The Day Is Coming

[DegenerateDish]

I love that Marquette is in the Big East. For a basketball fan who went to Marquette, seeing schools like Syracuse and UConn on the schedule is cool. Beats seeing Southern Miss and Tulane.

After hearing about the coaching search, and the apparent cry from some potential candidates that finishing in the middle of the pack in the Big East consistently isn't appealing. It's understandable, and I think you'll see consistent coaching changes in the Big East because of it (see Providence this year, probably Seton Hall next year, DePaul the year after). Coaching changes are the norm in college basketball, and they happen in every conference every year. But with a 16 team conference with teams like Louisville, UConn, Syracuse, Pitt, the pressure to perform at the rest of the Big East schools will be a turn off to most (as we at MU apparently just experienced).

The Big East as we currently know it is both a curse (see above) and a blessing (exposure, solid conference sked). I think the day is coming however when schools like Marquette have to question being in the Big East. It's not to say Marquette can't hang with the big schools, it's a matter of doing what is best for Marquette in the long term. I know it's been thrown out there before, but sometime in the far future (based on TV contracts I would assume), I'd love to see this conference formed...Catholic USA.

Marquette
DePaul
Notre Dame
Seton Hall
St. Johns
Georgetown
Villanova
Providence
Xavier
Dayton

If you wanted to go 12 teams, one could invite two out of these three: SLU, St. Joe's, Creighton

I would imagine a school like Georgetown would object to not playing it's traditional foes (UConn and Syracuse) any more. Outside of that, I would venture to guess that most schools would be on board with this. Still great exposure (see the tv markets involved), better chance at postseason berths (10 teams vs 16 teams) and everyone is competing on a similar level for recruits/coaches. This new conference would be interesting on the national scene. While not a Big 11, ACC type, on the basketball season, this would be a very deep conference year in and year out.

[Phi Iota Gamma 84]

What about Ganzaga and SLU

[77ncaachamps]

Very strong bkb schools. The FB schools would get hurt.

In the same vein, I will ALWAYS push for a Jesuit Education Scholarship Union Invitational Tournament with MU, Gtown, Gonzaga, SLU and other Jesuit schools.

[HelixAir6]

What about Ganzaga and SLU

Gonzaga is in Washington State, i dont think they would want to fly a minimum of 5 hours for every away game

[Norm]

I'd replace Dayton with Detroit. Xavier is already close to Dayton, OH, and it would be great to get exposure in a hoops hotbed like Detroit.

[Marquette Mama]

Seems like an all-Jesuit tourney would be immensely marketable.  Also a great opportunity for these schools to meet on the court, since they are dispersed over wide range of conferences, most never have the chance to play each other. We'd have to have Santa Clara host it though... since they have the setting that could compete with Maui.

[drewm88]

I would love this.

Football-wise, I don't think any of these schools field a 1-A program. (Or whatever they call it now.) Notre Dame is the exception of course but they're independent.

For that tournament, I have heard suggestions of it before. MU and Georgetown could not participate in the same year. Not allowed for conference foes to meet in non-conference matchups in the regular season.

I would agree on Detroit instead of Dayton with a nod towards the bigger market. Likewise, I might take SLU over PC. Or just add SLU.