Zags want in

[ChicosBailBonds]

Hopefully MU wants in Big 10 or ACC. I am willing to bet at least one basketball only school ends up in a big time conference. I am hoping it is us.

I'm just curious why you think this.  What is the benefit to those football conferences when basketball adds so little revenue?  Why would they want to dilute their shares?

[Goose]

MU needs to reach for the stars. We can always make decision down the road to join the stiff conference. We offer more than most basketball schools by a mile. Some of you might remember that when Geat Midwest was started MU was big part of the process and we were leaders in that process. At the time it was a classy conference and step in right direction for program. Since then every decision to change conferences has been great decision. The next decision will have major impact on the program and it's future.

UW loses football coach to Arkansas largely because of money and SEC being in a class of its own. If we step backwards we will be a stepping stone program at best moving forward. My Dad always told me that true leaders make positives out of negatives. We will see what kind of leaders we have. At this point I am not overly optimistic but not shutting the door.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

But how is adding Gonzaga going to add millions of dollars in revenue to Marquette?

Big picture.

The "catholic 7" are forming and negotiating a conference and television contract.

I'm not saying adding Gonzaga is an automatic, but you can't count them out over 15K per year in travel costs when the conference members are trying to negotiate a contract that's worth millions.

The new conference will spend more on printing new letterhead than plane tickets to Spokane.

Logistical costs are not an automatic disqualification. Solutions can be found if the conference determines Gonzaga adds value. 

[brewcity77]

Another reason to add Gonzaga is simply to add West Coast interest. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that ESPN running a late game between Gonzaga and Marquette would get a lot more attention down that coast than a late game between Georgetown and Villanova. I realize Spokane isn't a large market, but I think Gonzaga draws more eyes than just local simply because they are a West Coast team.

[Groin_pull]

An absolute no-brainer. Of course you invite the Zags. Think big and stretch coast to coast.

[MUCrisco]

This would be my ideal group. Seven Catholics. Memphis, Temple, Butler, Xavier, Dayton(Use VCU or Richmond if you want.). I think UConn and Cincy are gone. If only one is gone, slash Dayton. Then take Zags, and three of Creighton, UNLV, San Diego St, BYU, St Mary's or New Mexico. Four, four team divisions. Play home and home with your division. Then single game vs rest.

Butler
Marquette
DePaul
Memphis

Xavier
Dayton
Temple
Nova

Providence
St John's
Seton Hall
Gtown

Zags
West Coast
West Coast
West Coast

[MerrittsMustache]

This would be my ideal group. Seven Catholics. Memphis, Temple, Butler, Xavier, Dayton(Use VCU or Richmond if you want.). I think UConn and Cincy are gone. If only one is gone, slash Dayton. Then take Zags, and three of Creighton, UNLV, San Diego St, BYU, St Mary's or New Mexico. Four, four team divisions. Play home and home with your division. Then single game vs rest.

Butler
Marquette
DePaul
Memphis

Xavier
Dayton
Temple
Nova

Providence
St John's
Seton Hall
Gtown

Zags
West Coast
West Coast
West Coast

Several of those schools you mentioned have football.

[brewcity77]

Several of those schools you mentioned have football.

That's fine. Let them have football and park it elsewhere. As long as the basketball schools drive the bus, we control our own destiny. If they find greener pastures in the ACC, Big 12, or B1G, fine. Have fun, best of luck, we still have a great basketball conference without you that we have control over. We can replace Cincy with Creighton or UConn with VCU and we'll get by just fine.

And as far as Temple, Memphis, and possible additions like BYU, well, it's not like the major conferences are beating down their doors anyway. They can stay as long as they like, as long as they understand we won't have their football dreams mucking up our basketball powerhouse.

[jficke13]

That's fine. Let them have football and park it elsewhere. As long as the basketball schools drive the bus, we control our own destiny. [...]  They can stay as long as they like, as long as they understand we won't have their football dreams mucking up our basketball powerhouse.

Sorry, but I disagree. The more votes you get from a block of schools who have interests that are almost certain to deviate from the C-7's, the more likely that they will "[muck] up our basketball powerhouse."

If, for some reason, a school like BYU was beating down the door to get into a new basketball only conference while leaving their football team at the door, you consider taking them. But I think to open the doors to more than 1 school like that is to invite another round of restructuring instability a few years down the road.

Instability is bad for fans, bad for recruiting, and bad for retaining coaches. I'm sick of it, and we should do everything in our power to put it behind us once and for all.

[MUCrisco]

Sorry, but I disagree. The more votes you get from a block of schools who have interests that are almost certain to deviate from the C-7's, the more likely that they will "[muck] up our basketball powerhouse."

If, for some reason, a school like BYU was beating down the door to get into a new basketball only conference while leaving their football team at the door, you consider taking them. But I think to open the doors to more than 1 school like that is to invite another round of restructuring instability a few years down the road.

Instability is bad for fans, bad for recruiting, and bad for retaining coaches. I'm sick of it, and we should do everything in our power to put it behind us once and for all.

I think having 12 potential tournament teams far outweighs the instability.  Thus, it would be more attractive to coaches, recruits, and fans.  The Big East was obviously unstable, and that didn't stop it from being the best basketball conference ever.  Coaches and recruit sere attracted to it.  This new setup would be far more stable than the Big East as it was, since basketball is driving the bus.

[Galway Eagle]

No thank you.

A hypothetical Jesuit conference:
Marquette
Georgetown
Xavier
Gonzaga (way out west compared to the other 6)
Creighton
SLU
St. Joe's

That puts us at 7 teams. To get to 12, you're picking 5 of the following:
Loyola Chicago
Detroit
Loyola Maryland
Fordham
Loyola Marymount
San Francisco
Santa Clara
Holy Cross
Fairfield
Seattle

Yikes.

Yeah... But Loyola Maryland did make the ncaa tournament last year and Loyola Chicago has a national championship and a new facility maybe a stronger conference would help get em back on the scene.  Outside of those two arguments for fun I get what you're saying I didn't realize Jesuit schools were so top heavy in bball... But that upper core would be pretty sick and would probs stick together

[TallTitan34]

Don't invite ANY school with DI football.  It would just cause problems later on.

Even if it's Duke.  If they drop football they can join.

[jficke13]

Football's not done fracking up the national conference landscape and won't be until there are 4 16 team super conferences, or something similar. If it comes to that, you better believe BYU is going to want to be on the inside of that structure. Putting together a new conference with some football schools in it would just be setting ourselves up for another time at this rodeo.

[TallTitan34]

Football's not done fracking up the national conference landscape and won't be until there are 4 16 team super conferences, or something similar. If it comes to that, you better believe BYU is going to want to be on the inside of that structure. Putting together a new conference with some football schools in it would just be setting ourselves up for another time at this rodeo.

This.  Even when they get the super 4 they still probably won't be happy.

Avoid all football schools.

[MUCrisco]

Don't invite ANY school with DI football.  It would just cause problems later on.

Even if it's Duke.  If they drop football they can join.

How could it cause problems later on if they play football in another conference and they don't have voting power?  These schools have learned from their mistakes in the past.  You play the best competition possible and you make your conference most attractive for TV money.  

[bilsu]

Don't invite ANY school with DI football.  It would just cause problems later on.

Even if it's Duke.  If they drop football they can join.

I mostly agree with this. However, I think eventually teams not in a BCS football conference will not be division 1 football. Their programs will have to be down graded to some extent to save money, because they will not have the revenue to compete with the big BCS teams. It may take a few years, but that I think that is what is going to happen.

[TallTitan34]

How could it cause problems later on if they play football in another conference and they don't have voting power?  These schools have learned from their mistakes in the past.  You play the best competition possible and you make your conference most attractive for TV money.  

Because they could take their basketball and non-football sports with them.  I don't want UCONN and Cincinnati in the league for a year and a half only to bolt as soon as they get a chance.

[TallTitan34]

I mostly agree with this. However, I think eventually teams not in a BCS football conference will not be division 1 football. Their programs will have to be down graded to some extent to save money, because they will not have the revenue to compete with the big BCS teams. It may take a few years, but that I think that is what is going to happen.

I don't mind taking a school with a downgraded football program like Villanova.

[MerrittsMustache]

Because they could take their basketball and non-football sports with them.  I don't want UCONN and Cincinnati in the league for a year and a half only to bolt as soon as they get a chance.

Agreed. Every basketball-first school would be a shady football coach and a great season away from bolting.

[jficke13]

The Duke/Wake talk is mostly a pipe dream. So long as they aspire to bowl-eligible football, there's no shot. If something catastrophic happens to the ACC and they decide to end their football teams themselves, then maybe... but I seriously don't see this happening, and definitely not soon enough to matter to this discussion.

As to Memphis, Temple, San Diego St., BYU, and others that have bowl-eligible football and aspire to keep it, they will simply be a destabalizing force if they were included. If there were a 12 or 14 team league including 4 football schools, if they all left when the superconferences are being formed that's a big chunk of the New Conference gone. Even if it leaves the core of the New Conference intact, it would be a tumultuous time and could lead to embarassingly bad snap decisions like inviting Tulane's non-football-playing equivalent.

[brewcity77]

Because they could take their basketball and non-football sports with them.  I don't want UCONN and Cincinnati in the league for a year and a half only to bolt as soon as they get a chance.

Disagree, mainly for financial reasons. If they stay here, they have to pay the exit fee when they leave. Whether it stays at $10M or gets ramped up a bit, so be it. But just as important, their NCAA shares stay with the league. Especially when you consider UConn's title last year, that's another 3 years we'll be reaping benefits. If they leave, they leave that and any other earned shares behind for the rest of us to split.

When it all shakes out, there will probably be 4 16-team conferences, maybe a fifth border conference. For that to happen, the current Big 4 (B1G, SEC, Pac-12, Big 12) need to add 14 schools. That number matches very nicely with the number of ACC schools there will be in 2015. And if the ACC goes out and raids further, they will be raiding schools that for us are expendable. I think the ideal is a 12-14 team conference anyway, but if we can keep NCAA shares and the name cache of UConn, Cincy, Temple, and Memphis for a few years, why not take the money?

[jficke13]

[...] if we can keep NCAA shares and the name cache of UConn, Cincy, Temple, and Memphis for a few years, why not take the money?

So we can avoid doing this again in a few years.

[MUCrisco]

Because they could take their basketball and non-football sports with them.  I don't want UCONN and Cincinnati in the league for a year and a half only to bolt as soon as they get a chance.

You'll notice I did not include UConn or Cincy.  I don't think anyone is going to be pounding on Memphis' or Temple's door to invite them to their conference due to football.  Why would you leave them out of this?  It's all about the tv contract.  More potential tourney teams means more money for Marquette, which means we have more money to spend on recruiting and coaches.

[Groin_pull]

This would be my ideal group. Seven Catholics. Memphis, Temple, Butler, Xavier, Dayton(Use VCU or Richmond if you want.). I think UConn and Cincy are gone. If only one is gone, slash Dayton. Then take Zags, and three of Creighton, UNLV, San Diego St, BYU, St Mary's or New Mexico. Four, four team divisions. Play home and home with your division. Then single game vs rest.

Butler
Marquette
DePaul
Memphis

Xavier
Dayton
Temple
Nova

Providence
St John's
Seton Hall
Gtown

Zags
West Coast
West Coast
West Coast

How a bout a 14-team, coast-to-coast conference?

Butler
Marquette
DePaul
Xavier
Dayton
Villanova
Providence
St John's
Seton Hall
Georgetown
Gonzaga
U San Francisco
Loyola Marymount
Pepperdine

[MUCrisco]

The Duke/Wake talk is mostly a pipe dream. So long as they aspire to bowl-eligible football, there's no shot. If something catastrophic happens to the ACC and they decide to end their football teams themselves, then maybe... but I seriously don't see this happening, and definitely not soon enough to matter to this discussion.

As to Memphis, Temple, San Diego St., BYU, and others that have bowl-eligible football and aspire to keep it, they will simply be a destabalizing force if they were included. If there were a 12 or 14 team league including 4 football schools, if they all left when the superconferences are being formed that's a big chunk of the New Conference gone. Even if it leaves the core of the New Conference intact, it would be a tumultuous time and could lead to embarassingly bad snap decisions like inviting Tulane's non-football-playing equivalent.

That embarrassing Tulane addition was because they had football.  This new conference will only be adding teams with basketball interest.  You guys are missing the point. This new conference will have nothing to do with football.  If teams happen to have football, so be it.  Those schools will never be in the majority, much less a 2/3's majority.  Heck, write it in the constitution that this league will never be a football league.  You don't turn down good competition that draws recruits, coaches, and TV money, just because fans can't stomach this.