Would Marquette Leave the BE ?

[Flyer Foe]

On another message board, there is a lot of discontent by fans of the midwestern Atlantic 10 schools about a decision (announced this morning) to hold the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Boardwalk Hall (built in 1926) for the next 3 years (it has been there for the past 3 years, and averaged less than 5,000 fans per game). For historic reasons, the Philadelphia schools basically dictate Atlantic 10 policy (in their best interests), and many of the fans from the midwestern schools (that generate the bulk of the revenue for the A10) are fed up with the East-coast boys calling the shots, grabbing the revenue, and disregarding the interests of their midwestern members.

What would your reaction be to a proposal to join a new 10-member midwestern basketball conference comprized of the following schools ?

Villanova (28-7)
Marquette (25-10)
Notre Dame (20-14) [Irish get to keep their Independent football schedule]
DePaul (9-24) [down but not necessarily out]

Xavier (27-7) [NCAA Tournament Sweet 16; AP # 20]
Dayton (27-8) [beat # 6 seed West Virginia]
Duquesne (21-13) [Pittsburgh; A10 Tournament Finalist]
St. Louis (18-14) [New $ 81,000,000 basketball Arena]

Butler (26-6) [Indianapolis; AP # 22]
Cleveland State (25-11) [beat # 4 seed Wake Forest]


In addition to attracting a huge television audience, the New Conference would save the schools a lot of money for travel and give the fans an opportunity to attend “away” games. 

It would be interesting to read your thoughts on the subject.

[nyg]

Why leave the most dominant and best conference in college basketball (5 teams in sweet 16, first in history) to form a new Horizon Conference.  No way.

[NavinRJohnson]

Pass.

[MUfan12]

Yeah, no. Never.

If the football schools split from the BE, I can see this happening-

MU
Gtown
Nova
ND
DePaul
St John's
Providence
Hall
Xavier
Dayton

That I could live with.

[Pakuni]

Not by choice.

[Skatastrophy]

Right now MU is in the best conference for our program financially.  We are getting more national media than ever because of our TV contracts that we only have because of the BEast.

[Tribby]

No. No no no. No.

If we're forced out of the BE for whatever reason, that conference wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. But for MU to leave voluntarily would be idiotic.

[Tugg Speedman]

Flyer:

I'm guessing you posted something similar on the ND and 'nova boards.  Are you getting anything postive from them?  I'll bet not.

Seriously, their has been talk of the football schools of the BE splitting.  If that happened then the "catholic 8" of BE along with Xavier, Dayton St. Louis and Butler would be acceptable.

But to repeat, it would not make sense to do it voluntarily.  A new conference would have no TV contract like the BE has.  No TV no exposure.  No exposure, no recruits.  No recruits, Horizon League v2.0

[Tribby]

Seriously, their has been talk of the football schools of the BE splitting.  If that happened then the "catholic 8" of BE along with Xavier, Dayton St. Louis and Butler would be acceptable.

This has been discussed before, and while I think Butler has a fine program and would be happy to share a conference with them, not sure how they would feel being in a conference with 11 other Catholic schools. They'd be even more out of place than Northwestern is in the Big Televen...

[Flyer Foe]

This has been discussed before, and while I think Butler has a fine program and would be happy to share a conference with them, not sure how they would feel being in a conference with 11 other Catholic schools. They'd be even more out of place than Northwestern is in the Big Televen...

Actually, it would be a total of 8 Catholic schools from the BE and A10. Cleveland State is not a Catholic school either.

Flyer:

I'm guessing you posted something similar on the ND and 'nova boards. 

No, I haven't.

I also have not come here to attempt to persuade anyone into anything.

I was just curious about the opinions of Marquette fans, and you have spoken.

Thank you very much for doing so, and best of luck in the Big East in 2009-10 !

That's all for this season.

Regards,
Flyer Foe

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

On another message board, there is a lot of discontent by fans of the midwestern Atlantic 10 schools about a decision (announced this morning) to hold the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Boardwalk Hall (built in 1926) for the next 3 years (it has been there for the past 3 years, and averaged less than 5,000 fans per game). For historic reasons, the Philadelphia schools basically dictate Atlantic 10 policy (in their best interests), and many of the fans from the midwestern schools (that generate the bulk of the revenue for the A10) are fed up with the East-coast boys calling the shots, grabbing the revenue, and disregarding the interests of their midwestern members.

What would your reaction be to a proposal to join a new 10-member midwestern basketball conference comprized of the following schools ?

Villanova (28-7)
Marquette (25-10)
Notre Dame (20-14) [Irish get to keep their Independent football schedule]
DePaul (9-24) [down but not necessarily out]

Xavier (27-7) [NCAA Tournament Sweet 16; AP # 20]
Dayton (27-8) [beat # 6 seed West Virginia]
Duquesne (21-13) [Pittsburgh; A10 Tournament Finalist]
St. Louis (18-14) [New $ 81,000,000 basketball Arena]

Butler (26-6) [Indianapolis; AP # 22]
Cleveland State (25-11) [beat # 4 seed Wake Forest]

In addition to attracting a huge television audience, the New Conference would save the schools a lot of money for travel and give the fans an opportunity to attend “away” games. 

It would be interesting to read your thoughts on the subject.

No, no, no, no, and no.

We're trading the NYC and DC media markets for Indianapolis and Cleveland.  SLU's invested in the arena, yes, but even with Majerus, they're still a long way off from being a perennial NIT team even.  Dusquene hasn't made an NCAA in 40 years.  Even Dayton, perennial A-10 power they are, just won their first tourney game in 2 decades this yar.

The Big East is a perfect fit for MU in every respect.  Sure, we may be the western-most team in the league geographically, but it aligns perfectly where our alumni bases are the strongest (the upper Midwest and the Northeast).  Every aspect of MU is up because of our Big East exposure; fundrasing, alumni invlovement, student applications, media coverage, etc.  We're aligned with our natural (historic) rivals in DePaul and ND, and have burgeoning rivalries with Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown.  Lots of MU fans travel out east for games, like the 3000-4000 or so that went out for Georgetown this year, and plenty of fans from other schools (Syracuse, Louisville) come to MKE for games.  

I fear the day we may have to consider an option like this.  But considering how good the Big East has it going now (monster TV ratings, 5 Sweet 16 teams, etc), I think that day is a long ways away.

[MR.HAYWARD]

yah right leave the best basketball conference in the country to join a mid major conference...sounds good....pause.....NOT!!!!


I realize Dayton has a nice littel team down there and you make a tourney every once in a while, and even beat us this year but give me a break.  Mu Nova, ND and even Depaul have nothing to gain and quite honestly a ton to lose by doing that, it completely devalues our program,  we made that mistake once already it was called the MCC back in the late 80's

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Terrible idea.

Anyone who wants to willingly trade games with Louisville, UConn, and Syracuse for games with Dayton, Duquesne, and SLU needs their head examined.

[AlienWarrior]

Interesting ,maybe there is more to this beyond rumor. It may be in the works behind the scenes . Maybe thats why we had to settle for Buzz as our coach and a more elite coach will not consider us .

[bamamarquettefan]

No way.  Buzz has done a great job of assembling a staff that can recruit nationally.  Al brought MU to prominence by grabbing East Coast players, which we finally have a chance to do again through the Big East network.  We will always have a good shot at Chicago and Wisconsin kids, but being part of the Big East gives us a shot at kids from everywhere who want to play in the best conference in the US.

As for saving travel expenses, we get a huge check every time anyone in the Big East gets invited to the NCAA and another one every time they win a game.  Each of these counts as 1 "unit" which is I am told is worth $175,000.  With 7 teams invited, 6 making 2nd round, and 5 making Sweet 16, we are up to 18 units - so I don't think the travel expense is too big a deal.  I know local fans would like to have easier travel to away games, but those of us out here in the middle of nowhere like the chance to catch them once a year (or more, if you are crazy and travel everywhere like me).

I want us to be in the Big East forever.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

Interesting ,maybe there is more to this beyond rumor. It may be in the works behind the scenes . Maybe thats why we had to settle for Buzz as our coach and a more elite coach will not consider us .

 

[rocky_warrior]

I hate +1.  But +1.  Alien is clearly coming from another world on this one.

[Marquette Mama]

we get a huge check every time anyone in the Big East gets invited to the NCAA and another one every time they win a game.  Each of these counts as 1 "unit" which is I am told is worth $175,000.  With 7 teams invited, 6 making 2nd round, and 5 making Sweet 16, we are up to 18 units  

I didn't know that... so we're at $3.15 million and counting as some of these teams will advance to the Elite 8 and beyond.  This is like one of those earn money while never leaving your house deals for ND, Gtown, St. John's, Seton Hall etc.  Do we get anything for BE teams playing in the NIT? 

[AlienWarrior]

I hate +1.  But +1.  Alien is clearly coming from another world on this one.

Ok ,my thought may be a bit "out there" . However, there is still a remote possibility that this may be true

[MU_Warrior44]

Interesting ,maybe there is more to this beyond rumor. It may be in the works behind the scenes . Maybe thats why we had to settle for Buzz as our coach and a more elite coach will not consider us .

Huh?    So we had to "settle" for a non-elite coach (to borrow your term from your other posts) because a conference realignment might be in the works? And you seem to be implying that all the elite coaches somehow knew about this realignment and that's why they didn't consider us?  

[Tribby]

Ok ,my thought may be a bit "out there" . However, there is still a remote possibility that this may be true

There's also a remote possibility that you were actually born on another planet. Doesn't make it so, although it seems more and more plausible each time you make a post...

[rocky_warrior]

there is still a remote possibility that this may be true

Sure there is.  Remote.  Like, another galaxy remote.  

[AlienWarrior]

There's also a remote possibility that you were actually born on another planet. Doesn't make it so, although it seems more and more plausible each time you make a post...
[/quote

Thank you ,I appreciate that .There are lots of stuff behind the scenes that we are not privy to. I SAID ,that it was a remote possibility .I just may think differently than you do . All you have to do is agree or disagree.

[MUEng92]

How ironic.  Dayton fans are upset about where their conference tournament is being held.

The only thing I remember about when MU was in the MCC (are those the correct letters?) was the fact that it seemed every fricken year the conference tournament was held in Dayton.  I am sure a little research could prove me wrong but it just seemed like we had to play Dayton at Dayton in the conference tournament.

I know, I need to see somebody about these grudges I hold.

[Tribby]

All you have to do is agree or disagree.

Yeah but what fun would that be?