Who Will Be the 12th Big East Team?

[Drew]

Gonzaga would be a great add. The distance is not that a big deal in the modern era. It has enough history, success, name recognition, and fan base that it adds plenty of value.

Outside of UCONN and Nova, there is no program in the Big East with a bigger national following than the Zags. It doesn't matter that they are out West. Few will be there a while, and even post-him they will be able to recruit a quality coach even more so if they have the Big East to sell.

This is is the only non P5 school that solidifies the Big East for a long time.

It's 2700 miles from Storrs to Gonzaga's campus in Spokane. Using the travel math site to calculate flight times its a hair under 5 hours each way from BDL-GEG. I agree travel has become easier and conferences a more national but this would just be insane.

 

[McLovin]

Gonzaga would be a great add. The distance is not that a big deal in the modern era. It has enough history, success, name recognition, and fan base that it adds plenty of value.

Outside of UCONN and Nova, there is no program in the Big East with a bigger national following than the Zags. It doesn't matter that they are out West. Few will be there a while, and even post-him they will be able to recruit a quality coach even more so if they have the Big East to sell.

This is is the only non P5 school that solidifies the Big East for a long time.

Lol well in a dream scenario where everyone travels by Concord Jets and hyper loops, we add 3 more teams to the league to get back to 14...

Gonzaga, BYU and Notre Dame.

Zaga is solid. BYU and Notre Dame both have huge national followings, plus the willingness to play independent football. Our best hope would be to get NBC on board to break ND from the ACC and break BYU from their ESPN agreement. Saturday's on NBC become an afternoon game for ND and night game for BYU. Maybe throw UConn a bone and get them an annual match-up with both. And put us on NBCsports (their tier 2 network). I would imagine Notre Dame's annual games against BYU and Michigan were way more profitable for the network than games against Wake Forrest or Duke football.

Then again, our league once again become beholden to football schools.

Total fantasy and not practical, but would be fun in theory.

 

[gampelcrazies]

If Gonzaga was ok with the travel I don’t think the Big East would say no. But then again if Few leaves what are they?

 

[McLovin]

If Gonzaga was ok with the travel I don’t think the Big East would say no. But then again if Few leaves what are they?

Gonzaga minus a few.

 

[ucp990411]

Gonzaga would be a great add. The distance is not that a big deal in the modern era. It has enough history, success, name recognition, and fan base that it adds plenty of value.

Outside of UCONN and Nova, there is no program in the Big East with a bigger national following than the Zags. It doesn't matter that they are out West. Few will be there a while, and even post-him they will be able to recruit a quality coach even more so if they have the Big East to sell.

This is is the only non P5 school that solidifies the Big East for a long time.

Distance not an issue? You think DH was good with traveling to Houston, Dallas, Wichita, Tulsa plus two trips to Florida? I have news for you, traveling that much sucks.

 

[UCTitleTown]

Travel cost reduction was a big factor in return to the BE. The AAC travel expenses were insane.

 

[gampelcrazies]

Distance not an issue? You think DH was good with traveling to Houston, Dallas, Wichita, Tulsa plus two trips to Florida? I have news for you, traveling that much sucks.

While yes the travel sucks and takes a toll on the team I think the bigger complaint was they were flying across the country to play teams like Tulane, Tulsa, SMU.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

Why don't we pretend we want to expand. Allow all sorts of schools to send in their videos begging to join and then just deny them all like the Big 12 did?

 

[Kolumbo]

Spokane isn't very friendly geographically for a basketball program.

 

[John]

Lol well in a dream scenario where everyone travels by Concord Jets and hyper loops, we add 3 more teams to the league to get back to 14...

Gonzaga, BYU and Notre Dame.

Zaga is solid. BYU and Notre Dame both have huge national followings, plus the willingness to play independent football. Our best hope would be to get NBC on board to break ND from the ACC and break BYU from their ESPN agreement. Saturday's on NBC become an afternoon game for ND and night game for BYU. Maybe throw UConn a bone and get them an annual match-up with both. And put us on NBCsports (their tier 2 network). I would imagine Notre Dame's annual games against BYU and Michigan were way more profitable for the network than games against Wake Forrest or Duke football.

Then again, our league once again become beholden to football schools.

Total fantasy and not practical, but would be fun in theory.

if you're going the fantasy route (and a more plausible fantasy at that) we leave the Big East in the rearview mirror completely and join a P5 (especially ACC)

 

[billybud]

Luigi Gonzaga (Gonzaga's namesake) has a sort of New York sound to it...

 

[McLovin]

if you're going the fantasy route (and a more plausible fantasy at that) we leave the Big East in the rearview mirror completely and join a P5 (especially ACC)

This is probably more realistic than what I proposed. Also a better outcome for UConn.

 

[PRHusky]

The Big East needs to expand to 12 teams at the very least for a number of reasons. First and foremost, one of the largest source of revenue for a basketball centric league like the BE are NCAA Tournament units. The more teams you have in conference, the more teams you are likely to have make the Tournament and advance. Had Georgetown not won the Big East Tournament this season, the BE would’ve had only three teams make the NCAA Tournament. That would have been a disaster not only perception-wise but money-wise.

By adding a 12th team, you can also go back down to 18 conference games without affecting the number of total League games. There is no need to have every team play each other twice; you just need to make sure that the right teams are playing each other twice (Villanova-UConn for example), but I don’t feel like we absolutely need to play Xavier, Butler or Depaul twice every season. This way the League reduces the chances of costing itself NCCA bids by beating itself up while at the same time increasing the chances to showcase itself against marquee teams OOC or at worst adding wins against low to mid majors.

Another reason to add a 12th team is to avoid teams from having byes during conference season. As currently constructed, one team will always have a bye during the last weekend of the regular season, while a different team has a bye during the last week. That is not ideal.

Adding a 12th team also means one more game during the BET. Might not seem like a lot, but that is certainly more money for the League.

Who should that 12th team be? That is the difficult question. Maybe VCU? How about Wichita State? Both have been better programs over the last decade than at least half of the teams currently in the BE.

 

[McLovin]

@PRHusky , valid points for a 12th team, specifically the NCAA Tournament revenue.

But the league wants a 20 game conference schedule. All of the P5 conferences are going to 20 games. Our options are play 20 and have better games on the resume for selection Sunday or play 18 and fill 2 games with cupcakes that don't move the needle. We want to be playing Nova, Creighton and other Q1/Q2 opponents twice a year to help our metrics. The committee showed this year that "beating up" on each other in league play is rewarded with top seeds, as the undeserving Big 10 was rewarded with 5 top 4 seeds.

Granted, they could still do a 20 game schedule with 12 teams but it wouldn't be as clean.

 

[bendm]

for the hundredth time, there is no midmajor school that can join the BE that would proportionately increase the value of our TV contract. each of the teams would end up getting less revenue than they do now because it would have to be split more ways. UConn is/was able to do that. are there any other UConns out there willing to join? this is the only calculus that will ever matter.

basketball is not football, making the tourney is not the same thing as making a bowl game. a "unit" is worth 1.6 million over 6 years divided by 11 teams! that's 24k per year per school. not exactly breaking the bank...

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If there was a viable candidate in Boston, I would be in favor of adding a team. Otherwise, no point.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

local? check.
big fanbase? check.
not poor? check.
able to make big noise every now and then? check.
Navy.
i have no clue about any externalities involved in this possibility. just winging tacking it, and that ain't no jib(e). anchors aweigh!

 

[billybud]

I find it "fitting" that Navy plays in the Patriot league.

They haven't won a conference championship since 1998...and thus haven't been to the dance this century....could they be tempted by a league that gets multiple bids?

 

[PRHusky]

@PRHusky , valid points for a 12th team, specifically the NCAA Tournament revenue.

But the league wants a 20 game conference schedule. All of the P5 conferences are going to 20 games. Our options are play 20 and have better games on the resume for selection Sunday or play 18 and fill 2 games with cupcakes that don't move the needle. We want to be playing Nova, Creighton and other Q1/Q2 opponents twice a year to help our metrics. The committee showed this year that "beating up" on each other in league play is rewarded with top seeds, as the undeserving Big 10 was rewarded with 5 top 4 seeds.

Granted, they could still do a 20 game schedule with 12 teams but it wouldn't be as clean.

If staying at 20 League games is necessary, we can still do that with 12 teams. You would play 9 teams twice and 2 teams once.

 

[bendm]

local? check.
big fanbase? check.
not poor? check.
able to make big noise every now and then? check.
Navy.
i have no clue about any externalities involved in this possibility. just winging tacking it, and that ain't no jib(e). anchors aweigh!

were you so stoned the last 8 years you didnt realize navy bball wasnt even good enough for the aac?

 

[John]

local? check.
big fanbase? check.
not poor? check.
able to make big noise every now and then? check.
Navy.
i have no clue about any externalities involved in this possibility. just winging tacking it, and that ain't no jib(e). anchors aweigh!

yeah, let's water (see what I did there?) it down even more. My God, no.

 

[borninansonia]

Most schools have programs aimed at "sustainability" or 0 carbon emissions. I think cuse had a "sustainability" program before they broke up the big east and decided to fly everywhere.
Gonzaga is a great bball program, but does not belong in the "big EAST." Flying all the way cross country for basketball games does not lead to 0 carbon emissions or sustainablility.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

yeah, let's water (see what I did there?) it down even more. My God, no.

that's actually funny. pithy too. i'll drop a like to almost any post that gets me laughing. kudos. anyway, that's all i got on the topic at hand.

 

[Kolumbo]

VCU or Richmond. The Big East should be in Virginia. Or Liberty Liberty Liberty.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

VCU or Richmond. The Big East should be in Virginia. Or Liberty Liberty Liberty.

richmond has a law school, where my cuz now attends, so ......... no.
vcu apparently does not have a law school, so .......... yes.
i mean, who wants to further screw up these fine, entertaining, and enjoyable big east threads even more? not me. and, ur right. the big east should be in virginia if possible.