SLU to MVC

[ceaser150]

I don't see SLU joining without someone else going, and no one is going anytime soon that I can tell.

My expectation is that we will see a collapse of the Big East and A-10 conferences with Notre Dame taking their BcS Football money and keeping it to themselves by forming a conference of non-BcS schools. You could see the likes of Georgetown, Dayton, Xavier, St. Joes, SLU, Marquette, DePaul...
All private schools with no football or non-scholarship FCS level teams but pretty sound basketball programs. The NCAA would be pressured to waive their waiting period for a conference to earn an automatic bid, the Big East would still have its football schools, the A-10 would be back to an East Coast conference.
Just a thought.

This makes sense, but why didn't this happen when the C-USA fell apart?

[UNI MadCat]

There has been talk lately that the league coaches are pushing for a 16, rather then 18 game, league schedule.

That would mean one home only series a year, and one road only series per year. Add one or two additional teams, and you have a considerably less balanced schedule.

Ouch. I think that would suck. In the end I think it could devalue the league. Maybe I'm wrong.

I look at Louisville playing WVU today in the BEast (I think they have 73 teams now) for the first time. That's just ridiculous.

[Newsbreaker]

Before long the first round of the Big East Tournament is going to take 2 1/2 months to complete.

[FerociousCat]

The Indiana schools only bring 20 fans to St Louis! KC would be close to WSU, MSU, DU, CU, UNI, probably not too bad for SIU.
Chicago is 700 miles from Wichita, so I doubt that is happening. I could see it in Des Moines rather than Iowa City, and even that is a stretch. People complained that St Louis wasn't prepared for the amount of people the tourney brought, what would Iowa City be like? Sure it can withstand 70000 on a football Saturday, but 4 days?

[joecooll6]

Before long the first round of the Big East Tournament is going to take 2 1/2 months to complete.

OK, gotta adimit, that was funny News.

Just say NO to SLU!

[panther2317]

If the Big East added 1 more team, they could just play each other once for their 16-game regular season. Then 5 teams could NOT make the conference tournament every year.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Panther 2317-

Or the Big East could just split their tourney to the "NCAA division" and "NIT division". That way, the winner of the NCAA division could get the auto bid to the NCAA's and the winner of the NIT division could get the auto bid to the NIT.

SLU averages around 9-10K for attendance. They used to rank in the top 20 when Larry Hughes and Spoonhour were at SLU. My guess is that those numbers could improve with attractive regional matchups...but let's be serious, I think the closest A-10 team is Dayton...two states away.

News-
Where did you hear about the 18 to 16 game schedule? I thought I saw something in the Register about it a week or so ago, but it was basically a mention that Merfeld said he would like to see that, b/c the league is so strong, and it would add more non-con games. Was it just him, or were there more?

[Newsbreaker]

I read it somewhere else as well, but I can't recall exactly where.

[panther2317]

I think Marc Morehouse from the Gazette had some quotes from Valley coaches lsat week on Thursday and Merfeld was for it and Altman was against it. I like the 18-game round-robin schedule. It gives the Valley a true conference champion.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Thanks guys!

[GonzoCat]

Look at Iowa, Purdue, and Illinois in the B10 tourney. All three tied for 4-6 place in the conference. All 3 won their home games and lost on the road against each other. Iowa got the 4 seed because they played 2 games at home and 1 on the road. Illinois played 2 on the road and 1 at home. Purdue played 1 of each. Head to head is a poor tie breaker when you don't play round robin. Luck of the scheduling determined the seeds.