Reputable Boneyard Posters: UConn To Big East For 2021...

[billyjack]

Hey gtmo,
My post was in response to Villanova's 20-conf-game Big-Five trap, where they would have limited flexibility in non-conference scheduling.

I don't have an opinion pro or con about a lengthened schedule, but i can see a future scenario where the season is expanded and extended. The season currently has pretty random dates and game limits. 32, 34, 36, whatever games, could be in the future... opening room for a 12th team and 22-game schedule.

[billyjack]

Nice post Fieldhouse... Despite all the Big East EC fandoms (Kayako, Gumby, Adoraz, Billyjack, etc.) creaming their jeans irt the "return of beloved UConn", It isn't yet a done deal.

Your points regarding the early exit from AAC requirements and the money, also the remote possibility of the entry being blocked are appropo.
Surely, the BE isn't absorbing the exit costs of UConn? Why 12 months vs the "normal" 27 months notice/$10 Mill exit fee?
Give me the Zags and SLU.

Tough to understand what your hammering on about... is the UConn thing not happening? i haven't followed today's news. Something changed?

No chance that Providence would vote "No", even with our 30 mile distance from each other. No other BE team would have any reason to vote No to UConn, right?

[herodotus]

Guess this will be the end of that Dayton poster, and the guy from Bonaventure as well. Better get used to life in the A10. Of course there are over 20 leagues that are worse than the A10, so count your blessings.

[kayako]

Guess this will be the end of that Dayton poster, and the guy from Bonaventure as well. Better get used to life in the A10. Of course there are over 20 leagues that are worse than the A10, so count your blessings.

I do expect team #12 within 5 or 6 years.

[herodotus]

Speaking of the Bona poster, this is going to be the opposite of what he's been suggesting. Instead of bringing in a cupcake to give the middling teams wins, we're bringing in a school that is going to pimp smack the teams in the bottom half of the league. With the 20 game schedule giving teams only 11 games to build up their record, this is likely to result in somebody becoming a real doormat, and not just DePaul. Of course, this depends on UConn becoming a beast again, but 20 games is a lot, and someone is going to have to swallow those losses.

[herodotus]

Guess this will be the end of that Dayton poster, and the guy from Bonaventure as well. Better get used to life in the A10. Of course there are over 20 leagues that are worse than the A10, so count your blessings.

I do expect team #12 within 5 or 6 years.

I don't expect the league to give up the round robin easily. What it would take to make the league look at a 12th team is the following:
Some A10 team goes on a run like UMass did in the 90s. This would also have to be a team that was in a decent market, and didn't duplicate a current market. SLU would pretty much be the only team that could punch all of the boxes (unless Duquesne shocked us and became a power after being dead for 45 years).
Second, the bottom of the BE would have to be taking a severe beating under the 20 game schedule. If 2-3 teams were becoming irrelevant under a sea of losses, the league might be inclined to abandon the round robin. This is a long shot, but not impossible.

[kayako]

I don't expect the league to give up the round robin easily.

If the double round-robin is so important, we'd see more 11+ conferences adhere to it. Admittedly, the BE is uniquely positioned to have just the right number of teams with no real NET killer to pull it off. But there's no real competitive upside to it, imo. I'd rather see 2 extra teams ooc.

I do agree that the next candidate would have to check a lot of boxes, but a lot can and will happen in 5-6 years.

[herodotus]

I don't expect the league to give up the round robin easily.

I do agree that the next candidate would have to check a lot of boxes, but a lot can and will happen in 5-6 years.

This is so true. 10 years ago, Wichita St. hadn't been heard from since the Antoine Carr days of the early 80s. Now they're constantly touted as a "big time program". Teams can fall off as well. Us older types can remember that during the era when the BE first exploded, there was a non BE team that was a monster in college basketball. That team was DePaul. I mentioned Duquesne in my earlier post. That's a school most on this board laugh at, and deservedly so, but as an old Nova fan, I can remember when they were a big game on our schedule, and this was for many years. I looked at their all time record, and before they fell off, they had something like 4 losing seasons in 60 years. Yet, when they stumbled, they were never able to regain their footing. I'm sure their fans thought the stumble was temporary at first, but it wasn't. Same as Depaul. Same as St. Bona. It's why I never just assume that a Georgetown, or a St. John's will easily become what they were before. Schools never see the fall coming. I've seen too many schools fall off. I think Georgetown will get it done, but it's by no means a sure thing. One thing to keep in mind is that the kids being recruited, only have been paying attention for 4-5 years. If you fall off like Pitt, you quickly become a non entity. On the other hand, a school like Wichita, that was fairly obscure a decade ago, is now a school that every recruit has heard of, thus your statement is spot on! It's what you've done lately that counts. Since in baseball it's always good to have strong prospects in AA, I'll be rooting for St. Louis, and Duquesne to dominate the A10. Just in case we might need to call one of them up to the big leagues. Better to have them in that position, than one of the schools that duplicates our markets, like St. Joe's, or GW, or a school in a non existent market, like St. Bona.

[kayako]

Since in baseball it's always good to have strong prospects in AA, I'll be rooting for St. Louis, and Duquesne to dominate the A10. Just in case we might need to call one of them up to the big leagues. Better to have them in that position, than one of the schools that duplicates our markets, like St. Joe's, or GW, or a school in a non existent market, like St. Bona.

I am glad you brought this up because people lose sight of this. It's in the best interest of the BE to have poachable schools do well for themselves.

I can only go back to Kittles/Iverson/Shuttlesworth era and DePaul has already declined by that point, but Umass is another program that took a nosedive in a hurry.

[Husky_U]

As of right now, the only program I would want as #12 is Gonzaga. Geography be damned!

Also, the AAC fans been soooooooooooooo nasty and have a pipedream of adding a Western wing that includes the Zags. Love to stick it to them and that putz, Aresco, again.