Gonzaga?

[James]

I don't see how Gonzaga joining as a basketball-only member hurts stability to be honest Yorost. It's not as if they have a football programme and would be looking to bolt at the first opportunity to the PAC-12 or B1G or if there is a better basketball-centric conference that would be looking to poach them.

If anything, taking a strong team like Gonzaga only strengthens the quality, and in turn, stability of the new conference.

[Jet915]

I don't see how it's possible for Gonzaga to get away with just being a basketball only conference. BE7 would obviously love that situation but the WCC would not allow that. Maybe they can join the Big Sky and pay them alot of money and guarantee a certain number of OOC games? Who knows.

[yorost]

I don't see how Gonzaga joining as a basketball-only member hurts stability to be honest Yorost. It's not as if they have a football programme and would be looking to bolt at the first opportunity to the PAC-12 or B1G or if there is a better basketball-centric conference that would be looking to poach them.

If anything, taking a strong team like Gonzaga only strengthens the quality, and in turn, stability of the new conference.

It's still an associate member. If they get an opportunity down the road to keep their sports together and not be in too weaker a situation in basketball they'd be silly not to take it. It'll be fine and all for a while, but if it stops being good they have no reason to stick around. You look through conference histories and associate members of any kind do not have a good history. Look at B1G hockey. All their teams have been in power hockey conferences (WCHA, CCHA) and have had a lot of success, but now they're forming a B1G conference and tons of rivalries and history are being thrown aside. Schools want their teams all in one place, it makes sense. Gonzaga with all sports at least has a nice clean package with us as equal partners. Moreover, with an associate member all remaining sports are short a team, which might not sound like much, but it could cause problems.

[admin]

If this league doesn't begin until 2014, that probably helps the cause of someone like Gonzaga as they'll have plenty of time to start discussing these issues with the WCC and potentially other leagues.

[FlyerFan]

Gonzaga is appealing for men's basketball, but nothing else. When you set up a conference, you keep your money sport in mind, but you can't completely ignore everything else. If you take Gonzaga in only basketball, that means you have one lesser member in other sports in which you compete, which can cause scheduling problems. By the way, if you add Gonzaga for men's basketball, does title IX require that women's basketball is included too?

I'm under the assumption that for the olympic sports, you are going to have a travel partners make-up to keep travel expenses as low as possible. Take volleyball for example. If everyone field a volleyball team, you set up travel partners and have a team go on the road to play Friday at one venue and Saturday (or Sunday) at a nearby school to play again. You then work two games into one trip, cutting your travel costs in half. Most leagues already do something like this now for most olympic sports. If however, you admit a school for just one sport, you no longer have an even number of schools and it messes up the whole travel partners scenario.

You also have a time zone issue.

Frankly, I doubt that Gonzaga is going to be able to find another conference to take their nonbasketball sports anyway.

My thought is stick with 12 teams for now and get the new league started. You can then use some additional time to seek out other western schools to see if a full western division can be assembled and whether doing so would result in additional TV money or not.

[BJ Mike]

For what it's worth, I was told from someone in the know that the Creighton AD was invited to a meeting with the C7 where membership was discussed. So if they weren't invited, it is at least being considered.

[Hoya]

For what it's worth, I was told from someone in the know that the Creighton AD was invited to a meeting with the C7 where membership was discussed. So if they weren't invited, it is at least being considered.

Was this a secret meeting? Conference call? Nothing had been published indicating that such a meeting happened. I think we'd all be interested if you have additional details.

[bigblahla]

Gonzaga is appealing for men's basketball, but nothing else. When you set up a conference, you keep your money sport in mind, but you can't completely ignore everything else. If you take Gonzaga in only basketball, that means you have one lesser member in other sports in which you compete, which can cause scheduling problems. By the way, if you add Gonzaga for men's basketball, does title IX require that women's basketball is included too?

FYI, the Gonzaga Lady Zags play in front of crowds in excess of 5,000 at every home game and they also fly charter to away games. C-7 wouldn't be hurt at all by including the Lady Zags. GU is turning into an almost annual stop for the NCAA women's tournament as a host. Spokane is a basketball town for those that don't know the Spokane Stars are a national player in producing women's D1 talent. Also Spokane hosts Hoopfest the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament on the planet. Last year over 7,000teams and 27,000+ players, it's a heck of a weekend for hoops and if you can make it or play in it you should.

Go!! Zags!!!

[ArmyVet]

Katz certainly left the door open for Gonzaga didn't he? If the Zags get added, I can only imagine all the extra good publicity the new league will get for bringing in the best teams.

[Bill_Esq]

Katz certainly left the door open for Gonzaga didn't he? If the Zags get added, I can only imagine all the extra good publicity the new league will get for bringing in the best teams.

Seriously who is Katz to being leaving the door open? I don't think an article from a network who is loosing a major conference to an upstart new rival network is really very valid. Espn is pretty much the car chase net work of sports right now and lets face it if you say the words C7 and Gonzaga you get people looking at your blog.

Katz is a Big 10 boy and well just trolling for blog hits on this one. I'd love Gonzaga in the conference but logistically its just not going to happen. Basketball only is extremely unlikely, and the costs for travel is astronomical for all sports not just basketball. Yes I am sure there is an airport in Spokane but paying to fly out every week to eastern US is not cheap. Not to mention if Gonzaga left they would have to give up all of there NCAA credits just to join into the new venture. Much cheaper just to set up a home and home with the select C7 + teams in OOC. To put it bluntly if Gonzaga had to pay to send all of its teams across the country for all sports they would have to send at least one team flying across the country at least once a week except during the summer. That is around 38 weeks a year. Now I know we will all be getting a big pay day from Fox, but your asking Gonzaga to give up millions of money and to spend much more on non revenue sports just for Mens Basketball. It just does not make any sense for Gonzaga, St Mary's or any other West Coast Team to join.