NY Times: Imagine the Big East, Coast to Coast

[Aughnanure]

Imagine the Big East, Coast to Coast

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/sports/ncaabasketball/imagine-the-big-east-coast-to-coast.html?_r=1

As I watched Gonzaga, from Spokane, Wash., dismantle Seton Hall in the round of 64, I thought that basketball-centric Gonzaga — and its conference rival St. Mary's, from California — would be a perfect fit in an expanded Big East.

Gonzaga's Few never suggested that his university or St. Mary's would join such a league, but he acknowledged that such a realignment made some sense.

"I actually think the Big East is positioned, if they want, to expand," he said. "If they wanted to expand nationally, I think that would be really, really crafty, and they could be a national basketball-only conference."

Why not keep going and have, as Few suggested, a presence in every time zone?

Out of necessity, a national Big East Conference would be divided into Western and Eastern divisions to cut down on travel and reduce time away from class. It would also create compelling new rivalries. So let the so-called Power 5 conferences carry — and risk sinking under — the enormous weight of football and its multimillion-dollar facilities and multimillion-dollar coaching salaries.

A national Big East basketball conference would offset some of the deleterious effects of football and give fans across the country what the old Big East delivered so well.

[KenoshaWarrior]

Imagine the Big East, Coast to Coast

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/21/sports/ncaabasketball/imagine-the-big-east-coast-to-coast.html?_r=1

As I watched Gonzaga, from Spokane, Wash., dismantle Seton Hall in the round of 64, I thought that basketball-centric Gonzaga — and its conference rival St. Mary's, from California — would be a perfect fit in an expanded Big East.

Gonzaga's Few never suggested that his university or St. Mary's would join such a league, but he acknowledged that such a realignment made some sense.

"I actually think the Big East is positioned, if they want, to expand," he said. "If they wanted to expand nationally, I think that would be really, really crafty, and they could be a national basketball-only conference."

Why not keep going and have, as Few suggested, a presence in every time zone?

Out of necessity, a national Big East Conference would be divided into Western and Eastern divisions to cut down on travel and reduce time away from class. It would also create compelling new rivalries. So let the so-called Power 5 conferences carry — and risk sinking under — the enormous weight of football and its multimillion-dollar facilities and multimillion-dollar coaching salaries.

A national Big East basketball conference would offset some of the deleterious effects of football and give fans across the country what the old Big East delivered so well.

I would dread the 10pm starts of those west.coast games

[mu03eng]

On-board, but where are you going to find 10 good quality non-football schools west of the Mississippi for the western division (Gonzaga and St Mary's are two)?

How would the conference tournament work with 20 teams in the conference? Do the bottom 4 teams just not make it at all?

I think the regular season works out ok, do an unbalanced division schedule(play all 9 division teams once + play 5 twice + 4 crossover games)

And yes I'm assuming that you have to create an entire western division without using the current teams to supply that division because that is an expensive proposition that some two out of three from Marquette/Creighton/DePaul would have to take on as the western most current conference teams.


I think it's very compelling basketball and narrative wise, I just don't think its feasible, especially with the olympic sports.

[fjm]

Would be great! Yes the west coast games would suck, but it would be great for the conference!

But then again right now we can't get out fan 10 team league :/

[fjm]

On-board, but where are you going to find 10 good quality non-football schools west of the Mississippi for the western division (Gonzaga and St Mary's are two)?

How would the conference tournament work with 20 teams in the conference? Do the bottom 4 teams just not make it at all?

I think the regular season works out ok, do an unbalanced division schedule(play all 9 division teams once + play 5 twice + 4 crossover games)

And yes I'm assuming that you have to create an entire western division without using the current teams to supply that division because that is an expensive proposition that some two out of three from Marquette/Creighton/DePaul would have to take on as the western most current conference teams.


I think it's very compelling basketball and narrative wise, I just don't think its feasible, especially with the olympic sports.

Go 16 teams, add creighton and DePaul to the west (sorry DePaul...)
Add gonzaga, st Mary's. Would only need 4 more.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

NM.

Stupid idea.  I'd be fine with adding the Zags, and perhaps SMU as a travel partner for two game road trips - but the idea of adding a whole west cost division is stupid.  Not enough good teams without P6 homes after those two.

[Aughnanure]

On-board, but where are you going to find 10 good quality non-football schools west of the Mississippi for the western division (Gonzaga and St Mary's are two)?

How would the conference tournament work with 20 teams in the conference? Do the bottom 4 teams just not make it at all?

I think the regular season works out ok, do an unbalanced division schedule(play all 9 division teams once + play 5 twice + 4 crossover games)

And yes I'm assuming that you have to create an entire western division without using the current teams to supply that division because that is an expensive proposition that some two out of three from Marquette/Creighton/DePaul would have to take on as the western most current conference teams.


I think it's very compelling basketball and narrative wise, I just don't think its feasible, especially with the olympic sports.

I think it's more a western quadrant plus Marquette-Creighton-Depaul. No way they're adding 10 teams out there, it's hard enough to find 3 good ones. I'd assume its Gonzaga-BYU-St. Mary's-St. Louis + Creighton, Marquette, Depaul.  So a group of western schools that would help alleviate the travel problem. Too bad there just isn't a 4th team out there that would be worth it to add- no way they'd go Wichita St or UNLV would drop football.

[Aughnanure]

Go 16 teams, add creighton and DePaul to the west (sorry DePaul...)
Add gonzaga, st Mary's. Would only need 4 more.

Well Marquette would also have to go then. Add St. Louis to create a group of 4 on the western side of Midwest. Then find one more on the west to add with St. Mary's, Gonzaga, and BYU.

Would kind of suck to lose a lot of games with the East, but I'd love the chance to become the main rival of Gonzaga.

[VegasWarrior77]

League foundation to start  (adding Gonzaga & St. Mary's)

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

West
Butler
Creighton
DePaul
Gonzaga
Marquette
St. Mary's

[fjm]

Well Marquette would also have to go then. Add St. Louis to create a group of 4 on the western side of Midwest. Then find one more on the west to add with St. Mary's, Gonzaga, and BYU.

Would kind of suck to lose a lot of games with the East, but I'd love the chance to become the main rival of Gonzaga.

Would be good. If we had 16, you play each of your Division 2x (14 games) then play two out of division home and away (18 conference games total)

[Norm]

League foundation to start  (adding Gonzaga & St. Mary's)

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

West
Butler
Creighton
DePaul
Gonzaga
Marquette
St. Mary's

That would suck for ticket sales at home games to lose G'Town, Nova and Xavier as home and homes.

[Pakuni]

League foundation to start  (adding Gonzaga & St. Mary's)

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

West
Butler
Creighton
DePaul
Gonzaga
Marquette
St. Mary's

Yep. Wouldn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Possible future expansions could include St. Joe's, Dayton (assuming Villanova or Xavier would stand for it) or even Richmond  in the East and BYU in the West.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

On-board, but where are you going to find 10 good quality non-football schools west of the Mississippi for the western division (Gonzaga and St Mary's are two)?

How would the conference tournament work with 20 teams in the conference? Do the bottom 4 teams just not make it at all?

I think the regular season works out ok, do an unbalanced division schedule(play all 9 division teams once + play 5 twice + 4 crossover games)

And yes I'm assuming that you have to create an entire western division without using the current teams to supply that division because that is an expensive proposition that some two out of three from Marquette/Creighton/DePaul would have to take on as the western most current conference teams.


I think it's very compelling basketball and narrative wise, I just don't think its feasible, especially with the olympic sports.

I think they just meant adding Gonzaga and St. Mary's and dividing those 12 into 2 divisions. Buf for fun:

East
Georgetown
Providence
Seton Hall
St. John's
Villanova
Xavier
Butler
DePaul
Marquette
Dayton

West
Creighton
Gonzaga
St. Mary's
BYU
Denver?
San Francisco?
Wichita State?
Northern Iowa?
UC Santa Barbara?
Long Beach State?
New Mexico State?
Santa Clara?
Loyola Marymount?
Portland?
San Diego?

Nevermind. Not fun. Not enough quality teams out there.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

DONT FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN! DO NOT DILUTE THIS LEAGUE FURTHER.

If the Zags want in, great - give em' a travel partner (BYU or St. Marys) and make them bite the bullet to get to their road games. Add them for Men's BB only for all I care. Just PLEASE don't do this East / West split garbage in which MU is going to be in the weaker grouping.

[Pakuni]

That would suck for ticket sales at home games to lose G'Town, Nova and Xavier as home and homes.

1. Wouldn't necessarily lose a home game with those teams every year. Play your division twice (10 games), play the other division once (six more games) and then add a second game with two opponents from the other division. Rotate then every three years.

2. Gonzaga would be as big a draw as any of those three, I would think.

3. I think time/day of week affects attendance during the conference season  as much as who's the opponent. Saturday night vs Creighton did a lot better than Wednesday night vs Georgetown.

[VegasWarrior77]

1. Wouldn't necessarily lose a home game with those teams every year. Play your division twice (10 games), play the other division once (six more games) and then add a second game with two opponents from the other division. Rotate then every three years.

2. Gonzaga would be as big a draw as any of those three, I would think.

3. I think time/day of week affects attendance during the conference season  as much as who's the opponent. Saturday night vs Creighton did a lot better than Wednesday night vs Georgetown.

+1

[Aughnanure]

1. Wouldn't necessarily lose a home game with those teams every year. Play your division twice (10 games), play the other division once (six more games) and then add a second game with two opponents from the other division. Rotate then every three years.

2. Gonzaga would be as big a draw as any of those three, I would think.

3. I think time/day of week affects attendance during the conference season  as much as who's the opponent. Saturday night vs Creighton did a lot better than Wednesday night vs Georgetown.

I'd like there to be a yearly cross-over "rivalry" game between programs on each divisions. Like DePaul-St. John's, Georgetown-Gonzaga, Nova-Marquette, St. Mary's-Providence (the farthest two), Seton Hall-Creighton, Butler-Xavier.

[Eldon]

Something that I never really thought about is that the Zags is that they would give Fox more programming to work with with Gonzaga being on the West Coast.  (Creighton is west but still in the central time zone.)

I really do love the Round Robin though.  I would hate to see that go by the wayside.

[Litehouse]

I don't see what the Big East has to gain from this.

[VegasWarrior77]

Something that I never really thought about is that the Zags is that they would give Fox more programming to work with with Gonzaga being on the West Coast.  (Creighton is west but still in the central time zone.)

I really do love the Round Robin though.  I would hate to see that go by the wayside.

St. Mary's would be a late (Pacific Time Zone) game too!

[GGGG]

League foundation to start  (adding Gonzaga & St. Mary's)

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

West
Butler
Creighton
DePaul
Gonzaga
Marquette
St. Mary's

Yuck. No thanks. Keep as is instead of that.

[drewm88]

I don't see what the Big East has to gain from this.

Agreed.

[We R Final Four]

I think it's more a western quadrant plus Marquette-Creighton-Depaul. No way they're adding 10 teams out there, it's hard enough to find 3 good ones. I'd assume its Gonzaga-BYU-St. Mary's-St. Louis + Creighton, Marquette, Depaul.  So a group of western schools that would help alleviate the travel problem. Too bad there just isn't a 4th team out there that would be worth it to add- no way they'd go Wichita St or UNLV would drop football.

This is how I read it as well. MU would be in the west.

[Litehouse]

I don't see what Fox has to gain from this either.  They already have a deal with the Pac-12 and can show late west coast games for a triple-header.  It seems like a great idea for Gonzaga and St. Mary's, but a bad idea for everyone else.

[Groin_pull]

After watching Big East teams crap the bed over the weekend, I wouldn't mind exploring a way to add Gonzaga to the mix. Year in and year out, they are a powerful program. If it means adding St Marys too, I would at least consider it.