American Athletic Conference

[DoubleJayAlum]

Like I've said somewhere, the best realistic (kind of) scenario is for the C7 to take Duquesne, Richmond and Xavier to get to 10. They get like minded schools and get a round robin without having to expand too far. Xavier is someone they'll definitely add. If they only go to 10, that would open up Dayton and Butler for the taking. However, I could see them going to 12 to get those two as well which only leaves SLU and forces us to add them (Elgin has a hard on for them) and someone else. I could see them passing on St. Joe's and George Washington because they already have those markets so if they went to 12 we're stuck with only SLU. If they went to 14, SLU may be off the board and then they look back east. I don't think CU is gone unless they want 16. The more I look at this, I don't see them taking any publics.

Our best hope is for them to stay at 10 or 12 and present us with the opportunity, maybe, of getting Butler.

I don't see Duquesne being appealing.

If they take 3 A10 schools it will be Xavier and 2 of these 3: Butler, SLU and Dayton. All are good basketball schools in nice metros.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: Dayton recruits its undergrads from the East coast. They are not going to join the MVC. SLU and Butler might, but Dayton will not.

Frankly, I think they take all four anyway, in which case there is nothing left in the A10 that would be appealing to the MVC.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Sub, if the scenario plays out and SLU comes MVC, do we go after a Murray State or VCU to continue growth? Or just level off? Honestly, it could be a good opportunity to create a conference that will pad the 50-100 RPI teams..

The MVC is not adding VCU and VCU wouldn't want to play in a midwestern conference anyway. Geography matters.

[pinstripers]

Adding St Loo and Murray State would be great. Prolly a pipedream.

[Shocks2005]

Geography matters.

Tell that to the Big East..

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

Lets hope geography isn't as big of a deal.

When the chips fall, we need to reorganize. It might not be the A-10 of old, but better than it was. Big East doesn't join the A-10. They are too high and mighty for that. They would immediately lose control.

The Big East goes to 10, and 10 only for the time being. They will maintain control until the dust settles a little more. Doing so leaves them in control of 2/3 of the conference for any changes that need to be made in the future.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Tell that to the Big East..

And that is why they are breaking up either later today or tomorrow!

[ShockerPrez]

Shocks should annex Newman and claim to be Catholic, then join the other micks in their new bball concoction.

BTW, Im Catholic and will truly miss the days of yelling at the priest from section X. Good times.

[GoShockers89]

Duquesne and LaSalle have pretty much no shot at getting into the New Big East despite their tv markets- they have no more following within their cities than Loyola-Chicago, UMKC, or Florida International do. People know they exist, but they've been playing ranked teams at home since UMass had Coach Cal and still nobody televises anything.

I still think partnering with VCU as a package pitch is a great idea. CU won't block us from being added, but they won't let us piggyback on them either. VCU and WSU are arguably the best public, basketball-only, non-quality aligned programs in the country. We both have similar exposure in this scenario. There is also no way the New Big East lets a singular public institution in if it goes to 16- it would need to be a pair.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

We should be working on Butler and Gonzaga.

[ShockerFever]

Geography matters.

Apparently not, if you believe Creighton is a player in anything other than the Valley..

[Shocks2005]

New Big East is stopping at 10-12 range. They will stay mostly Catholic/Private school based. They will only "pick" basketball schools that keep them a powerful basketball conference. The whole reason they are wanting out of the current situation is because they are adding all these terrible bball programs because of Money/TV. There are only 3-4 teams in the A-10 that will benefit the new BE and the rest will be left.

They will take Butler, Xavier, and the winner of SLU and Dayton in a ol' fashioned East Coast Hoagie eating contest to determine who is better suited for the Big East..

[WuDrWu]

Maybe the Valley should look at greatly increasing the exit fee. I think now it is something like a paltry $50,000. Of Course the small fee probably reflects how little this conference is really worth.

$50,000k to UNI, UE SIU etc is akin to 2 -3 Mil for WSU and 100 Mil to BCS programs. Trust me, 50K is going to hurt any program in the Valley not named WSU or CU.

[rrshock]

$50,000k to UNI, UE SIU etc is akin to 2 -3 Mil for WSU and 100 Mil to BCS programs. Trust me, 50K is going to hurt any program in the Valley not named WSU or CU.

I'm willing to bet a booster already has a check on ADES desk for $50k just to pay to get out. At least I hope that the big boosters have brought it up.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

It will be interesting to see what happens to the old CUSA schools once the 7 BE schools split off. Back to the CUSA? New conference?

If the BE takes a few of the A-10 powers (which is likely), the A-10 drops dramatically in prestige. This would open the door for the MVC to expand--but I'm not sure Elgin has the balls to do that. Butler, Dayton, and SLU may be available.

[DoubleJayAlum]

CU won't block us from being added, but they won't let us piggyback on them either.

Why the heck would we block you? That's borderline paranoid.

As to piggybacking with us -- many of you are giving us way to much credit. We have no say so in who gets added and are merely hoping for an offer ourselves.

In the event that we get lucky and are included, my first suggestion would be to call up the WSU AD and try to book an ongoing home and home series. The only question would be whether WSU would have any interest at that point.