Radical new conference expansion idea

[BlueK]

Given that BYU joining the P12 or B12 is an extreme longshot, I propose we start working with Gonzaga now to convince the Big East to make a bold move to expand and create a new 14 team league that would look like this.

West division
Gonzaga
BYU
Creighton
Butler
Depaul
Wichita State (if they'll allow a non-private school)
Pepperdine (for the LA market)

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

This would be a killer basketball league. There actually are a couple of reasons it could be attractive to the current Big East, the biggest one being that they currently have a really bad TV deal with Fox that they're stuck with for the next five years. Surprisingly it pays them only marginally more than what the WCC gets from ESPN. I also read an article that says it allows for more money if they expand. After making this move if Fox doesn't significantly increase the money I'm sure ESPN would pay when it's time to renew.

Yes, geographically it would be a little challenging to administer, but by checking the map you can see that their midwest schools are already located almost as far away from the east coast as they are from Utah as it is. By splitting into divisions you could mitigate some of the travel issues anyway. The NE schools and almost all the traditional conference rivalries stay intact and are geographically compact. I've also never been one to advocate adding a school just because they're situated in a large TV market if they don't have a lot of pull in that market, but in this case I would make the exception and take Pepperdine for the LA market. Even if Pepperdine doesn't really have a lot of pull there, when you add up the size of the alumni and fan bases of all the schools in the league, I would bet it's a pretty sizeable number living in southern California.

As far as BYU goes, if they're in independence for the long haul then it makes sense to match that with a conference for the other sports that is national in scope and regularly plays in large markets across the country and not just on the west coast. I would suggest BYU could probably get almost any top LDS bball recruit they want if this were their conference, as well as better non-LDS players to fill in the gaps.

[TripletDaddy]

the wcc added many of our other programs as part of the deal to keep basketball there. If we bolt, we likely lose that concession.

[BlueK]

the wcc added many of our other programs as part of the deal to keep basketball there. If we bolt, we likely lose that concession.

We take all our sports with us into this new league. (at least all those the conference offers. Mens Vball would stay in the MPSF). The divisional setup makes it workable. In some sports like baseball, softball, etc., you could even play all or almost all your games within the division until tournament time if you wanted to. The old WAC used to do thst with baseball for many years. in other non-rev sports like track and golf the conference season already essentially consists just of one championship meet or tournament anyway.

Having all our sports in a nationally reaching league goes right along with what we're trying to accomplish with being a football independent. It's one thing to have the football team playing a national schedule, but this would align the entire athletic department into that. Instead of just taking our football program everywhere in the fall we do that year round with all our sports. Granted, I'd go for the Big 12 or Pac 12 over this any day, but we all know that's probably not going to happen.

[Omaha 680]

It's fun to dream and I would love that league but what does Gonzaga have to gain by dumping the WCC? They win it 95% of the time and have enough of a name at this point that they typically get very good seeding in the tournament. I don't think there would be enough money on the table to make them change the status quo.

[BlueK]

It's fun to dream and I would love that league but what does Gonzaga have to gain by dumping the WCC? They win it 95% of the time and have enough of a name at this point that they typically get very good seeding in the tournament. I don't think there would be enough money on the table to make them change the status quo.

The TV money would be more, but the NCAA tournament revenue would be substantially more. This league could get 6 or 7 teams into the tourney every year and win multiple shares there instead of 2 WCC teams coming home with a total of 4 or 5 shares. Also, Gonzaga gets good treatment from the committee almost every year because of the non-conference schedule they play and from winning enough of those games. For years they haven't just played a couple of good teams outside of the WCC, they pretty much go crazy with their non-conference schedule every year because they have to. If they didn't do that they would become like Murray State by beating up on their league and getting a 12 or 13 seed if they win the conference tourney or nothing if they don't. It's always a what have you done this year thing. Past success wouldn't help them, IMO.

Also, they play almost all of those games either in tournaments or on the road. Not surprisingly, they seem to have a hard time getting any of those teams to play them in Spokane. They're anything but afraid to play a tough schedule. A conference like this would just balance it out through the season and guarantee several good teams playing them at their place.

Also, when the Catholic 7 schools made their split and everyone knew they would need to add a couple of teams to get to the optimal size for a conference, there were actually some credible rumors out there that Gonzaga was actively pursuing joining them. The conference opted to invite Xavier, Butler and Creighton instead probably because of geography. I say they should continue to work their Catholic school connections here and BYU should make a lot of friends with these schools as much as possible.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

BlueK you need to check your sarcasm meter in response to Triplet.

[Moliere]

This idea is definitely radical...but not rad.