Memphis NOT joining BE

[Muskie]

From Memphis TV (http://www.whas11.com/sports/stories/080515_whaskbSportsMemphisBE.1032de810.html)

"(WHAS11)A Memphis television station is reporting that the University of Memphis along with East Carolina University are in talks to join the Big East Conference. WHAS11’s Kyle Draper spoke with a conference official Thursday afternoon and was told there was no truth to the rumors."

[Stonebreaker]

Good. UC doesn't need another loss or two.

[waggy]

All about football of course. Very surprising that Memphis wouldn't want to get in on the money of a BCS conference. On the other hand, when you have FedEx, who needs money??

If they add another football school, I think there really could be a split of the BE, for the simple reason of too many schools. At some point it's got to be too many, right?

[hipsterdoofus]

WHAS 11 is the ABC affiliate in Louisville, KY.

http://www.whas11.com (http://www.whas11.com/)

[Muskie]

There were articles from Memphis and East Carolina... the louisville article was the most concise.

[Masterofreality]

Hell, why not?

They've already got half the United States colleges in that freakin' league, why not 2 more? That would bring their total membership up to, what, about 2,400?

Makes it a little tough to hold a post season tournament, but I guess that they can just take the top 12 and leave the other 2,388 members out.

[muskienick]

Wow,

This thread is 2.5 months old and I missed it back then.

I believe that Memphis would be the next logical choice for membership in the football version of the Big East. (I can't see East Carolina being a good choice though.) As a metter of fact, the Tigers' membership (should it ever occur) would almost certainly be the death-knell for the "Big East Dichotomy" (football interests vs basketball interests) as we have known it for the last decade or more. That would take New Big East Football membership to quite an overall respectable nine programs (historically or recently, except for USF basketball):
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Memphis
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
South Florida
Syracuse
West Virginia

Given the recent success of the current Big East Football programs and the historical success of all the basketball members of the above 9 programs (except USF), why would they want or need a conference affiliation with programs such as DePaul, St. John's, Providence, and Seton Hall? Does loyalty to the likes of Georgetown, Villanova, and (newcomer) Marquette trump the huge monetary advantage of divvying up the booty derived from the overall post-season successes among only 9 programs as compared to the current sixteen?

Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. But even if the Big East were to split along FB and BB lines, I would hope that XU (and other high-powered non-football Basketball elites) would not just allow themselves to be absorbed blindly into a revised Big East Basketball Conference with the 7 castoffs from that League. Instead, I would hope that organizers of a new basketball-driven conference would concentrate their efforts on assembling the best possible 8, 9, or 12 members based on their similar characteristics. Those would almost certainly include:

Medium to large fan base (6,000+)
Attractive home facility (not necessarily on-campus) - 7,500+
Situated in at least a medium-sized media center
Name recognition
Recent (5-10 years) on-court success
General success over the last 15-30 years
Commitment to Basketball as its marquee sport
Reasonable proximity (within 400 miles) to at least 2 of the League's member programs
No 2 programs from the same media center (except those in metro areas of 3 million or more)

Based on those criteria, one could immediately list the following as qualifying members of such a Conference:

Creighton
Georgetown
Marquette
Villanova
Xavier


By cutting a little slack, that list could easily be expanded by:

Butler
Charlotte
Dayton
DePaul
UMass
Providence or URI
Richmond
Saint Louis
Seton Hall or St. John's (ok, a lot of slack!)
Temple (by agreeing to have their football in the MAC, one could already agree that they have already subjugated their FB program to their BB program)


At that point, it might be good to start with your base of 5 and use the other 12 (but not both members from either of the "or" listings) to select 3 to 7 more members, depending to what extent you are willing to compromise on the original criteria or how much you like one- (8-10 teams) or two-division (12 teams) Conferences.

While I steadfastly hope that the A-10 can quickly gain strength from the bottom up to challenge annually for a Top 6 or 7 RPI ranking, I have seen nothing during Xavier's 13-year membership in the league to think that will consistently happen. If it were to happen, that would be the best-case scenario for me. If it doesn't, then I hope the Big East does split and we see another hectic scrambling by schools trying to maximize their images by improving their Athletic Conference affiliation.

[waggy]

Creighton?? No way teams like Georgetown, Villanova, etc. are going to enter into a conference with a school in Omaha Nebraska.

[Muskie]

Wow,

This thread is 2.5 months old and I missed it back then.

I believe that Memphis would be the next logical choice for membership in the football version of the Big East. (I can't see East Carolina being a good choice though.) As a metter of fact, the Tigers' membership (should it ever occur) would almost certainly be the death-knell for the "Big East Dichotomy" (football interests vs basketball interests) as we have known it for the last decade or more. That would take New Big East Football membership to quite an overall respectable nine programs (historically or recently, except for USF basketball):
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Memphis
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
South Florida
Syracuse
West Virginia

Given the recent success of the current Big East Football programs and the historical success of all the basketball members of the above 9 programs (except USF), why would they want or need a conference affiliation with programs such as DePaul, St. John's, Providence, and Seton Hall? Does loyalty to the likes of Georgetown, Villanova, and (newcomer) Marquette trump the huge monetary advantage of divvying up the booty derived from the overall post-season successes among only 9 programs as compared to the current sixteen?

Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. But even if the Big East were to split along FB and BB lines, I would hope that XU (and other high-powered non-football Basketball elites) would not just allow themselves to be absorbed blindly into a revised Big East Basketball Conference with the 7 castoffs from that League. Instead, I would hope that organizers of a new basketball-driven conference would concentrate their efforts on assembling the best possible 8, 9, or 12 members based on their similar characteristics. Those would almost certainly include:
Medium to large fan base (6,000+)
Attractive home facility (not necessarily on-campus) - 7,500+
Situated in at least a medium-sized media center
Name recognition
Recent (5-10 years) on-court success
General success over the last 15-30 years
Commitment to Basketball as its marquee sport
Reasonable proximity (within 400 miles) to at least 2 of the League's member programs
No 2 programs from the same media center (except those in metro areas of 3 million or more)
Based on those criteria, one could immediately list the following as qualifying members of such a Conference:
Creighton
Georgetown
Marquette
Villanova
Xavier
By cutting a little slack, that list could easily be expanded by:
Butler
Charlotte
Dayton
DePaul
UMass
Providence or URI
Richmond
Saint Louis
Seton Hall or St. John's (ok, a lot of slack!)
Temple (by agreeing to have their football in the MAC, one could already agree that they have already subjugated their FB program to their BB program)
At that point, it might be good to start with your base of 5 and use the other 12 (but not both members from either of the "or" listings) to select 3 to 7 more members, depending to what extent you are willing to compromise on the original criteria or how much you like one- (8-10 teams) or two-division (12 teams) Conferences.

While I steadfastly hope that the A-10 can quickly gain strength from the bottom up to challenge annually for a Top 6 or 7 RPI ranking, I have seen nothing during Xavier's 13-year membership in the league to think that will consistently happen. If it were to happen, that would be the best-case scenario for me. If it doesn't, then I hope the Big East does split and we see another hectic scrambling by schools trying to maximize their images by improving their Athletic Conference affiliation.

The travel costs alone make me wary of this "conference" proposal. But I like that you're at least throwing something out there. I have to agree with Waggy. I don't believe Georgetown or VIllanova would agree to play conference games in Nebraska.

[DC Muskie]

I really don't understand the need to continue to bring up new conference ideas. I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but please understand something basic...

1. Georgetown will never leave for a conference that doesn't include Syracuse.
2. Villanova will never leave for a conference that doesn't include Georgetown.
3. Xavier will never be in a Midwest based conference again.


Why can't we just be content with winning and even better DOMINATING the A-10. Has the A-10 really prevented us from achieving success?

Every time there is a peep of the BE doing something, we have to talk about joining Butler, Creighton, The Bulls, Georgetown, Providence, Maine, Marquette, Wrigley, and St. John's in some cryptic fantasy conference.

I'm perfectly content to having LaSalle in the league. We beat their ass every time. Just because no one sees it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[Section 200]

I really don't understand the need to continue to bring up new conference ideas. I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but please understand something basic...

1. Georgetown will never leave for a conference that doesn't include Syracuse.
2. Villanova will never leave for a conference that doesn't include Georgetown.
3. Xavier will never be in a Midwest based conference again.


Why can't we just be content with winning and even better DOMINATING the A-10. Has the A-10 really prevented us from achieving success?

Every time there is a peep of the BE doing something, we have to talk about joining Butler, Creighton, The Bulls, Georgetown, Providence, Maine, Marquette, Wrigley, and St. John's in some cryptic fantasy conference.

I'm perfectly content to having LaSalle in the league. We beat their ass every time. Just because no one sees it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I agree with this train of thought, with the hope that if the big east splits, XU will be able to join with the 7 that don't play bcs football. Dominate the A-10, but when the chance comes to move up, move up and dominate Georgetown, Villa, Marq, etc etc. We've done it before. Then we can offer buy games to our A-10 friends.

Also, Syracuse tried to leave Georgetown about 3 years ago, for the ACC. I hope Georgetown doesn't rely on the Orange.

[xu95]

Nick does love that Butler and Creighton though. At least he is consistent.

xu95

[DC Muskie]

I agree with this train of thought, with the hope that if the big east splits, XU will be able to join with the 7 that don't play bcs football. Dominate the A-10, but when the chance comes to move up, move up and dominate Georgetown, Villa, Marq, etc etc. We've done it before. Then we can offer buy games to our A-10 friends.

Also, Syracuse tried to leave Georgetown about 3 years ago, for the ACC. I hope Georgetown doesn't rely on the Orange.

Well, we will have a hard time leaving SJU if that happens. Because it's going to be tough for Villanova to be in the same conference as SJU.

And while Syracuse wanted to go with Miami for football, that place was very much split on leaving the ACC. Va tech played that entire situation perfectly.

[American X]

Why can't we just be content with winning and even better DOMINATING the A-10. Has the A-10 really prevented us from achieving success?

I am more than content with it. I rather enjoy it.

Very big fish. Medium pond.

[GoMuskies]

On a side note, WOW does Syracuse suck at football now (embarrasing Louisville loss to the Cuse last year notwithstanding)!

[muskienick]

Georgetown may desire to share a bed with Syracuse for all times, but if big money causes the Big East to split along FB and BB lines, don't look for the 'Cuse to reciprocate. At that point (should it occur), it would behoove the likes of G-town, Villanova, and Marquette to make the best of the situation. Each might perceive "the best" to be to continue their current affiliation with the other 6 BB-driven Big East members and add two to five well-placed (and well-respected) BB-oriented schools to the mix to re-form their Conference. Or they might decide that they have seen enough disparity among themselves and programs like St. John's and go for big money rather than big loyality.

Speculation is fun, and that's all this is.

[gladdenguy]

Excellent points DC. I would love to stay in the A-10 and get in the tourney every year and continue to make runs. It is fun.