Lambo ranked #1 in NCAA survey for coaches

[flyingMoose]

Ironically this might be one of the few sports for the Shocks where changing conferences actually hurt them.

Going in, Lambo's thoughts were that the top of the AAC would be comparable to the Valley and the bottom would be better. Then several teams were hit with injuries, notably Cincinnati. It may be a couple of years before we see if his thoughts hold true. Certainly this year there is no one comparable to Missouri State and Northern Iowa.

[JayPak]

With Wichita State entering the American and HCCL ideas on building a schedule in the non conference does anyone think that he being in the American will influence any other American volleyball coaches to schedule tougher or do you think the schools they represent are satisfied with the status quo.

An observation from Creighton's move to the Big East (no, I won't bug you guys by capitalizing it!)... Creighton entered the BE with by far the highest profile baseball program. Creighton's coach had many ideas to share to improve the quality of conference baseball as a whole. The other coaches were an old guard who were satisfied with the status quo and totally blew him off, not due to personalities, but due to not wanting to take orders from the new kid on the block. After three years of relationship building, the coaching fraternity is more collegial between charter members and new members (Creighton, Butler, Xavier) and some of the Creighton coach's ideas are beginning to be implemented. Baseball gets zero emphasis or support from conference administration so the coaches have to generate all the improvements at the school level.

[Cdizzle]

An observation from Creighton's move to the Big East (no, I won't bug you guys by capitalizing it!)... Creighton entered the BE with by far the highest profile baseball program. Creighton's coach had many ideas to share to improve the quality of conference baseball as a whole. The other coaches were an old guard who were satisfied with the status quo and totally blew him off, not due to personalities, but due to not wanting to take orders from the new kid on the block. After three years of relationship building, the coaching fraternity is more collegial between charter members and new members (Creighton, Butler, Xavier) and some of the Creighton coach's ideas are beginning to be implemented. Baseball gets zero emphasis or support from conference administration so the coaches have to generate all the improvements at the school level.

Or as I liked to call it, the old "Ed Servais We Didn't Win Last Year's Conference Tourney, So We Need a New Format" plan. I remember it well.

[JayPak]

LOL! That's funny, because one of the changes Ed was finally able to get through the BE coaches was changing the conference tourney format from a winner-take-all final to a true double elimination format. And yes, it came after a one-loss Xavier team won the BE final over an undefeated Creighton team. Other improvements Ed has pushed for include limiting the conference tourney to the top four teams, rotating the conference tourney from the East Coast to the Midwest, getting more games televised, improving schedules conferencewide, and improving facilites and budgets.

Creighton was middle of the pack in the MVC so saying that Creighton had the highest profile in the BE, while true, isn't a compliment but an indication of how bad the BE sucks in baseball. And Creighton has arguably been passed by Xavier and St. John's. Even Todd Butler could keep his job in the BE, but the AAC is not the optimal conference to move to for baseball coach longevity!