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Gonzaga to the Big East

It would make the Big East a really formidable league, especially with Uconn on the rise. If Danny Hurley's anything like his dad (I think he is), that program is going to be very solid.

I wonder how much success Bob Hurley would have had as a college coach.
 
The Big East is already in a weird conference geographically. You have 6 schools that fit the geography of the original Big East. And then you have another 5 schools that align more with the geography of the Big Ten.

Big East Schools in the Northeast
Providence, RI
Philadelphia, PA
Storrs, CT
South Orange, NJ
Washington D.C.
New York, NY

Big East Schools in the Midwest/Big Ten County
Omaha, NE
Milwaukee, WI
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Indianapolis, IN

I don't think Gonzaga is out of the question on moving to the Big East. Heck, their current conference mate, BYU, is going to be in the same conference as UCF and West Virginia... it'll just suck to fly across country for all of the non-revenue sports.
 
I mean, at this point just screw geography.
Right? Either travel costs are a real thing or they aren't......Some of these teams have lost their damn minds.

Loyola is the latest to be making an oddball move as they'll be joining the A-10 next year.

Gonzaga would take the cake though. Just move to the damn Pac 12 and rule that conference for a few years and be done with it.
 
I'm about a step and a half from orchestrating a hostile takeover of the NCAA front office and forcing all sports to go back to regionally-based conferences and scheduling.........enough of this horse sh**.
I'm with you! I stopped following basketball for about 10-15 years and when I came back in 2017 I was shocked by all the conference changes. Colorado and Utah in the Pac? Maryland in the Big 10? Nebraska?!?!?! Creighton and Butler in the Big East? Missouri in the SEC? Syracuse and Louisville in the ACC?

Y'all lost your minds while I was on sabbatical.
 
It makes perfect sense culture fit wise and zero sense geographically. I don't think people realize how far out in the middle of nowhere Spokane is. Every Big East team will have to fly charter because there are zero direct flights from any of the Big East school locations.

It's a six hour flight from the East Coast to Seattle. From Seattle it's an hour flight or a 4 hour bus ride to Spokane. So best case scenario if you factor airport travel logistics, you're looking at a 7-8 hour travel day if you fly charter and 8-10 hours if you fly into Seattle and catch a connecting flight. That's pretty crazy.

I wish the Pac 12 would just sack up and let them join for hoops but it will never ever happen.
 
The Big East is already in a weird conference geographically. You have 6 schools that fit the geography of the original Big East. And then you have another 5 schools that align more with the geography of the Big Ten.

Big East Schools in the Northeast
Providence, RI
Philadelphia, PA
Storrs, CT
South Orange, NJ
Washington D.C.
New York, NY

Big East Schools in the Midwest/Big Ten County
Omaha, NE
Milwaukee, WI
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Indianapolis, IN

I don't think Gonzaga is out of the question on moving to the Big East. Heck, their current conference mate, BYU, is going to be in the same conference as UCF and West Virginia... it'll just suck to fly across country for all of the non-revenue sports.
I have been told on this board that Cincy was going to the Big12.
 
I would think a team like st. Mary’s would go with them. Just to have a travel partner for out there

Not sure the Big East would want St. Mary's, though. Small school, modest budget. And St. Mary's would push the league to 13 teams.
 
Aren’t all the big east schools relatively small?

Relatively, yes. But, Saint Mary's has less than 4,000 students. Outside of logistics/travel, another major issue is SMC doesn't have a huge budget. $4.4 million. The Average Big East school is 9.95 million. A decent chunk of their budget would be eaten up by airfare. These figures are from 2018-19, but I imagine most of the figures are similar.

Saint Mary's also isn't a brand name in any conceivable measure. They have a little over 7,000 followers on Twitter. I went to the WCC Tournament in 2019; that was the year where they upset #1 Gonzaga - and it was honestly hard to find SMC fans in the arena. If people in the Silicon Valley actually cared about SMC, then an invite from the Big East might make sense. But, they don't. They're not bringing more eyeballs to the TV. Gonzaga, however, would bring a decent following with them.


Data per Department of Higher Education website
TeamConferenceEXPENSES
1​
DukeACC
22,178,473​
2​
KentuckySEC
20,202,558​
3​
LouisvilleACC
19,180,078​
4​
Florida St.ACC
16,773,013​
5​
AlabamaSEC
15,966,875​
6​
TCUBig 12
15,718,763​
7​
UCLAPac 12
15,468,381​
8​
MarquetteBig East
14,979,149​
9​
SyracuseACC
14,845,555​
10​
VillanovaBig East
14,428,932​
11​
Michigan St.Big Ten
14,395,851​
12​
GeorgetownBig East
13,573,946​
13​
VirginiaACC
13,400,721​
14​
IndianaBig Ten
13,230,211​
15​
KansasBig 12
12,547,439​
16​
Texas TechBig 12
12,338,645​
17​
Texas A&MSEC
11,818,860​
18​
TexasBig 12
11,649,912​
19​
UNCACC
11,204,115​
20​
ProvidenceBig East
11,117,186​
21​
PittACC
11,013,283​
22​
Ohio St.Big Ten
10,996,364​
23​
West VirginiaBig 12
10,798,893​
24​
NorthwesternBig Ten
10,646,711​
25​
TennesseeSEC
10,554,613​
26​
AuburnSEC
10,536,653​
27
GonzagaWCC
10,496,251
28​
IllinoisBig Ten
10,480,939​
29​
ArkansasSEC
10,440,326​
30​
ArizonaPac 12
10,383,630​
31​
OregonPac 12
10,348,633​
32​
NC StateACC
10,295,048​
33​
OklahomaBig 12
10,072,404​
34​
St. John'sBig East
10,028,677​
35​
VanderbiltSEC
9,901,818​
36​
MichiganBig Ten
9,874,360​
37​
BaylorBig 12
9,860,432​
38​
PurdueBig Ten
9,604,624​
39​
LSUSEC
9,512,515​
40​
MississippiSEC
9,432,295​
41​
UconnBig East
9,325,922​
42​
FloridaSEC
9,317,385​
43​
WashingtonPac 12
9,224,123​
44​
HoustonAmerican
9,219,796​
45​
NebraskaBig Ten
9,180,631​
46​
MarylandBig Ten
9,163,793​
47​
MinnesotaBig Ten
9,115,817​
48​
UtahPac 12
8,965,613​
49​
Miami FLACC
8,895,333​
50​
Wake ForestACC
8,805,630​
51​
CreightonBig East
8,590,055​
52​
South CarolinaSEC
8,561,964​
53​
WisconsinBig Ten
8,548,485​
54​
Virginia TechACC
8,525,606​
55​
Arizona St.Pac 12
8,349,598​
56​
Notre DameACC
8,331,273​
57​
MissouriSEC
8,255,259​
58​
ClemsonACC
8,229,736​
59​
MemphisAmerican
8,217,757​
60​
Wichita St.American
8,182,863​
61​
IowaBig Ten
8,097,014​
62​
Kansas StateBig 12
8,028,533​
63​
GeorgiaSEC
7,756,002​
64​
Iowa St.Big 12
7,693,014​
65​
CincinnatiAmerican
7,644,770​
66​
SMUAmerican
7,590,481​
67​
RutgersBig Ten
7,545,360​
68​
Seton HallBig East
7,506,127​
69​
BYUWCC
7,447,430​
70​
Mississippi St.SEC
7,443,131​
71​
DaytonAtlantic 10
7,434,825​
72​
St. LouisAtlantic 10
7,428,566​
73​
XavierBig East
7,406,374​
74​
Penn St.Big Ten
7,343,831​
75​
ColoradoPac 12
7,252,987​
76​
StanfordPac 12
7,143,168​
77​
Georgia TechACC
7,095,493​
78​
USCPac 12
6,901,843​
79​
Boston CollegeACC
6,872,835​
80​
DePaulBig East
6,793,520​
81​
Oklahoma St.Big 12
6,700,510​
82​
TempleAmerican
6,487,460​
83​
Oregon St.Pac 12
6,203,088​
84​
TulsaAmerican
6,196,308​
85​
St. Joseph'sAtlantic 10
6,152,876​
86​
CaliforniaPac 12
6,131,940​
87​
VCUAtlantic 10
6,102,633​
88​
UNLVMountain West
5,795,483​
89​
San Diego St.Mountain West
5,786,034​
90​
ButlerBig East
5,760,815​
91​
DuquesneAtlantic 10
5,612,982​
92​
Washington St.Pac 12
5,483,898​
93​
Grand CanyonWAC
5,331,006​
94​
BelmontOVC
5,129,856​
95​
FordhamAtlantic 10
5,075,355​
96​
TulaneAmerican
4,984,520​
97​
South FloridaAmerican
4,931,868​
98​
RichmondAtlantic 10
4,782,542​
99​
Rhode IslandAtlantic 10
4,745,208​
100​
NevadaMountain West
4,706,010​
101​
UCFAmerican
4,594,025​
102​
Santa ClaraWCC
4,445,480​
103​
Colorado St.Mountain West
4,415,218​
104
St. Mary'sWCC
4,401,818
 
DePaul has over 20,000 students. Not sure if taht is big or small.
Didn’t realize that. Why can’t DePaul compete? In chicago. Plenty of local talent. If you have the student population it should help. What’s the biggest issue for DePaul basketball?
 
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Didn’t realize that. Why can’t DePaul compete? In chicago. Plenty of local talent. If you have the student population it should help. What’s the biggest issue for DePaul basketball?


Their brand. It use to be huge in Midwest basketball and now it's an after thought. Plus, everyone steals out of Chicago and have for awhile now. To the point that it's even hurting the Big 10.
 
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Jeff Goodman looks like the white guy in my avatar
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