American Athletic Conference

[GoShockers89]

I have no idea, but that's what I keep reading everytime it's mentioned on other boards (MVCFans and others dedicated to realignment). I guess I can see some advantage to recruiting students in areas where you already have some visibility due to athletics and where the populations are more concentrated.

I've seen that tossed around a lot on those sites too but am kind of skeptical that many SLU students come from anywhere further northeast than Ohio. I searched online for a bit and couldn't find any geographic breakdown on their student demographics.

SLU is not total crap, but it's hardly a great school academically as far as Catholic universities are concerned. They're more or less equivalent to Creighton. If you live in NYC, DC, or Boston, Philly or Pittsburgh and want to send your kid to a place where he can get hired, the pecking order is more or less:

Georgetown > Notre Dame > Fordham > Boston College > Villanova > St. Joseph's > Providence > Duquesne

If the kid's too stupid to get into any of these, there's no shortage of closer Catholic universities like Siena, Fairfield, St. Francis, and a dozen others that dot the region. And there are a lot of academically equal Catholic schools like Xavier, Dayton and Loyola Chicago that are still closer to the northeast than St. Louis.

I think there's zero desire from SLU's administration to join the MVC, and I'm sure they strive to draw as many rich Jesuit snots from NYC as possible. But I'd be shocked if a place like that draws more than about 10-15% of their enrollment from the region when actual good schools like Duke, Emory and Wake Forest draw even less.

[rrshock]

I think the problem might come from some of the other athletic departments. Nashville to Cedar Falls is 653 miles. I'm sure our athletic department could handle the extra travel costs but could UNI's?

They shouldn't get a say up there anyways. They have been thinking about FBS football and that would include leaving. I don't care what they think. Murray St. would be even further for WSU to travel to. But they would be closer to the poor sisters.

[tropicalshox]

We need to win our asses off this year and hook the ol' trailer up to BJ's hitch (as much as it pains me to say that). I would consider converting to paganism to fit in if it means our team gets to move to the C7. I'm willing to sacrifice for the Shockers.


T


...:cool:

Current rumors have BJ fans a little on edge. They may or may not be the 12th team, if they go to 12. Rumors have them out for a 10 league team. Rumor is VCU is definitely out. If VCU stays in the A-10 I'm curious on that possiblity enough to take a look at what else the A-10 would have left. Whatever, I think we need to do something better than the Valley, with or without Creighton.

[ShockTalk]

If the Valley needed to replace CU, it would be much better to add 3 schools and have 2 divisions. You would have a 16 game schedule playing each school in your division home/away and each school in the other division once, rotating home and away. This would reduce the travel costs.

Best option for the Valley is if the C7 does not take St Louis and Dayton, add them to the Valley, which would also be better for them than whats left in the Atl-10. Add them plus ORU, Denver, or NDSU. Dayton would play in the east, St Lou and "1 of the 3" in the west with WSU, UNI, Drake, and MSU.
If the C7 does take Dayton, but not St Lou (I think this is more likely than the other way around), they could add "2 of the 3" both added to the west, St Lou goes east or "1 of the 3" plus Murray St. Murray St goes east, St Lou goes west.

For WSU to go to an Atl-10 minus Butler and Xavier is worse than staying in the Valley. Huge costs, not really better competition.

I'm not sold on the C7 unless there is at least 12 or 14 teams including another public (VCU). Otherwise, the original 7 will have too much power.

I still favor the MWC as a fill-in for Hawaii in other sports.

[WSUwatcher]

Agreed. A big fat NO to the A-10 if they lose their powerhouses, or enough of them, or their westerly ones. I'd say a big fat YES to the MWC if they were adding enough eastern schools (like Tulsa or the TX schools and/or NMSU) to split into 2 divisions--otherwise sending our tennis and softball teams to San Diego and San Jose every year makes no sense. It was interesting to see the MWC did split its football schools into 2 divisions--I know I'm grasping at straws but I'm hopeful that's a sign.

Unfortunately, the most likely scenario is us getting stuck in the MVC. If CU leaves, the MVC better add some damn good basketball schools or HCGM is stuck back in the same situation he was in at Winthrop, and that makes me EXTREMELY nervous.

Actually, that would not put WSU or Marshall back into the Winthrop scenario, as I mentioned in a recent post in another thread. The reason is that Marshall is elevating WSU's program to the point where it's likely to be an annual at-large participant regardless of the valley, just as Gonzaga is these days pretty much regardless of the performance of its league in a given year, or Butler while it was in the Horizon. So the Valley, even without Creighton, isn't as scary in this regard as it might be.

[MadDog]

I think there would still be some decent leftovers in the A10 even after the C7 raids them. And instead of us joining them, why dont we raid the remnants of the A10 and add them to the MVC? Richmond, VCU, and St. Joes sound a whole lot better than Wright St and any of these other turds being tossed around. Take these three and that may be enough to fiinish off the A10 for good. It would also leave us with essentially the same footprint as the C7.

[CBB_Fan]

I think there would still be some decent leftovers in the A10 even after the C7 raids them. And instead of us joining them, why dont we raid the remnants of the A10 and add them to the MVC? Richmond, VCU, and St. Joes sound a whole lot better than Wright St and any of these other turds being tossed around. Take these three and that may be enough to fiinish off the A10 for good. It would also leave us with essentially the same footprint as the C7.

You are forgetting that the MVC is poor. So poor, in fact, that a $50,000 exit fee was considered enough of a financial hindrance to prevent teams from leaving. In contrast, Maryland is being asked to pay $50 million to the ACC for leaving to the B1G. Travel considerations would probably prevent that, though Wichita State would be in favor of it.

[MadaboutWu]

We need to win our asses off this year and hook the ol' trailer up to BJ's hitch (as much as it pains me to say that). I would consider converting to paganism to fit in if it means our team gets to move to the C7. I'm willing to sacrifice for the Shockers.


T


...:cool:

With Wu as totem/mascot, we should be druids anyway.

[SubGod22]

You can almost guarantee that Butler, Xavier, Dayton and SLU are gone from the A10. Jumping clear to the east coast isn't going to happen with the MVC. It's hard enough to get the poor sisters of this conference to bring in someone outside the footprint. The MVC will have to look at schools in the region to add. You may call them turds, but some have been fairly solid and with a better conference (money/exposure).

I'm not sure what school would be the 12th in the C7 to keep CU out. Especially if VCU is out. Either way, the MVC has to be looking at options. We're not going to find anyone on the level of CU, but we have to find schools that can keep the MVC relatively strong. Look, I'd love to find a better place for WSU, but things right now don't look like we have a lot of options. I've seen a couple of MWC people post about them adding one non football school eventually to balance out Hawaii. They dream of BYU or Gonzaga but I don't think that'll happen. It's possible that they could look our way eventually as we're not excessively far from the eastern schools.

I do think the MVC should look at 12 if CU leaves. I've always been a fan or expanding the footprint some and by having divisions, it would help costs for the poor schools.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

I believe Duquense would be the 12th if Creighton is left out.

Another rumor heard today: Not all the schools being talked about are interested in the C7 league. Too much politics. Money doesn't solve all issues, and most of these schools are not hurting for money.

[pogo]

I believe Duquense would be the 12th if Creighton is left out.

Another rumor heard today: Not all the schools being talked about are interested in the C7 league. Too much politics. Money doesn't solve all issues, and most of these schools are not hurting for money.

That was the impression I got from the C7 in keeping a larger share of revenue than the next group they invite. I just can't see some of these schools thinking of themselves as "junior" memberes.

[ShockTalk]

That was the impression I got from the C7 in keeping a larger share of revenue than the next group they invite. I just can't see some of these schools thinking of themselves as "junior" memberes.

Some? None of them should.

[wusphlash]

If we have to add a team to the MVC I hope its someone who wears green, orange or brown. We have enough blue, red, maroon and purple.:bball_spin:

[WSUwatcher]

If we have to add a team to the MVC I hope its someone who wears green, orange or brown. We have enough blue, red, maroon and purple.:bball_spin:

Brown? Does anybody except Wyoming have brown in their color scheme?

[Dave Stalwart]

Aren't the jackrabbits green?