Catholic 7 Meeting?

[MUfan12]

Not sure if this guy is legit or not, but apparently the ADs and Presidents of the Catholic 7 met in NY today to discuss breaking away- http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=4188

[Benny B]

Timetable for their decision is six months.  Interesting... that's about how long the Cathoic 7 will have enough votes to disband the conference before invitee schools gain their votes and takeaway the C7's super-majority.

[chr31ter]

FWIW, that's Mark Blaudschun's site.

Blaudschun used to be the college sports beat reporter for the Boston Globe before he took an early retirement for financial reasons a few years ago.

VERY well connected, and an excellent reporter.  If he says it, then it's true.  Blaudschun's the guy that got BC's AD to go on the record and and say that ESPN told the ACC to go after Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

[MUfan12]

FWIW, that's Mark Blaudschun's site.

Blaudschun used to be the college sports beat reporter for the Boston Globe before he took an early retirement for financial reasons a few years ago.

VERY well connected, and an excellent reporter.  If he says it, then it's true.  Blaudschun's the guy that got BC's AD to go on the record and and say that ESPN told the ACC to go after Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Thanks for the info on him. Very interesting development.

[brewcity77]

I just can't see the benefit in bailing. We lose the name, MSG, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs. For what? A smaller television contract and replacing UConn, Cincy, and Louisville with Xavier, Dayton, and St Louis? Maybe get Butler and VCU to get to 12, but even still can we expect much more than double what the A-10 gets? If we double their deal, we get around $500K, less than a third what we make now.

Good to keep appraised of all the rumors, but I don't see why we'd pull the plug with so much to lose.

[MarquetteDano]

Great that this is at least being reviewed but I hope if a new league is formed, even with the "Catholic 7" and St. Louis, Dayton, and Xavier that they think outside of the "Catholic" box.

Plenty of good schools that they may want to add one day and to limit it to Catholic schools would be a mistake.

I also wouldn't mind seeing more than just 10... Creighton and Butler would be great to add to the ten already mentioned in the article.

[Benny B]

I just can't see the benefit in bailing. We lose the name, MSG, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs.

[singsongy] Nuh-uh-uhhhhhh.

[honkytonk]

Thamel tweeted that Aresco was there to answer questions and that it was not a "secret" meeting.

[MUfan12]

I just can't see the benefit in bailing. We lose the name, MSG, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs. For what? A smaller television contract and replacing UConn, Cincy, and Louisville with Xavier, Dayton, and St Louis? Maybe get Butler and VCU to get to 12, but even still can we expect much more than double what the A-10 gets? If we double their deal, we get around $500K, less than a third what we make now.

Good to keep appraised of all the rumors, but I don't see why we'd pull the plug with so much to lose.

Not sure there's all that much to lose, to be honest. These schools wouldn't be exploring this if they thought the TV contract was going to be close to the level you speak of.

[Norm]

I just can't see the benefit in bailing. We lose the name, MSG, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs. For what? A smaller television contract and replacing UConn, Cincy, and Louisville with Xavier, Dayton, and St Louis?

Louisville is already gone to the ACC....

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Great that this is at least being reviewed but I hope if a new league is formed, even with the "Catholic 7" and St. Louis, Dayton, and Xavier that they think outside of the "Catholic" box.

Plenty of good schools that they may want to add one day and to limit it to Catholic schools would be a mistake.

I also wouldn't mind seeing more than just 10... Creighton and Butler would be great to add to the ten already mentioned in the article.

We need to build the best conference possible with the best teams possible that also delivers maximum TV revenue. Setting aside quotas for Catholic schools vs. non-Catholic schools cannot be part of the equation. If Cincy, UConn, Memphis, and Temple want to come along and park their football in the MAC or something, they're more than welcome to, but I don't see that as realistic. If we're looking at private, urban, basketball-centric schools without FBS football, I think there are really three options.

The first is a 10-team league, where everyone plays each other twice in a traditional, double-round robin. Because of the smaller number of media markets, I don't see this as likely to happen, as fun as it would be.

Another outside possibility is a 16-team league, similar to the current Big East, but I don't think this happens unless Memphis, Temple, Cincinnati AND UConn are all on board, and I would be stunned if that developed.

I think the most likely scenario is a 12-team league, where everyone plays each other once and you have perhaps 5-7 mirror games. If this is the scenario, I think this is your league.

Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Dayton, Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, Saint Louis, Creighton

Adding many more schools could create a situation similar to the soon-to-be-former incarnation of the Big East, and frankly, you're at a point of diminishing returns if you want to add more schools just for the sake of "not having too many Catholics." Just examine the following other schools I've heard mentioned in these discussions.

UMass MAYBE gives you a Boston media market, but they haven't been to the NCAAs since 1998, and have finished higher than 5th in the A-10 only 3 times in the 14 years since...and they have FBS football.

Richmond, VCU, and George Mason give you a growing demographic area in DC/Virginia, but do they really give you so much more than Georgetown does in your media rights discussions that it's worth splitting the pie another 3 ways?

Temple is occasionally good but you already have exposure in that market with Villanova. Temple at least nominally has FBS football to worry about as well, just like UMass.

Yea, it'd be fun to add Gonzaga, but they would be a geographic outlier in every way possible. Their closest rival would be Creighton, a mere 1500 mile trip. Yes, South Florida is a geographic outlier in the current Big East, but they're a state school with football revenue. Gonzaga is neither.

We need to add the best teams that make sense.

[mubb34]

We need to build the best conference possible with the best teams possible that also delivers maximum TV revenue. Setting aside quotas for Catholic schools vs. non-Catholic schools cannot be part of the equation. If Cincy, UConn, Memphis, and Temple want to come along and park their football in the MAC or something, they're more than welcome to, but I don't see that as realistic. If we're looking at private, urban, basketball-centric schools without FBS football, I think there are really three options.

The first is a 10-team league, where everyone plays each other twice in a traditional, double-round robin. Because of the smaller number of media markets, I don't see this as likely to happen, as fun as it would be.

Another outside possibility is a 16-team league, similar to the current Big East, but I don't think this happens unless Memphis, Temple, Cincinnati AND UConn are all on board, and I would be stunned if that developed.

I think the most likely scenario is a 12-team league, where everyone plays each other once and you have perhaps 5-7 mirror games. If this is the scenario, I think this is your league.

Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, Dayton, Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, Saint Louis, Creighton

Adding many more schools could create a situation similar to the soon-to-be-former incarnation of the Big East, and frankly, you're at a point of diminishing returns if you want to add more schools just for the sake of "not having too many Catholics." Just examine the following other schools I've heard mentioned in these discussions.

UMass MAYBE gives you a Boston media market, but they haven't been to the NCAAs since 1998, and have finished higher than 5th in the A-10 only 3 times in the 14 years since...and they have FBS football.

Richmond, VCU, and George Mason give you a growing demographic area in DC/Virginia, but do they really give you so much more than Georgetown does in your media rights discussions that it's worth splitting the pie another 3 ways?

Temple is occasionally good but you already have exposure in that market with Villanova. Temple at least nominally has FBS football to worry about as well, just like UMass.

Yea, it'd be fun to add Gonzaga, but they would be a geographic outlier in every way possible. Their closest rival would be Creighton, a mere 1500 mile trip. Yes, South Florida is a geographic outlier in the current Big East, but they're a state school with football revenue. Gonzaga is neither.

We need to add the best teams that make sense.

This is exactly what I was thinking...wow...These 12 teams make sense and I would be more than happy.

[Wade for President]

This is exactly what I was thinking...wow...These 12 teams make sense and I would be more than happy.

Agreed.  If you give me a league with those 12 teams, I'm happy and don't look back.  Not sold on UCONN or Cincy (interesting to see Tubberville leave Texas Tech for conference uncertainty) sticking around.  Cut your losses and try and solidify a conference built around similar university profiles ASAP.

Being proactive and making a move like this would at least give the initial impression that we aren't conference realignment pushovers. 

[RushmoreAcademy]

ESPN reporting on it:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8735330/big-east-direction-concerns-conference-catholic-schools-sources-say

[brewcity77]

Louisville is already gone to the ACC....

Hence why St Louis would be replacing them. Whether it's a school leaving or the Catholic schools kicking them out amounts to the same thing. It's still a school that needs to be replaced in any new model.

[Skatastrophy]

How many schools do we need to vote to kick everyone else out of the beast and keep the name?  How many to keep MSG?

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Obviously, the ideal is to keep the Big East name and contract with the Garden. However, if it becomes a matter of controlling our own destiny, they may have to go.

3 Name alternatives that I think could work
Big North (Currently the only "Big Cardinal Direction" unused in D1)
North Star Conference (My least favorite, but with historical basis. Several of these programs used it for their women's programs in the 1980s.)
Metro Conference (Makes sense given that pretty much all conference members are in urban areas, and some are even former Metro Conference members)

3 Conference Tournament venue alternatives not under contract
Verizon Center (Washington, DC)
Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)
or get creative. I personally like the idea of letting the tournament's winner also winning the right to host the tournament next year.

[MerrittsMustache]

How many schools do we need to vote to kick everyone else out of the beast and keep the name?  How many to keep MSG?

If I understand correctly, they'd have the numbers to do so right now if Temple does not have controlling vote yet.

MSG has their own contract that it can get out of if they don't like the direction/make-up of the conference.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on these.

[chapman]

Please make it happen.  Good to know the non-football schools were peeved about Tulane and near having a coronary if ECU was added for everything, but how did they let it happen in the first place?  Did they not have the majority to block such a move?  And if it was close, did the football schools actually use a Louisville vote to swing it their way days before they defected?  Either way, when you have 3 votes coming from schools begging other conferences to take them but dictating your future it's about time these 7 get some balls.

3 Conference Tournament venue alternatives not under contract
Verizon Center (Washington, DC)
Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)
or get creative. I personally like the idea of letting the tournament's winner also winning the right to host the tournament next year.

And if MSG would drop them, maybe stay in NY and go with the new rusty bucket, Barclays Center in Brooklyn?  Either way, I'd prefer they kept and owned one site.

[🏀]

Please make it happen.  Good to know the non-football schools were peeved about Tulane and near having a coronary if ECU was added for everything, but how did they let it happen in the first place?  Did they not have the majority to block such a move?  And if it was close, did the football schools actually use a Louisville vote to swing it their way days before they defected?  Either way, when you have 3 votes coming from schools begging other conferences to take them but dictating your future it's about time these 7 get some balls.

And if MSG would drop them, maybe stay in NY and go with the new rusty bucket, Barclays Center in Brooklyn?  Either way, I'd prefer they kept and owned one site.

Keep one location, traveling conference tournaments are stupid.

[Hards Alumni]

Keep one location, traveling conference tournaments are stupid.

Meh, seemed to work alright for CUSA when we were in it.

[Benny B]

How many schools do we need to vote to kick everyone else out of the beast and keep the name?  How many to keep MSG?

7 votes to disband.  6 votes to "sell" Big East assets (name, MSG contract, etc.) to a new conference.

[MUCrew]

Keep one location, traveling conference tournaments are stupid.

+1

[WarriorInNYC]

And if MSG would drop them, maybe stay in NY and go with the new rusty bucket, Barclays Center in Brooklyn?  Either way, I'd prefer they kept and owned one site.

I really like this.  The Barclays Center is definitely going to be looking to be hosting more college basketball and I'm sure would be eager to grab a new contract.

I actually went to a Nets preseason game there a few months ago, it is a gorgeous arena.

[Benny B]

If, by chance, they lost MSG, this new conference would be in excellent shape to make a push for the 2nd best tournament location in the US...

Indianapolis.

Yes, losing the Garden would sting, but Indy may very well be a consolation prize that's even superior to the Garden in many ways.