quality of the basketball program - Cincinnati will always have more students than X just because of the public/private divide, and those students will continue to buy t-shirts. It's why Nova and Georgetown are beat out on that merchandise list by schools like Montana State and Louisiana-Lafayette.

However, X is coming off an Elite Eight run, which Cincy hasn't done in the last twenty years (while X has done it two other times in the intervening time), and is something like 16-9 in the crosstown shootout over the last 25. A lot depends on whether Mack is indeed a lifer at X, but they're no worse than equivalent programs right now and X has a better conference affiliation for basketball. X's goal absolutely should be to become the Villanova of Ohio.

I don't disagree XU has had a great run the past 20 years. Reading your post, I guess we are looking at this from a different perspective. My contention is that there is no comparison of the PA programs to Ohio's, because Cincinnati has a stronger branding and history vs. Xavier as compared to Temple vs. Villanova. Even if Xavier continues at the level they are currently putting on the court, they will never make UC look like the Temple of Ohio, while they are Villanova (I mean this as no disrespect to Temple).