For Funsies: Conference Reallignment/Creation

Finance Ram 10 said:
Are you sure they're actually played on separate places? Most that play in the same stadium do have total capacity differences because hockey rinks are bigger than basketball courts, so lots of seats are added when switching over between hockey and basketball. Working as the Risk Manager at a University here in Denver that had both it's actually a pretty crazy process switching them over. Takes about 6-8 hrs best case for most Universities, although the Pepsi Center had a record changeover at the time of switching it from hockey to basketball in just over an hr.
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Notre Dame has a similar setup. The hockey arena and basketball arena are separate, but in the same building. They call it the "Bra".
 
Finance Ram 10 said:
Are you sure they're actually played on separate places? Most that play in the same stadium do have total capacity differences because hockey rinks are bigger than basketball courts, so lots of seats are added when switching over between hockey and basketball. Working as the Risk Manager at a University here in Denver that had both it's actually a pretty crazy process switching them over. Takes about 6-8 hrs best case for most Universities, although the Pepsi Center had a record changeover at the time of switching it from hockey to basketball in just over an hr.
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YES - you can see the two SEPARATE arena spaces in the above photo.

I live in New England. I am quite familiar with dual purpose arenas that use the same interior space for both basketball and hockey. The Mullins Center at UMass and Conte Forum at BC are such college venues as there is ice under the court and the interior is reconfigured for each sport. Arenas at Boston Univ, UMass-Lowell, and UNH have this same capability but they rarely host basketball games as their attendance for hoops is small compared to hockey. Nearly all large non campus private arenas in New England also have the one space dual capability (Boston/Providence/Hartford/Bridgeport/Worcester/Springfield/Manchester/Portland).


en.wikipedia.org

M&T Bank Arena - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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WillWeaverRVA said:
Yeah, Olean is only about 60 miles from Buffalo and about 85 miles from Rochester. It's not really that out of the way.
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That's too far to travel from either in the dead of a NY winter for a casual bball fan to see mediocre mid major basketball
 
rambunctiousrowdyram said:
They can say that all they want. Fox has the last say. They have less power than they think. Plus if the P5 come sniffing around they are open season too.
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The Big East (most of the schools anyhow) could be a bit insulated from the P5 feeding frenzy due to lack of football. It’s the same reason that VCU hasn’t been sniffed at.
 
SteveMM said:
Or, it could be that Ed reached out and we’re one of those schools that didn’t check the boxes.
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We probably did and we probably are included in that statement. But that's because the BE president's are too picky and place value in things that aren't valuable like round robin.
 
SteveMM said:
The Big East (most of the schools anyhow) could be a bit insulated from the P5 feeding frenzy due to lack of football. It’s the same reason that VCU hasn’t been sniffed at.
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They can think that but no one is off limits. If BE doesn’t get a good new contract teams like UConn and such are open season. Take UConn among others away how good is the conference really?
 
So like many of you, I listened to Val's comments, which make it sound pretty clear that the Big East is not considering VCU, Dayton or SLU anytime soon. Now Fox may step in and make them consider, but either way, there's always a good chance there VCU gets the short straw regardless. Also sounds like they aren't interested in Gonzaga because of distance, SSOOOOOO.... brings me back to my multi-divisional conference idea that someone needs to start.

With that idea, you create a nationwide conference, but break it into three divisions like a pro league. For olympic sports you predominantly just play within your division, with the occasional trip to the other nearest division and the rare trip to the far division for marquee matchups. For hoops you do a lot of the same, but more interdivisional matchups to highlight your league/top teams. I like an 18-team conference because if gives you three 6-team divisions, but also because even the major leagues are going large like that. More teams equals more interest overall too. I don't really watch Gonzaga now and definitely don't watch the likes of San Francisco, the Valley teams, etc...but put em in this new conference and I am tuned in (same as I am currently with Duquesne, Fordham, etc...even though they usually suck).

The teams/divisions I think are the most interesting based on overall program strength/history/fan support and also a bit of geography thrown in as well...

East (2023-2024 hoops attendance)
VCU (7200)
St. Joe’s (2254)
George Mason (3921)
Rhode Island (4236)
Davidson (2941)
Richmond (5833)

Midwest
SLU (5014)
Loyola Chicago (3099)
Wichita State (5982)
Dayton (13,407)

Two of the following
Murray State (5218)
Southern Illinois (5034)
Indiana State (3839)
Bradley (4946)
(which two would you choose? I lean some combo of Bradley, Southern Illinois and Murray State...also considered Belmont because of Nashville, but it's a tiiiiiny school with minimal fan support)

West
Gonzaga (6401)
St. Mary’s (3347)
San Francisco (2155)
Santa Clara (2019)
San Diego (1017) (swap out?)
Grand Canyon (5605)

The goal with these teams obviously is avoiding football schools (so no Mountain West teams, etc). Just think a conference with VCU, Dayton, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State (if they get good again) and on down the line would be SUPER interesting. All schools involved would immediately be in better conferences than they are in and I just think it could be a ton of fun. Also basically the A-10 teams I say peace too are GW (love the city, but no support), Bona (love the program, but terrible location), La Salle (the lesser of two Philly schools), Duquesne (just no support, although a solid city) and obviously UMass has gone the football route to the MAC. Picking the West Division teams gets tricky after St. Mary's really, although San Francisco is an obvious one for me because of the city, but also their history (back-to-back titles with Bill Russell) and they've been solid. I throw in San Diego because that town is awesome, but could just as easily lean Pepperdine because Malibu is incredible. I add Grand Canyon because technically the enrollment is like 100k and they have a great environment at the games).
 
Natty said:
So like many of you, I listened to Val's comments, which make it sound pretty clear that the Big East is not considering VCU, Dayton or SLU anytime soon. Now Fox may step in and make them consider, but either way, there's always a good chance there VCU gets the short straw regardless. Also sounds like they aren't interested in Gonzaga because of distance, SSOOOOOO.... brings me back to my multi-divisional conference idea that someone needs to start.

With that idea, you create a nationwide conference, but break it into three divisions like a pro league. For olympic sports you predominantly just play within your division, with the occasional trip to the other nearest division and the rare trip to the far division for marquee matchups. For hoops you do a lot of the same, but more interdivisional matchups to highlight your league/top teams. I like an 18-team conference because if gives you three 6-team divisions, but also because even the major leagues are going large like that. More teams equals more interest overall too. I don't really watch Gonzaga now and definitely don't watch the likes of San Francisco, the Valley teams, etc...but put em in this new conference and I am tuned in (same as I am currently with Duquesne, Fordham, etc...even though they usually suck).

The teams/divisions I think are the most interesting based on overall program strength/history/fan support and also a bit of geography thrown in as well...

East (2023-2024 hoops attendance)
VCU (7200)
St. Joe’s (2254)
George Mason (3921)
Rhode Island (4236)
Davidson (2941)
Richmond (5833)

Midwest
SLU (5014)
Loyola Chicago (3099)
Wichita State (5982)
Dayton (13,407)

Two of the following
Murray State (5218)
Southern Illinois (5034)
Indiana State (3839)
Bradley (4946)
(which two would you choose? I lean some combo of Bradley, Southern Illinois and Murray State...also considered Belmont because of Nashville, but it's a tiiiiiny school with minimal fan support)

West
Gonzaga (6401)
St. Mary’s (3347)
San Francisco (2155)
Santa Clara (2019)
San Diego (1017) (swap out?)
Grand Canyon (5605)

The goal with these teams obviously is avoiding football schools (so no Mountain West teams, etc). Just think a conference with VCU, Dayton, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State (if they get good again) and on down the line would be SUPER interesting. All schools involved would immediately be in better conferences than they are in and I just think it could be a ton of fun. Also basically the A-10 teams I say peace too are GW (love the city, but no support), Bona (love the program, but terrible location), La Salle (the lesser of two Philly schools), Duquesne (just no support, although a solid city) and obviously UMass has gone the football route to the MAC. Picking the West Division teams gets tricky after St. Mary's really, although San Francisco is an obvious one for me because of the city, but also their history (back-to-back titles with Bill Russell) and they've been solid. I throw in San Diego because that town is awesome, but could just as easily lean Pepperdine because Malibu is incredible. I add Grand Canyon because technically the enrollment is like 100k and they have a great environment at the games).
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Sounds like a mess. I'd rather be in the future 14 team A-10.
 
Natty said:
Two of the following
Murray State (5218)
Southern Illinois (5034)
Indiana State (3839)
Bradley (4946)
(which two would you choose? I lean some combo of Bradley, Southern Illinois and Murray State...also considered Belmont because of Nashville, but it's a tiiiiiny school with minimal fan support)
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I'd probably lean toward Bradley and Indiana State in this scenario. SIU just made the questionable decision of firing their coach despite major improvement in the past couple of seasons and looks to be headed toward more instability. Steve Prohm's second stint at Murray State is nowhere near as successful as the first.

Bradley has been at least decent for quite some time and they're #59 in the NET this year. Indiana State has historical significance (Larry Bird and the undefeated regular season, etc), although I worry their coach is going to get poached after this season.

It's a darn shame that Belmont doesn't have more support than it does. It's in a sizeable media market and they've been quite good for a while (20+ wins in 18 of their last 19 seasons and 9 of those had 25+ wins, under two different coaches). I've wanted them in the A-10 for quite a long time.
 
"There aren't any that checked all the boxes we want checked" =/= "There aren't any that checked enough boxes"

No spokesperson is going to say anything is happening until it's definitely happening. So we can conclude from the interview that nothing is currently happening. Film at 11.
 
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