What's Your Ideal New Conference?

[speri]

C7 Plus

Xavier
Butler
Creighton
Gonzaga (if they want to join and extra revenue offset additional travel costs)
St. Louis (only if Gonzaga accepts to make 12)

Wait a few years and see who out of this group is worthy of an invitation. Make it known that they can play their way into the conference. Give them a chance to improve basketball program.

Dayton - probably already worhty, but Xavier already has the market
Boston University
Cleveland State
Detroit
UMass (if no football program)
others....

No divisions

NO FOOTBALL SCHOOLS. No sense in helping build up/maintain programs that will eventually leave. Let them wither away without a good conference affiliation. If Memphis, UCONN, Cincinnati all become has-beens in the world of college basketball that means there is more room for our teams to ascend in prestige.

[Avenue Commons]

Dayton board claiming that Marquette and Georgetown are pulling for fellow Jesuit institution, SLU, over Dayton with St. John's in UD's corner. Take it for what it is worth.

http://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?p=286272#post286272

[🏀]

Dayton board claiming that Marquette and Georgetown are pulling for fellow Jesuit institution, SLU, over Dayton with St. John's in UD's corner. Take it for what it is worth.

http://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?p=286272#post286272

Hope that's true.

[MUfan12]

Hope that's true.

Same here. Their fans remind me of UWM's dozen fans. Whiny and annoying.

[MU_Iceman]

C7 Plus

Xavier
Butler
Creighton
Gonzaga (if they want to join and extra revenue offset additional travel costs)
St. Louis (only if Gonzaga accepts to make 12)

Wait a few years and see who out of this group is worthy of an invitation. Make it known that they can play their way into the conference. Give them a chance to improve basketball program.

Dayton - probably already worhty, but Xavier already has the market
Boston University
Cleveland State
Detroit
UMass (if no football program)
others....

No divisions

NO FOOTBALL SCHOOLS. No sense in helping build up/maintain programs that will eventually leave. Let them wither away without a good conference affiliation. If Memphis, UCONN, Cincinnati all become has-beens in the world of college basketball that means there is more room for our teams to ascend in prestige.

Adding a program like Gonzaga would be great for every basketball program involved, but we can't forget that there are other athletic programs that need to be considered.  It would be a tremendous strain on the individual school's athletic department budgets to send non-revenue generating teams (ie. golf, tennis, track & field, etc) all the way to Seattle to play a game / match and fly home.  Sure the flight from Milwaukee is 4 hours, but the flight from Providence or Georgetown is 6-7 hours...

Gonzaga would be a great addition for basketball purposes, but it probably isn't the most realistic scenario...

[PBRme]

Agree, I think if you add Gonzaga you have to add St Mary and/or USF.  Then the non rev sports could travel to both on the same trip (I know they are 2 hours apart) same time zone.  Everywhere Gonzaga goes is and will be a trip.

[Westcoastfan]

I may be biased, but I'd love to see the C-7 expand to the West Coast. From a pure competition standpoint adding Xavier, the WCC-3, and Butler would be the best choice.

5 year average RPI (According to realtimerpi.com)
#1 Xavier 21.6
#2 BYU 27
#3 Gonzaga 35.4
#4 Saint Mary's 40.4
#5 Butler 40.6
#6 VCU 50
#7 Dayton 52.4
#8 Creighton 70
#9 St. Louis 110.6

5 year average Kenpom
#1 Gonzaga 28.8
#2 BYU 29
#3 Xavier 29.6
#4 Saint Mary's 48.2
#5 Butler 48.6
#6 VCU 54
#7 Dayton 67.8
#8 Creighton 79
#9 St. Louis 103.6

5 year average Sagarin
#1 Xavier 86.1
#2 BYU 85.76
#3 Zags 85.756
#4 Butler 84.486
#5 Saint Mary's 83.342
#6 VCU 81.916
#7 Dayton 81.62
#8 Creighton 79.81
#9 St Louis 77.664


East:
Georgetown
Providence
Seton Hall
St. John's
VCU
Villanova
Xavier

West:
BYU
Butler
Creighton or Dayton
Depaul
Gonzaga
Marquette
Saint Mary's

This would be a truly national, basketball-first conference with like minded institutions. Anyway, that is my ideal new conference.

[RJax55]

Same here. Their fans remind me of UWM's dozen fans. Whiny and annoying.

Reading that thread made my head hurt. Whiny is right on the money. From both a basketball and entertainment stand point (would love to read the meltdown), keep Dayton out.

[Aughnanure]

+100000000000000000000


This should be our conference. These divisions are pretty well balanced. Home and home within division. One home-and-home with a rival from the other division (could rotate). Play everyone else in the other division once. Structure the conference tournament so each division is one side of the bracket.

I also think this approach mitigates, if not eliminates, the travel issue with Gonzaga. Everyone within their division is in the midwest. Those flights are 3-4 hours tops (not awesome, but definitely workable). They have to travel to the east coast maybe 3-4 times a year, that's it.

Nice to meet another fan of divisions.

[UDfan]

Dayton fan here.  I've been registered here for a few years, before all of this was going down, and thought I would check up on what the thoughts are.  I've heard that X and Butler have been offered in private and have accepted in something of a gentlemen's agreement.  Rumor is that Saint Louis and UD have been talked about as a possible addition for a 10-team league, with Saint Louis leading and being advocated strongly by Marquette.

I'm not sure how it all shakes out, but I would obviously like UD to be a part of the best league that they can manage.  If we miss the cut on this league, I'm OK with it, but my preference would be to be in.  Xavier, Butler, Marquette, Georgetown and Nova are obviously high caliber games that would be great to see at UD Arena.  I think our recent history is better than Providence, Seton Hall, DePaul and St. John's although those teams all have nice potential and history.  I don't doubt that we could compete in such a league, as we have done very well against the soon to be former Big East members in the last 5-10 years, and we are always very tough at UD Arena, no matter who the opponent is.  As far as our basketball legacy, it's pretty good, especially in the 60's and 70's.  Our ability to draw a crowd won't be affected too much by whatever our league might be.  We are always going to put 12,000-13,000 in the seats.  We slumped in the late 80's and early nineties, and put our program out of the running during some very formative years of early conferences.  That was a shame because Dayton is a basketball town and has quite the loyal following, similar to Creighton.

The UDPride site has had closed registration for a few years because it was being trolled heavily by some Xavier fans.

[dwaderoy2004]

Adding a program like Gonzaga would be great for every basketball program involved, but we can't forget that there are other athletic programs that need to be considered.  It would be a tremendous strain on the individual school's athletic department budgets to send non-revenue generating teams (ie. golf, tennis, track & field, etc) all the way to Seattle to play a game / match and fly home.  Sure the flight from Milwaukee is 4 hours, but the flight from Providence or Georgetown is 6-7 hours...

Gonzaga would be a great addition for basketball purposes, but it probably isn't the most realistic scenario...

I do not buy that argument in the least.  These schools already do something very similar with regards to USF.  They've survived just fine.  Plus there is talk of schools getting even more revenue than they got in the Big East.  The major strain is on Gonzaga, as they will have to fly long distances for every game/sport.  But if they want to, who cares.  If we can add Gonzaga, we 100% absolutely, positively have to add them.

[MU Buff]

If I'm thinking about the basketball product and nothing else there's no doubt it would be Gonzaga, Xavier, and Butler added to make 10 teams.  They have by far the most success in the last 10 years.  If it goes up to 12 teams I would probably go with Creighton.  After that there's a lot of schools that are about the same in my book.  I also hate the idea of divisions.

[GGGG]

Dayton fan here.  I've been registered here for a few years, before all of this was going down, and thought I would check up on what the thoughts are.  I've heard that X and Butler have been offered in private and have accepted in something of a gentlemen's agreement.  Rumor is that Saint Louis and UD have been talked about as a possible addition for a 10-team league, with Saint Louis leading and being advocated strongly by Marquette.

I'm not sure how it all shakes out, but I would obviously like UD to be a part of the best league that they can manage.  If we miss the cut on this league, I'm OK with it, but my preference would be to be in.  Xavier, Butler, Marquette, Georgetown and Nova are obviously high caliber games that would be great to see at UD Arena.  I think our recent history is better than Providence, Seton Hall, DePaul and St. John's although those teams all have nice potential and history.  I don't doubt that we could compete in such a league, as we have done very well against the soon to be former Big East members in the last 5-10 years, and we are always very tough at UD Arena, no matter who the opponent is.  As far as our basketball legacy, it's pretty good, especially in the 60's and 70's.  Our ability to draw a crowd won't be affected too much by whatever our league might be.  We are always going to put 12,000-13,000 in the seats.  We slumped in the late 80's and early nineties, and put our program out of the running during some very formative years of early conferences.  That was a shame because Dayton is a basketball town and has quite the loyal following, similar to Creighton.

The UDPride site has had closed registration for a few years because it was being trolled heavily by some Xavier fans.

Honestly, I am ambivalent if it is Dayton, SLU, Creighton, etc.  None particularly excite me, but no options really do.  I am glad that it looks like they will just do 10 schools for the time being and let it grow from there.

[Avenue Commons]

Honestly, I am ambivalent if it is Dayton, SLU, Creighton, etc.  None particularly excite me, but no options really do.  I am glad that it looks like they will just do 10 schools for the time being and let it grow from there.

Where do you get that it looks like the league will go to 10 teams? Just your impression or have I missed some announcement?

[Aughnanure]

Honestly, I am ambivalent if it is Dayton, SLU, Creighton, etc.  None particularly excite me, but no options really do.  I am glad that it looks like they will just do 10 schools for the time being and let it grow from there.

I really like Creighton. They've proven they can maintain a well above average basketball program. Just go to 12 and add them all (or Gonzaga over Dayton). More games.

[GGGG]

Where do you get that it looks like the league will go to 10 teams? Just your impression or have I missed some announcement?

Couple places...the Dayton dude even mentions it.

[Avenue Commons]

Couple places...the Dayton dude even mentions it.

The rumor he mentions is from the UD Pride board. Hardly an authoritative source. This seems like on of those "facts" that is based on speculation that gained steam on the Internet. Not saying it won't happen, I just don't get how it went from speculation to "fact."

[GGGG]

The rumor he mentions is from the UD Pride board. Hardly an authoritative source. This seems like on of those "facts" that is based on speculation that gained steam on the Internet. Not saying it won't happen, I just don't get how it went from speculation to "fact."

https://twitter.com/WisBBYearbook/status/280832520721948672

[🏀]

The UDPride site has had closed registration for a few years because it was being trolled heavily by some Xavier fans.

God, that site would be incredibly easy to troll.

Their posters are like nuns in the convent.

[Avenue Commons]

https://twitter.com/WisBBYearbook/status/280832520721948672

Gracias. Poor SLU.

[Mufflers]

When considering Gonzaga, St. Mary's and BYU, I think some people are being too narrowly focused.  If the Big East added only Xavier and Butler, it would be at nine teams for a 16 game home-and-home schedule.  The WCC also has nine teams.  It would make for a logical New Conference versus WCC Challenge with one crossover game every Saturday of conference play.  Therefore, every league team could play every Saturday and the New Conference can split the tv revenue nine ways instead of 10 ways.

You could schedule based on the caliber of the team... Georgetown versus Gonzaga... Villanova versus St. Mary's... Marquette versus BYU.

[Dawson Rental]

Cowards closed their registration.

Another reason to hate Dayton.

Damn, when did Dodds get control of the Dayton board?

[Mufflers]

Why would we go to 12 teams?  I'm maxed at watching 20 games per week.  I can't imagine the marginal revenue would justify the marginal cost of splitting more ways.

In addition, I'd be disappointed if we don't come out of this conference mess with a true conference home-and-home schedule.

Related, is there a maximum to the number of conference games you can have?  With all basketball schools, I would love if the conference season started right after Christmas, if not before, so there would be basketball to watch during the boring bowl madness.  If we go to 12 teams, I demand a 22 game conference schedule.  I won't have to talk to my family during Christmas dinner because I'll be busy watching SLU versus Dayton in the Jesus Bowl.

[🏀]

Why would we go to 12 teams?  I'm maxed at watching 20 games per week.  I can't imagine the marginal revenue would justify the marginal cost of splitting more ways.

In addition, I'd be disappointed if we don't come out of this conference mess with a true conference home-and-home schedule.

Related, is there a maximum to the number of conference games you can have?  With all basketball schools, I would love if the conference season started right after Christmas, if not before, so there would be basketball to watch during the boring bowl madness.  If we go to 12 teams, I demand a 22 game conference schedule.  I won't have to talk to my family during Christmas dinner because I'll be busy watching SLU versus Dayton in the Jesus Bowl.

No conference games over Winter Break, another great perk of a 10-team conference.

[brewcity77]

Mark Miller tweeted that it would be Xavier, Butler, and Dayton. I really hope it's not Dayton. Not because of their crappy market or their NIT caliber team, but rather because their fans seem to be complete douchebags. I'd rather add Philadelphia Eagles fans than Dayton fans. What a bunch of whiny, self-important, insecure jackasses. The only positive to adding them is to kick their ass twice yearly and give DePaul someone to beat.