Big East should stay at 10 teams

[BillEsq]

Am I correct in my belief that STL or whoever out of the A10 has to give at least 12 months notice to reduce the exit fee to $1MM? If so, by not doing so now does that make it less likely there will be future expansion? Sure seems like many thought Creighton got in before others due to minimal exit costs but that STL and Dayton or Richmond would get in next. However, that line of thinking requires notice to the A10 now.

I believe June 30th is the cutoff date for the 1 million notice. Although rumors are that the A-10 exit fee is going up again for the second straight year so missing that cut-off would be potentially more financially devastating. I think there is some sort of politicing going around on this issue, this was alluded to in several rumors and mentioned at the Big East news conference when the BE was specifically asked about st. louis and expansion. There is also the rumored A-10 commitment meeting that was held the prior Friday. In witch depending on what you read was everything from a kum by ya party to a tense meeting threatening Slu and Dayton with post season bans. From what i gather at this meeting the exit fees were also discussed (and likely increased).

My assumption is that Slu is on hold waiting for a number 12. There is a lot of alignment issues going on and the BE may be waiting for the last minute to make its next announcement official. You never know if ND could fall out of a disintegrating ACC. Now that ND has committed to the ACC it looks like Slu and your choice or number 12 (Dayton/Richmond) will likely take place, but there is no reason to hurry announcements can easily take place after the spring sports. The Question is does the B12 or B10 make any more moves this year. While it may not look like it now there is no reason to rush your decision. Love em or hate them we all know they will take ND over any potential candidate

[BillEsq]

Am I correct in my belief that STL or whoever out of the A10 has to give at least 12 months notice to reduce the exit fee to $1MM? If so, by not doing so now does that make it less likely there will be future expansion? Sure seems like many thought Creighton got in before others due to minimal exit costs but that STL and Dayton or Richmond would get in next. However, that line of thinking requires notice to the A10 now.

Great point. If we are going to 12 teams we should know them before July 1. Since we haven't heard anything I tend to think we stay at 10.[/quote

The BE will have to add new teams either as full or associate members by July 1. They have too many non-rev sports to fill out. The reason why you arn't hearing anything is because every major rumor producer is focused on the tourney. The C7 presidents were remarkably quiet prior to the announcement and its not shocking that they are quiet post announcement especially during the tournament. But one way or the other there is something going on. Even if you think the schools havn't already planned this out and have their teams hand picked you have to understand that they have a deadline to find homes for all their non-revs. They either have to join leagues, get associate members, or bring on full members or most likely a combination of the three. Just because Jersey guy is quite and the jilted lover ESPN is quiet and the schools themselves are just as quiet doesn't mean anything one way or the other.

[XU85]

Xavier announced a new athletic director yesterday. Although he does not officially start the job until May, he said one thing he will be doing prior to that is attending Big East athletic director meeting at the Final Four. I imagine there will be plenty of other business to discuss, but if there is an imminent plan for expansion, I imagine it will be addressed then.

[muskienick]

There's a Xavier fan called SNIPE who will entertain all of you quite a bit as a poster on this site when he sees fit to come here frequently. You will get quite a kick out of him once you get used to his form of humor or psychotic condition (I'm not sure which yet even though I've been experiencing him for decades on Xavier and A-10 sites).

You can lure him here if you pile on this particular thread since he is very supportive of round-robin Conference schedules like the 10-member Big East would have. He has seminal emissions every time he reads or writes of such things in realation to Muskie basketball schedules. (The only other times such nocturnal pleasures occur for Snipe is when he collects monthly rents from his minority tenants.)

Snipe is obnoxious to a fault but everyone understands that his intake of excessive amounts of alcohol and his right-wing politics are enough to excuse him for all his "misinterpreted" faults and adopt him as the lovable mascot of the Big East chatboard.

If you are forgiving and wildly open minded, you will all learn to "Smell the Glove" (and kinda like it)!

[DeltaV]

Will he also explode if we say that twelve is superior, and that Dayton is the obvious choice for the final spot?

[muskienick]

Will he also explode if we say that twelve is superior, and that Dayton is the obvious choice for the final spot?

Knowing Snipe, the Dayton part wouldn't be the piece of the puzzle he doesn't like; it would be the "12" part that would be the rub for him. He wants a true H/A with each member of the Conference, and having 12 in the Conference won't achieve that (unless the league goes to a 22-game Conference season and that is extremely unlikely to happen). I think all of us can see the benefit of maintaining the round-robin format instead of playing 5 teams twice and six teams only once, 3 home and 3 away. An uneven schedule like that could really hurt a program in the rare instance when it is scheduled to play the best (or hottest) teams in the other division at their arenas in the same season. In playing all teams H/A, the "measuring stick" is always applied fairly.

[xu95]

There is absolutely no truth to the rumors that the A10 told SLU and Dayton they are banned from the tournament next year. None whatsoever. As for the exit fees, I believe it was Sports Illustrated that said that discussion didn't happen either.

If and it is a big IF, the Big East made a deal with the A10 to not take all the teams at once (I don't buy that either, but the people holding on to the hope that all 12 teams are known already believe it) than the A10 absolutely would not raise the exit fees on the people not announced first. That would be in very poor taste and say what you want about the A10, they have stayed pretty classy through everything going on over the last few years.

[BillEsq]

There is absolutely no truth to the rumors that the A10 told SLU and Dayton they are banned from the tournament next year. None whatsoever. As for the exit fees, I believe it was Sports Illustrated that said that discussion didn't happen either.

If and it is a big IF, the Big East made a deal with the A10 to not take all the teams at once (I don't buy that either, but the people holding on to the hope that all 12 teams are known already believe it) than the A10 absolutely would not raise the exit fees on the people not announced first. That would be in very poor taste and say what you want about the A10, they have stayed pretty classy through everything going on over the last few years.

Well i know they are rumors... but who says if they are true or not. They did have a meeting had had to have talked about something, i'm figuring bongos and kumbiya probably didn't occur. Unless you can speak as to what exactly went on your comments have the same value as any other unsubstantiated rumor.

The A-10 also has a history or raising exit fees. They did the exact same thing last year after Temple and Charlotte declared they were leaving, so i see no reason why they would not do it again. Heck in this environment most top end conferences are increasing their exit fees, the A-10 would be dumb if they didn't.

[Xudash]

The 10 versus 12 debate has no clear answer. Fans may wish for the round robbin, rivalry-building effect of 10 teams. The conference and Fox, in particular, may want 12 ultimately for purposes of increasing the odds for tournament bids and content.

You have to look at what the conference has done thus far from a strategic point of view. I believe they held at 10 for two fundamental reasons:

1. Numbers 8 and 9 were clear cut, number 10 became clear cut and was otherwise lobbied into the fold, number 11 most likely is a perfectly viable St. Louis, but 12 isn't obvious.

2. Given that 12 isn't obvious, and knowing that football realignment wasn't (isn't) finished, the decision was made to launch at 10 and watch how things break over the next one to two years.

I seriously doubt that numbers 11 and 12 are going to be announced prior to July 1. That action would make no sense, given what has transpired to date.

They truly believe they have the luxury of time to watch how realignment now plays out from here. If things break in a certain way, they'll go after teams that most fans of the C7 or A10 would never have considered possible. Otherwise, perhaps they keep running after the Gonzaga approach for the next few months to see if it can be made to work. Either way, absent something else working out, St. Louis would be ready to go and then the decision would be down to conference balance (east/west) or some other criterion that would favor the addition of another non-eastern school.

[BillEsq]

Granted in realignment stranger things have happened but there is no Gonzaga approach. There is a better chance of a FBS school dropping FBS football than Gonzaga joining the BE. Both scenarios are so cost prohibitive and in Gonzaga's circumstance logistically prohibitive that you have to place them in the red herring category. The only possible FBS school in play is ND. They are the only one who can support the independent FBS and has any appeal to the BE.

The BE will have to make some decision by July 1. They either have to add full time members, add associate members or scramble and get their non-revs into other conferences. I agree with you on most of your other points but i do want to point out that many fans do prefer a 12 team league. Bigger leagues come with more prestige and you get that nice two division split that some fans really like. but at that point we are debating aesthetics and i fully appreciate that some fans might think otherwise. My point is here that not all fans want 10 and many prefer 12 (especially for those who also follow non revs and not just basketball) so to allude that all fans want 10 might be a misstatement.