Who is your rival? In the new league who would be?

[James]

Georgetown for sure and probably Nova as well.

[Moliva]

Is it cool if Richmond continues to hate VCU permanently and hate the rest of you intermittently?

[Natty]

I noticed my beloved VCU Rams weren't mentioned in the original post...you must have forgotten to add us.

Either way...VCU's two biggest rivals:

1) ODU
2) Richmond

They will still be our two biggest rivals. Outside of that, maybe Butler because of the whole Final 4 thing, but PERSONALLY, I feel like there's a level of respect we have for them that we don't have with our other rivals. Brad and Shaka are friends, we respect what Butler has done, but still lost to them in the Final 4, so potential there.

Rivalries can grow though. We developed a bit of a rivalry with Drexel in the CAA, basically because all of our games came down to the last second (almost literally).

I think being the only public school in this new league will also make us a bit of a rival with every one of you. We'll be the team breaking up the private school circle jerk you all seem to be enjoying. The majority of you clearly hate us already (which hey, that's good for the league right?)...so can't wait to see the level of hate we see when we're at the top of the league

[yorost]

None of our schools are currently in all private conferences. Even if some people want it to be all private it isn't going to be a big deal having a public school involved. It's about basketball. If UConn and Cincy didn't have football we'd all consider them shoe-ins without a second thought. If Xavier was public they'd still be in with no debate. VCU is just a borderline case, so the issue comes up in some people's minds. I really don't think being public is going to generate you rivals. Competitive basketball will do that.

[Natty]

None of our schools are currently in all private conferences. Even if some people want it to be all private it isn't going to be a big deal having a public school involved. It's about basketball. If UConn and Cincy didn't have football we'd all consider them shoe-ins without a second thought. If Xavier was public they'd still be in with no debate. VCU is just a borderline case, so the issue comes up in some people's minds. I really don't think being public is going to generate you rivals. Competitive basketball will do that.

Key word: "currently"

It's not a big deal now (C7 is currently in a league with six public full members), but I think once you form a league with 11 privates and 1 public, that team sticks out more. Also, you say if Xavier was public there would be no debate. But wouldn't you agree if VCU was private, there'd also be no debate? I'd have to think there would be serious debate between them and Creighton for that third spot (VCU with the Final 4 and location advantage, Creighton with that great home attendance), but would certainly put them in a 12-team conference ahead of Dayton, St. Louis and Richmond.

[iamriccio]

From a Providence College fans perspective, I would say Georgetown, St.Johns and Villanova(in that order) would be our 'biggest' games. I don't really care about the rivalries, I just can't wait for this new league to become a reality. Go Friars!

[yorost]

None of our schools are currently in all private conferences. Even if some people want it to be all private it isn't going to be a big deal having a public school involved. It's about basketball. If UConn and Cincy didn't have football we'd all consider them shoe-ins without a second thought. If Xavier was public they'd still be in with no debate. VCU is just a borderline case, so the issue comes up in some people's minds. I really don't think being public is going to generate you rivals. Competitive basketball will do that.

Key word: "currently"

It's not a big deal now (C7 is currently in a league with six public full members), but I think once you form a league with 11 privates and 1 public, that team sticks out more. Also, you say if Xavier was public there would be no debate. But wouldn't you agree if VCU was private, there'd also be no debate? I'd have to think there would be serious debate between them and Creighton for that third spot (VCU with the Final 4 and location advantage, Creighton with that great home attendance), but would certainly put them in a 12-team conference ahead of Dayton, St. Louis and Richmond.

I do not agree that if VCU were private it would be a shoe-in. It's just a borderline case. You're not clearly separated from the others you mention, but neither are they clearly separated from you. In a 10 team conference one of the Richmond schools would be my pick if Creighton wouldn't work. As for VCU vs Richmond, I just don't even have an opinion. Whatever the schools decide if they go for your city works for me. You two are very different situations. VCU makes a nice case, you don't have to repeat it, it just doesn't convince me.

I think you're overthinking the being singled out, sorry.

[Eight Legger]

"If VCU were private"...I'm guessing it wouldn't have 32,000 students, or a consecutive sellout streak, or 50,000 "alumni" (people who went there for 6 years but still don't have a degree) in town or the ability to enroll any basketball player regardless of GPA.

But, it's not.

[UDGutter2]

For Dayton, its obviously Xavier now, but it used to be Notre Dame, DePaul and Marquette during the Great Independents era. Those were the best games and I wish that back in the 80's those 4 could have come together to form the basis of a great conference. Looking ahead from the 80's, those 4 could have added Xavier, Butler, St. Louis, and Creighton. I believe if the Great Independents had hung together, they would not be involved in any of this conference realignment now.

If/When the new conference starts, I believe that while the X rivalry will still be strong, the DePaul game will be a close second.
(If Dayton is in/When the new conference starts)

[jkc_dawgs]

First and foremost I think BU's main rival will be X. Let's face it, if you watch a Butler-Xavier game you will see cheap shots and such. I think our next rival would be Gonzaga (we should play them every year regardless if they are in the nBE). The last two would be SLU and then I think we could develop a rivalry with Marquette.