Side effect of Boise & SDSU to the Big East...

[Marty Jackson]

I think Boise's stay in the Big West will be very short. I think that the Big East will go to 16 football schools, and that will lead to a western non-football league of Boise, SDSU, Air Force, BYU, Nevada or UNLV (whichever is the 16th BE team), Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Long Beach State and 1 or 2 others. BYU, Gonzaga and St. Mary's are hurt by being in a league with a bunch of schools that are barely D1 in hoops. There are no marquee games in conference other than when they play each other. Heck, there are no games that are even television worthy for the midnight slot.

Put those 3 in a league with LBSU, SDSU and UNLV, and there are quite a few games that qualify for TV. The MWC has taken a big hit for hoops, and is likely going to take another one when Nevada or UNLV leave for the Big East. There is not much for NBC Sports to work with there for the 9 or 10 pm slot. But if the Big East is the lead-in, a SDSU/Gonzaga matchup would do pretty well, even against a Big 12 or SEC game on ESPN

if we go to 16 all sport schools plus the catholics (fb and bb essentially), you'll need one additional bb only to cover Navy. I'm not sure how you can logistically go beyond that. BB would comprise 24 schools. Adding the Zags, St. Mary's and LBSU along with others would create a 30 team bb conference. at that point, what's the point of a conference.
Gonzaga would be great but the geography doesn't work. Probably take Butler or Xavier over Gonzaga for that alone. But, any one of those three plus SDSU, Houston, UNLV, and Memphis would be a solid core for bb in the west.

 

[Vowelguy]

if we go to 16 all sport schools plus the catholics (fb and bb essentially), you'll need one additional bb only to cover Navy. I'm not sure how you can logistically go beyond that. BB would comprise 24 schools. Adding the Zags, St. Mary's and LBSU along with others would create a 30 team bb conference. at that point, what's the point of a conference.

Personally, I prefer a 64-team conference. Or maybe 128.

Then we could have an 8-team Southen New England division (West: CCSU, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Fairfield / East: UConn, Hartford, URI, Providence). Cheap travel costs!