American Athletic Conference

[ShockTalk]

Really, where the heck is WstateU when we need him?

A) Lutz doesn't have a clue. Why would anyone possibly think he might?

B) WSU could scarcely be a worse match for the Big East's current membership profile. All private, many pretty small (WSU is larger than seven of ten, and five of them have fewer than 10,000 students), nine of ten Catholic (how did Butler sneak in instead of St. Louis?). The closest matches from the Valley in demographic terms are actually Drake and Evansville, but of course neither one of them fits that well either (both private but neither Catholic, both smaller than anyone in the NBE, and neither $eriou$ enough about basketball to qualify).

Might be true. On the other hand, WSU is a non-football school, has great fan support and $ support, high profile with likelihood of being a Dance partner ($s for the conference), and a great division partner for CU on the western fringes. I feel they WILL expand to 14 or 16 teams. Your two reasons for WSU being a bad match are not going to out weigh the importance of adding teams that can get to the Dance. They've already got DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, and Providence which are usually only good for one making the Dance each year at best. They don't want more like them. What other 4 to 6 teams do you think meet ALL the criteria.

[wsushox1]

2. Coaching public speaking is your job? Ok, so you agree that being able to speak in public is pretty important if your job is right smack in the middle of the public forefront? I guess I'm an outlier when I think it looks bad to have an athletic director of a MAJOR D1 school to cower around in the dark, not engaging the people who support his institution and, quite frankly, help supplement his paychecks. I'd much rather have Marshall be the face of the AD since we know what we're getting out of him, isn't afraid of the public in a very public position, and can make good decisions. Too bad he doesn't have a say in conference realignment decisions for WSU... or does he?

To say that Sexton does not "engage" the people who support his paychecks and the program monetarily is just not accurate.

[Rlh04d]

2. I'm curious, why do you want an AD to give speeches? In my experience, a lot of the worst ADs are the ones who talk a lot publicly (ala Lew Perkins), and some of the best are the ones that you never hear from publicly. They just do everything behind the scenes to make things run smoothly and let their coaches be the public face of the athletic department. I'm not even really talking specifically about Sexton here, just generally what one wants in an AD. Schaus was certainly an example of a good AD who was also a good public speaker, but I hardly see it as a necessary part of being a good AD.

I agree. I think Schaus was just such a good AD that he's set the bar to be rather bizarrely high for what an AD should be.

I don't care about the AD, and I don't know why it's focused on so much here. I've never heard Florida State's AD speak, either. I could care less what his public speaking ability is. Both WSU and FSU have proven to be able to raise money, make good coaching hires, field competitive teams in most sports, and keep the good coaches once they're here. So I'm happy.

As for the actual topic, I'd be shocked if WSU's leadership isn't actively involved in conference realignment. Those guys care about what the fans think, and they particularly care about what the high dollar donors think. For them to not be involved would mean that the donors are happy with staying in the MVC, and I don't think that's the case. Those guys have ALSO just seen first hand what basketball success at a major level can mean for the university as a whole. They have every reason right now to be heavily involved in making sure WSU's profile continues to rise, both in basketball and a university in general. Because a higher profile in basketball creates a higher profile for the university as a whole. If WSU does not change conferences, I don't think it will have anything to do with them not trying to improve the university.

[shockmonster]

This is what I heard about the situation BS (Before Schaus). Before Schaus was hired, WSU had a lot of problems and many of them had to do with money. The best fund raiser was probably Gene and he only raised money for baseball. The feelings from the people who paid the bills (big money people) at WSU was that too few were paying too much of the cost of the athletic program.

They wanted the new AD to 1) widen the base that would fund the programs and 2) solve the problem of an aging facility called Henry Levitt Arena and either have a downtown facility or renovate HLA. 3) Solve the problem of an aging Cessna stadium(there may have a couple of other more minor issues). Schaus, because he needed to, became the face of the athletic program. He had his own weekly radio show, and sat down to solve these problems. As we all know, he renovated HLA which is now Koch, built other athletic facilities, and solved much of the fund raising issues. After a year or two, he stopped his radio program but continued to be very successful more behind the scenes than at first but he still was viewed as a big part of the total program. After Schaus left, Sexton has taken over. While he works behind the scenes, the money issues continue to be solved, and the athletic department is thriving. The issue of our league is our new problem and it won't be easily solved but I don't have any reason to believe that he isn't aware of the problem and trying to solve it.

[Rosewood]

I've been under the impression that it's the university presidents who do the work when it comes to conference moves. Even so, we aren't likely to hear anything reliable if they are.

I'd be stunned stupid (okay, stupider) if Bardo would do anything to help with Shocker athletics. He has clear goals for WSU (ones that I like) but I don't think they have anything to do with Athletics. My complete idiotic outside read based on comments in the WBJ, Eagle, and the such is that he is way less interested than his predecessor.

[Rosewood]

1. Not sure why that is relevant, but it was at Barn'rds.

I just realized we don't hear about their Steak Chunk Chili anymore...

[shockmonster]

I'd be stunned stupid (okay, stupider) if Bardo would do anything to help with Shocker athletics. He has clear goals for WSU (ones that I like) but I don't think they have anything to do with Athletics. My complete idiotic outside read based on comments in the WBJ, Eagle, and the such is that he is way less interested than his predecessor.

I'm not sure about "way less interested" Rosewood. I think that he's less apt to get directly involved (as in have a direct pathway by the baseball coach to his office) and I agree that he definitely has goals for the university but it seems to me that he realizes how much he can do to achieve these goals if the Shockers are successful in athletics. I've seen him make the trip to several road games with other important, perhaps wealthy, and well connected benefactors.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Just what other 2 teams (that meet the non-football criteria) than the ones I mentioned would likely add 1 or 2 more teams to the Dance. Just don't see going to the far west for additional teams as being very likely.

Well, do do that you need spme dead weight at the bottom. SouthFlorida and Rutgers were that on the old BE.

[Shocker1976]

Lutz has been speaking frequently about the need for WSU's AD to be proactive in marketing WSU to the big East along with St Louis. The fact that he continues to talk about it leads me to believe the AD isn't doing anything.
Gotta strike when the iron is red hot.

Have any of you heard any reaching out to other conferences by the AD? With Loyola joining the conference, it leads me to believe the MoVal Commish believes its a forgone conclusion that the Shox are leaving (since the map continues to move east).

Lutz will the last to know what is happening between WSU and the MVC; so why look to him for information.

I agree with your premise that the Valley is moving East - making WSU an even further outlier. But WSU faces the same issue with the Big East; Currently Omaha (Creighton) is the Big East's most western location, to add the Shockers the BE has to add an even further West outlier.

Expansion for the BE will IMO be comprised of BB only schools like WSU. Unfortunately for the Shockers, the geographical location of a number of these likely candidates fit the current BE footprint much better than does Wichita. Witness - St. Louis University, Memphis, VCU and Dayton.

[Shocker1976]

A) Lutz is an idiot. He can't get an answer, and that ticks him off so he continues to stir the pot. There is no way to answer the "Are we looking?" Question. If we say yes, we alienate ourselves from the Valley. If we say no, we might miss a chance. The going answer of " We are always looking to improve the satire of our school" is the perfect non-committal answer.

B) Lutz is an putz. He thinks, since he is THE sports guy in town, that he has a pulse on what's going on. He doesn't, and that ticks him off.

C) Lutz is a jerkoff. He doesn't know how to do a proper interview because he feels everyone is beneath him and should just freely give him info like Jay Glazer and Adam Sheffter get. He doesn't, and that ticks him off.

D) Lutz is intelligent. I don't believe it either, just wondered if anyone would read this far.

E) AD Sexton, while far from perfect, can glad-hand with the best of them. Between he and President Bardo I feel confident that we are on the right path. Just hope we get to the station before the train leaves.

A - Agree totally with your assessment of Lutz intelligence

B - Agree

C - Agree

D - Nothing like a "gotcha" statement; of course, no intelligent reader/poster agrees with your statement

E - While I have not met Sexton, my observations from "afar" is that he is doing an excellent job as AD - getting rid of Gene Whatshisname was a great move that Schaus did not have the ba%&$ to take.

[shocker3]

I'd be stunned stupid (okay, stupider) if Bardo would do anything to help with Shocker athletics. He has clear goals for WSU (ones that I like) but I don't think they have anything to do with Athletics. My complete idiotic outside read based on comments in the WBJ, Eagle, and the such is that he is way less interested than his predecessor.

I am not sure where you get this idea. In my discussions with Bardo he almost always brings up athletics. He seems to be on top of the situation to me. There just aren't any real good options for us right now because we just don't quite fit (public school, no football, geography etc). But he is well aware of the situation and is stayin on top of it.

[Shocker1976]

IMO the Big East is probably looking at the following East West Divisional Conference -

Western Division	Eastern Division
Creighton (Omaha)	Villanova (Philadelphia)
Xavier (Cincinnati)	Providence (Rhode Island)
Marquette (Milwaukee)	Seton Hall (New Jersey)
DePaul (Chicago)	St Johns (New York City)
Butler (Indianapolis)	Georgetown (Washington DC)
St Louis	VCU
Memphis	George Washington
Dayton	Massachusetts

[Play Angry]

Football will preclude Memphis and UMass.

[ShockTalk]

Football will preclude Memphis and UMass.

This.

UMass is more likely to get in the AAC.

Memphis would love to get in the ACC, but the ACC says they need to have football. ;)

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

This.


Memphis would love to get in the ACC, but the ACC says they need to have football.

Whut