Poll: How many teams should we have?

[BillEsq]

Where does the $277,777 come from? I'm less concerned with the non-revenue sports. Those things sort themselves out. You can always find affiliate members for those. PC played MAAC lacrosse for years.

I know you might not be concerned with the non rev sports but- most AD's are. and the $277,777 number comes from the proposed fox numbers. @ $400,000,000 for 12 years for 12 and 300,000,000 for 12 years at 10. while I admit i am not privy to any actual numbers that is the best anyone else has. That said I somewhere else on here showed you how small the savings is on NCAA units when you go to a 12 to a 10 team league. That was based on the number listed by the NCAA for their units. While the tv revenue quotes are estimates and probably not exact feel free to move the numbers around. the principle stays the same, its in fox's advantage to have a 12 team league and all indications are that they are willing to pay for it.

A 12 team league also makes more sense in NCAA credits as the more teams added increases the odds of NCAA credits. All of the teams that are being considered have shown a consistent history of getting into the top 100 rpi. This does two things. It cranks up league RPI and adds potential bubble teams. By doing this you both add more teams to the tournament to obtain NCAA units and you inflate the resumes of your top teams allowing them to get higher seeds and hopefully a better chance of earning multiple NCAA units. While RPI science is in exact and there is no guarantee that any team will win any game in the tournament you still want to position yourself in the best spot to have the most chance to earn money.

By sending your non-rev teams out of conference you create additional problems. You might have to pay a entry fee to join that league (common occurrence) while this is ok for one or two teams the more teams you have to do this to makes a non-rev more of a non-rev and a drain on the overall AD - another added cost. Not to mention if you keep things in the league you have better control over non-rev championship locations and other logistical concerns which lower the losses. (There is a reason the BIG has added Hockey and other programs over the years; this is also a reason that the BIG EAST suffered so much over the years - see examples of well run and not well run conferences)

finally and more light heartedly 12 teams allows for you to sell soccer and laccross off. These two non-revs for the C-7 schools are traditionally break evens or close to break evens. Without the focus or drain of football having these leagues will allow you to sell them in Fall and Spring as fillers for small amounts of money turning them into revenue generating sports (yes less than fball and bball) If you go to 10 teams for the round robin you give up the TV rev, the potential NCAA unit rev, cost your self additional drain in non-rev losses; and miss out on other opportunities for revenue... or in short a very very bad business plan

[Burrito]

The C7 should expand to 12 teams with Xavier, Butler, St Louis, Creighton and VCU. They should also schedule 4-6 games a year with Gonzaga. (Assuming they are not invited into the league due to geographic limitations)

[admin]

The C7 should expand to 12 teams with Xavier, Butler, St Louis, Creighton and VCU. They should also schedule 4-6 games a year with Gonzaga. (Assuming they are not invited into the league due to geographic limitations)

It's an interesting idea although Gonzaga doesn't have any trouble scheduling really good games on their own.

[Burrito]

Gonzaga went 5-0 versus the Big 12 this year. The C7 would have a better Bball league than the Big 12. If Gonzaga was interested in Joining the C7, why wouldn't they be interested in playing 4 games against them. They would host two games and would have to travel to the Midwest once and the East Coast once per year. Doesn't sound very onerous to me. Helps their SOS and helps our SOS as well.

[Hoya]

Gonzaga went 5-0 versus the Big 12 this year. The C7 would have a better Bball league than the Big 12. If Gonzaga was interested in Joining the C7, why wouldn't they be interested in playing 4 games against them. They would host two games and would have to travel to the Midwest once and the East Coast once per year. Doesn't sound very onerous to me. Helps their SOS and helps our SOS as well.

I think the point is why would Gonzaga lock themselves into a scheduling arrangement with the C7 when it can get whatever games it wants. Sure there's an advantage to the C7 for agreeing to this but Gonzaga can get equal to better games on their own.

[BillEsq]

I doubt gonzaga will lock themselves in but.... if and when this league forms on fox and if and when fox starts the pac v c7+5 challenge the WCC becomes a conference full of like minded institutions that you can use to fill out a west coast trip. Or you can do what SLU currently does and schedule them opposite that that every year you are playing one team on the west coast. Increases name recognition. I don't see gonzaga scheduling 4 a year but 1 or two very much so... and likely to continue down the rest of the league.

[ArmyVet]

10 is the optimal number of teams because it allows for round robin play to determine a true champion. I don't think we're going to see a 10 team league though with the dollars involved and the talk of need for TV inventory.

[BillEsq]

10 is the optimal number of teams because it allows for round robin play to determine a true champion. I don't think we're going to see a 10 team league though with the dollars involved and the talk of need for TV inventory.

Interesting , but in reality league championships mean very little in the NCAA, the Conference Tournament means everything and most people consider the tournament champion the true champion even in the few round robin leagues remaining. Although the league champ remains important in the Ivy League (no conference tourny) and gets an automatic NIT bid; in a league like the C7+ all the league championship is good for is better seeding in the conference tournament and for filling out some banner hanging on the gym next to your NIT appearances banner.

[xman]

I'd like 12. Personally I will be bummed if Creighton and SLU aren't included.

[yorost]

10 is the optimal number of teams because it allows for round robin play to determine a true champion. I don't think we're going to see a 10 team league though with the dollars involved and the talk of need for TV inventory.

Interesting , but in reality league championships mean very little in the NCAA, the Conference Tournament means everything and most people consider the tournament champion the true champion even in the few round robin leagues remaining. Although the league champ remains important in the Ivy League (no conference tourny) and gets an automatic NIT bid; in a league like the C7+ all the league championship is good for is better seeding in the conference tournament and for filling out some banner hanging on the gym next to your NIT appearances banner.

All of which is a little annoying. I'd like to see conferences adjust their automatic bid rules, somehow, so that the regular season champ is worth more. It'd be nice to say the NCAA gets to choose between the two champions (NIT gives other a guarantee), but then some of the thrills of the conference tourney are gone. Still, if you had a dirt season, getting an NIT bid is a good outcome. Maybe they could also do something like the NCAA gets to choose between the two, except if the tourney champion defeats the regular season champion during the conference tourney, then the tourney champion has to get the automatic bid. That way everyone gets a shot at the bid going in, but the regular season champion still has some room to get in when the tourney champion doesn't knock them off. I don't know, it is annoying how sports moves more and more towards emphasizing success on tournaments, especially single elimination ones, which are brutal. Why they do it isn't hard to see, they're exciting for fans and leave a lot of teams in it all the way to the end, but they're awful at picking deserving champions over a season.