The Major League

[SubGod22]

Back to the Super Conference Idea. 4 Divisions of 6 teams each....

WEST
Gonzaga
St. Mary's
Utah State
UNLV
San Diego State
BYU

CENTRAL
Wichita State
Colorado State
New Mexico
Tulsa
Creighton
Houston

MIDWEST
Dayton
Butler
Xavier
Cleveland State
Bradley
Northern Iowa

SOUTHEAST
George Mason
Virginia Commonwealth
Old Dominion
Memphis
UAB
Richmond

[KC Shox]

You can forget anything with Xavier for two reasons. One, their fans and the program do not view themselves as a mid-major. Two, a vast majority of them want to combine all the Catholic schools into one conference. That is pipe dream of all pipe dreams but that's how they think.

[MoValley John]

It is mind bending to think that 8-10 bureaucracies could withdraw from their current affiliations and form a new conference.

I know a little something about business bureaucracies and I imagine academic bureaucracies are worse.

Academic risk adversity > Business risk adversity

You are right, except for the fact that I don't think these conferences and schools being discussed collaborate much on academic and scientific research. There is little or no academic risk for any of the schools being discussed. There is some business risk, but not much. Wichita State generates the vast majority of their athletic income inhouse, I don't see large checks being sent to any schools from the Valley office. On the flipside, a new conference may net a school like Wichita State nothing, but that wouldn't be all that much of a loss. On the other hand, the monetary upside could be huge. The risk/ reward ratio screams Explore This!

And in reality, regarding conference affiliation, there is little in bureaucracy to navigate. The decisions will be made by a university president, an AD and if a public school, a board of regents. The BofR will do whatever the president wants regarding this matter. I watched on the sidelines as Nebraska left the Big XII for the Big 10-11. It was seamless. When the offer came from the Big 10-11, the whole decision was made by two people, the president of the university and the AD. The B of R simply rubber stamped the change. The Big 10-11 sent the offer, the AD and president decided, a special meeting was called by the BofR, a vote was cast and a contract signed by the president. Done.

Now, if we were discussing the Big 10-11, or is it the new Big 12, those schools collaborate in the classroom, in aquiring research grants and in joint research. For the life of me I could never understand why any school would even consider leaving that! I could also see a big dogfight within the political powers of the school.

[Ricardo del Rio]

It is mind bending to think that 8-10 bureaucracies could withdraw from their current affiliations and form a new conference.

I know a little something about business bureaucracies and I imagine academic bureaucracies are worse.

Academic risk adversity > Business risk adversity

You are right, except for the fact that I don't think these conferences and schools being discussed collaborate much on academic and scientific research. There is little or no academic risk for any of the schools being discussed. There is some business risk, but not much. Wichita State generates the vast majority of their athletic income inhouse, I don't see large checks being sent to any schools from the Valley office. On the flipside, a new conference may net a school like Wichita State nothing, but that wouldn't be all that much of a loss. On the other hand, the monetary upside could be huge. The risk/ reward ratio screams Explore This!

And in reality, regarding conference affiliation, there is little in bureaucracy to navigate. The decisions will be made by a university president, an AD and if a public school, a board of regents. The BofR will do whatever the president wants regarding this matter. I watched on the sidelines as Nebraska left the Big XII for the Big 10-11. It was seamless. When the offer came from the Big 10-11, the whole decision was made by two people, the president of the university and the AD. The B of R simply rubber stamped the change. The Big 10-11 sent the offer, the AD and president decided, a special meeting was called by the BofR, a vote was cast and a contract signed by the president. Done.

Now, if we were discussing the Big 10-11, or is it the new Big 12, those schools collaborate in the classroom, in aquiring research grants and in joint research. For the life of me I could never understand why any school would even consider leaving that! I could also see a big dogfight within the political powers of the school.

You make a sound argument.

I suppose, if there was a well respected bell cow, who could lead the masses, then it might work.

[RoyalShock]

You can forget anything with Xavier for two reasons. One, their fans and the program do not view themselves as a mid-major. Two, a vast majority of them want to combine all the Catholic schools into one conference. That is pipe dream of all pipe dreams but that's how they think.

Regarding your first point. The idea here is to have the conference transcend "mid-major" and be on the same or similar competitive level as the BCS conferences. It would be better than their current conference.

On the 2nd point, why would Marquette, DePaul, etc. leave the Big East to join a collection of "lesser" schools?

[DwShock]

I love the Valley. If anything get the lesser schools out and add some better ones. BUT KEEP THE VALLEY. It was cool all the Creighton fans coming up to me at work today and telling me they are impressed with the shockers and to keep on rolling. I of course told them the same thing. ITs the love of the Valley that we all share.

AMERICAS RENAISSANCE CONFERENCE (the Mo Valley)

:posterwu: :goshocks:

[ShockTalk]

OK. There are a number of you making multiple posts regarding this. Are you bored or serious?

If serious, OTR asked a legit question earlier and I'd like to hear what you think. In many of these senerios, most all of these teams have a reasonable chance of making the Dance most years. In separate conferences, they are the most likely the teams to get those bids (auto or at-large). Two things happen if they combine into a super basketball conference. 1) The conferences they leave will by and large still exist and still get that auto bid. 2) Even with 12 teams, chances are that no more than 4, maybe 5 will get bids.

That seems to be a pretty large risk that, most years, your school will be one of those getting a bid as 7 to 9 schools won't. The odds are better as it is now for most of these schools.

Your opinions?

[wsushox1]

OK. There are a number of you making multiple posts regarding this. Are you bored or serious?

If serious, OTR asked a legit question earlier and I'd like to hear what you think. In many of these senerios, most all of these teams have a reasonable chance of making the Dance most years. In separate conferences, they are the most likely the teams to get those bids (auto or at-large). Two things happen if they combine into a super basketball conference. 1) The conferences they leave will by and large still exist and still get that auto bid. 2) Even with 12 teams, chances are that no more than 4, maybe 5 will get bids.

That seems to be a pretty large risk that, most years, your school will be one of those getting a bid as 7 to 9 schools won't. The odds are better as it is now for most of these schools.

Your opinions?

Check PM, if you haven't found a solution to your issue already.

[wufan]

OK. There are a number of you making multiple posts regarding this. Are you bored or serious?

If serious, OTR asked a legit question earlier and I'd like to hear what you think. In many of these senerios, most all of these teams have a reasonable chance of making the Dance most years. In separate conferences, they are the most likely the teams to get those bids (auto or at-large). Two things happen if they combine into a super basketball conference. 1) The conferences they leave will by and large still exist and still get that auto bid. 2) Even with 12 teams, chances are that no more than 4, maybe 5 will get bids.

That seems to be a pretty large risk that, most years, your school will be one of those getting a bid as 7 to 9 schools won't. The odds are better as it is now for most of these schools.

Your opinions?

Good point, but having 1 to 3 teams with an RPI above 250 is KILLER!!! I would be in favor of adding regional teams that have similar budget/support (or at least potential) to WSU. I like Bradley, Creighton, and MSU. Butler and Dayton are the two other schools that are needed to elevate this supposed conference. After that, you have to fill in with 4 more schools that don't play BCS football, but have a reasonable market size and athletic budget. I don't know for sure, but St Louis and Xavier would be good. Outside of that, I think you have to look at long standing tradition vs recent success (i.e. St Louis). Surely there are some other schools in Indiana, Illinois, or Ohio that would fit the bill.

[MoValley John]

OK. There are a number of you making multiple posts regarding this. Are you bored or serious?

If serious, OTR asked a legit question earlier and I'd like to hear what you think. In many of these senerios, most all of these teams have a reasonable chance of making the Dance most years. In separate conferences, they are the most likely the teams to get those bids (auto or at-large). Two things happen if they combine into a super basketball conference. 1) The conferences they leave will by and large still exist and still get that auto bid. 2) Even with 12 teams, chances are that no more than 4, maybe 5 will get bids.

That seems to be a pretty large risk that, most years, your school will be one of those getting a bid as 7 to 9 schools won't. The odds are better as it is now for most of these schools.

Your opinions?

I for one am dead serious about it, if not, I wouldn't be posting on your board. I am not sure as how to form the league and I don't know what teams should be involved, but this really needs to happen. And it's not about giving your team a better shot at making the dance, it's about raising the level of competition, raising the profile and respect of the schools involved and mostly, raising money.

I don't live in Wichita, so I don't know if this happens there, but in Omaha, Creighton gets no respect from Husker fans, none. Husker fans will throw out the midmajor card at Creighton every day. They will talk crap and state that Nebraska is better than them simply because Nebraska plays in the Big XII. In reality, there is no program more midmajor than Nebraska. They have never won an NCAA game, they spend less on their basketball team than Creighton, they have half as many people show up at games, sell fewer tickets and charge much less for the tickets they sell. But at the end of the day, Nebraska generates much more money from college basketball than Creighton. They generate the money from the Big XII TV revenue and revenue split from the NCAA tournament.

In all fairness, Wichita State has been to the NCAA's one time in 20 years. They have had a couple of Turgeon teams that maybe could have gone had the profile of the conference been better. They probably would have gone this year had they played in a better conference. There would have been many more opportunities for top 50 wins. Yes, it would be a tougher road to hoe in a new conference of upper eschelon teams pulled from the current midmajor ranks, but if fans spout anyone, anywhere, any time, this shouldn't scare the fans.

Creighton went to the dance a whopping seven times in 16 years under Altman, Wichita State went once in 20 years. Do you really think the chances of making the NCAA's in a future mega conference would be any worse than the actual results of the past two decades?

Most importantly, the revenue possibilities of a potential league are huge. Currently, money trickles in slowly from the Valley offices to each member college. And right or wrong, big money drives college athletics. Consider the revenue possibilities of a league with great teams in medium and large markets spread from Wichita and Omaha to the west, and culminating in cities like Washington, Charelston and possibly Boston in the east. If you split the conference into two divisions, you could have a large footprint and still maintain geographic rivalries. You can't even wrap hour head around how much revenue that could bring! It's ginormous and even if you didn't win as much, you would be seeing a whole lot more compelling home games than you do now. Seriously, would you be more excited to attend a home game against Butler or Drake?

Lastly, if teams like Wichita State and Creighton were members of this league, the days of being denegrated as midmajor by Husker, Jayhawk and Wildcat fans would be over. In fact, Wildcat fans might be a little envious. Done right, this thing could only be great. It will suck for the teams left behind, but that is too bad, they should have been investing in their programs over the last 15 years like Creighton and Wichita State have.

[Aargh]

Some of these proposed alignments would have little trouble getting national TV contracts at nearly the revenues the BCS schools get for their basketball teams.

There would have to be a minimum $$ commitment to basketball for admittance. (InSU pays Lansing $150K. That type of pay scale doesn't lead to stability in the program.)

If the teams are reasonably stable in their level of play, there would be a lot of national interest in watching the "Cinderella" league. America loves underdogs, and that league would contain the "underdogs" just waiting to knock off the "elite" BCS teams.

That concept would also be attractive to a lot of recruits. Those teams would tend to get recruits who wanted and expected to have to go and fight for every win.

[RoyalShock]

MoValley John has summed things up nicely.

This isn't about getting more "mid-major" bids to the dance. It's taking 10-12 teams that will say, "Screw that mid-major crap. We ain't no mid-major!" (Poor grammar aside.)

[ShockBand]

MoValley John has summed things up nicely.

This isn't about getting more "mid-major" bids to the dance. It's taking 10-12 teams that will say, "Screw that mid-major crap. We ain't no mid-major!" (Poor grammar aside.)

It could be the Twisted Sister Conference. WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT! :D

[RoyalShock]

MoValley John has summed things up nicely.

This isn't about getting more "mid-major" bids to the dance. It's taking 10-12 teams that will say, "Screw that mid-major crap. We ain't no mid-major!" (Poor grammar aside.)

It could be the Twisted Sister Conference. WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT! :D

We'll need a layer of abstraction:

Truly Super Conference.

[Ta town]

Gotta keep football teams out as that drains money and makes a league difficult to assemble. Except for the non scholarship football that Butler and I believe either Dayton or Xavier plays. Thats fine as league association won't be an issue.

Bradley, Creighton, Wichita State

Butler

Dayton, St.louis, Xavier

George Mason, VCU

Thats 9 schools, geography a little weird but I think would make for a great league.