NY Post: Butler, Dayton, Xavier to Big East 2013. SLU & Creighton 2014.

[🏀]

As far as the "Dayton hate" on this board... please know that most of it is tongue in cheek, (other than the Cavalier comment, which is entirely accurate).

Sadly, it is.

[MUMountin]

I am a Dayton grad but come in peace as well.

Rue, thanks for the post with some good objective information.  For whatever reason, some on this board want to make it out like Dayton is scum of the earth.  Not entirely sure why that is--as you point out, I don't think there is a world of difference between Creighton and Dayton.

However, there are probably a few facts that differentiate the two, from Marquette's perspective (as I see it):

1. Jesuits/connections between MU and Creighton:  The two schools are part of the same US province of the Jesuits, and there are a ton of connections between the two schools.  The Creighton pres is a former MU administrator, and lots of Jesuits have gone back and forth between the two schools.

2. Familiarity: Perhaps partly as a result of #1, I think our fan base generally has pretty good familiarity with Creighton, more so than Dayton--prefer the devil you know.  I grew up in Milwaukee, and had a number of friends that went to HS there.  I'd have to think pretty hard about anyone I knew from MKE that went to Dayton.  (Conversely, I now live in Denver, and know a ton of UD grads, and only a couple of Creighton alu--go figure.)

3. Geography: while Dayton is about the same distance as Omaha from Milwaukee, adding Creighton to the conference expands the footprint, and does it in a way that makes Marquette closer to the geographic center.  Having been on the fringes of the BE for the last decade, Creighton really moves the conference to being a split between midwest and east coast, while Dayton keeps the locus of conference somewhere in western PA.  (http://www.geomidpoint.com/).

For these reasons, I think most MU fans will prefer Creighton.  Even if that's the call for #10, I for one would not be dismayed if Dayton ends up some part of the conference.  I just hope that if you do get added, you'll make the most of the opportunity and become a competitive part of the conference. 

[Litehouse]

2. Familiarity: Perhaps partly as a result of #1, I think our fan base generally has pretty good familiarity with Creighton, more so than Dayton--prefer the devil you know.  I grew up in Milwaukee, and had a number of friends that went to HS there.  I'd have to think pretty hard about anyone I knew from MKE that went to Dayton.  (Conversely, I now live in Denver, and know a ton of UD grads, and only a couple of Creighton alu--go figure.)

I've always thought the opposite, that our fan base is much more familiar with Dayton from the MCC/Great Midwest days, and that's where all the Dayton Hate comes from.  Back then, it seemed like the conference tournament was in Dayton every year, and people resented them for that.
But then again I don't hang out with a lot of Jesuits, so who knows.

[Coleman]

Rue, thanks for the post with some good objective information.  For whatever reason, some on this board want to make it out like Dayton is scum of the earth.  Not entirely sure why that is--as you point out, I don't think there is a world of difference between Creighton and Dayton.

However, there are probably a few facts that differentiate the two, from Marquette's perspective (as I see it):

1. Jesuits/connections between MU and Creighton:  The two schools are part of the same US province of the Jesuits, and there are a ton of connections between the two schools.  The Creighton pres is a former MU administrator, and lots of Jesuits have gone back and forth between the two schools.

2. Familiarity: Perhaps partly as a result of #1, I think our fan base generally has pretty good familiarity with Creighton, more so than Dayton--prefer the devil you know.  I grew up in Milwaukee, and had a number of friends that went to HS there.  I'd have to think pretty hard about anyone I knew from MKE that went to Dayton.  (Conversely, I now live in Denver, and know a ton of UD grads, and only a couple of Creighton alu--go figure.)

3. Geography: while Dayton is about the same distance as Omaha from Milwaukee, adding Creighton to the conference expands the footprint, and does it in a way that makes Marquette closer to the geographic center.  Having been on the fringes of the BE for the last decade, Creighton really moves the conference to being a split between midwest and east coast, while Dayton keeps the locus of conference somewhere in western PA.  (http://www.geomidpoint.com/).

For these reasons, I think most MU fans will prefer Creighton.  Even if that's the call for #10, I for one would not be dismayed if Dayton ends up some part of the conference.  I just hope that if you do get added, you'll make the most of the opportunity and become a competitive part of the conference.  

A huge part of it was trolls from the Dayton board coming over here and saying we'd be lucky to get in the A-10 and that Dayton would never leave their conference for the inferior Big East, and that MU was afraid to play them. But yeah, it could also just be geography