For Funsies: Conference Reallignment/Creation

rambunctiousrowdyram said:
Who created this must be a Fordham fan. No way they should be in a better conference. Rhode island could join or Murray St.
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If Fordham had decent leadership that actually gave a crap about basketball, they would have decent potential given their location. I think that was the reasoning behind putting them in this "conference".
 
SteveMM said:
If I was in charge, I'd take the top 7 A10 teams, which are below:

VCU
Dayton
SLU
SBU
Davidson
Rhode Island
UR (barely makes the cut, primarily because they do invest a lot of money in their program)

I would then cut the remaining members of the conference. I would then search for basketball-only programs that are better than the ones I cut. Ideally, Wichita State would be my first choice, but for this mental game the rules say I can't include them. In that case, I'd look at the following teams to add:

College of Charleston
Loyola-Chicago
Drake
Winthrop

Those four teams would almost certainly join our newly-formed A10. Of the 12 teams, 8 would be on the east coast, but all would be in the eastern half of the country.
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Might add a Buffalo and Akron to this mix. Also like the East Coast -- West Coast division ideas. I think there is a possibility of some outliers, I like Appy State, though they do football too, they seem to be on the rise in all sports, maybe Elon. UNC Wilmington still has a lot of potential. Still thinking about a final proposal.
 
BradRamFan said:
ODU and Marshall have football......and Marshall cares for football much more than basketball. ODU and Marshall in a weak azz conference. ODU basketball sucks and fur has Mooney. That has single bid, 16 seed autobid only written all over it. WTF!
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NOOOOOO NOT THE F WORD NOBODY IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD CAN HAVE FOOTBALL AND STILL BE GOOD AS BASKETBALL.

Maybe spend a few minutes actually thinking instead of relying on dime-store stereotypes. Marshall has had good basketball the past few years and well supported basketball at that. ODU was in the tournament two years ago. Richmond isn't obligated to have Mooney for all eternity. If you look at that conference and think 16-seed autobid, then I honest to goodness have no idea what to tell you other than I have absolutely no faith in your ability to tell good basketball from bad.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
If Fordham had decent leadership that actually gave a crap about basketball, they would have decent potential given their location. I think that was the reasoning behind putting them in this "conference".
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Perhaps, but at the same time, NYC is home to a bunch of D1s and the only one of any consequence is St. John's, and they haven't been to the round of 32 since 2000. I think the A10 wanted to be in the NYC market and that was their best shot, but I think expecting Fordham, or really anyone, to ride being in one of the boroughs into the upper or even middle reaches of basketball is a reach, because nobody's doing it right now.
 
WillWeaverRVA said:
The more of these scenarios I read, the more I think about the “PacLantic 13” proposal from a few weeks ago:

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I think the only way a coast-to-coast conference works is if it's a superconference at the tippy top of the college food chain, with the very best programs in the country involved. And it'd have to be a single-sport conference (which means the NCAA rules would have to be changed rather dramatically to make it work) since a superconference in football and a superconference in basketball will have markedly different makeups.

I can't imagine Gonzaga and Boise State wanting to play at Fordham and Bona, or vice versa, or either of them going to flyover country on the regular. Especially since you're not just sending your men's basketball teams on those trips.
 
Cyniclone said:
Perhaps, but at the same time, NYC is home to a bunch of D1s and the only one of any consequence is St. John's, and they haven't been to the round of 32 since 2000. I think the A10 wanted to be in the NYC market and that was their best shot, but I think expecting Fordham, or really anyone, to ride being in one of the boroughs into the upper or even middle reaches of basketball is a reach, because nobody's doing it right now.
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I think the location and strong academics could be a draw with the right infrastructure. OTOH, most of the best players in NYC want to get out of NYC, and yes, I'm including the Knicks.
 
mrgeode said:
I think the location and strong academics could be a draw with the right infrastructure. OTOH, most of the best players in NYC want to get out of NYC, and yes, I'm including the Knicks.
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I think they can be a draw for a Patriot League school, and in terms of athletics and academics, that's probably where Fordham should be (and in fact already is in football). But here's who plays in NYC: St. John's, Fordham, Manhattan, LIU Brooklyn, Iona, Columbia, Wagner, St. Francis and, if we want to include Long Island, then Hofstra and Stony Brook. That's an awful lot of mediocrity, and the thing is, they're almost always mediocre. I already covered SJU and we all know about Fordham, but the rest are generally average to poor programs that occasionally get a low seed in the NCAAs after winning their low-major conference. If there's an advantage to being in NYC, nobody's really doing much with it. Maybe if NYU and CCNY get back to Division 1?
 
Okay I'll give it a try. New conference! Trying to remain regionally based.

VCU, SBU, SLU, UR, Davidson, Dayton, URI, (best of A10)

Toledo, Buffalo, Akron, Ohio U. (best of MAC)

Wright St., Furman, Winthrop, Belmont (best of the rest)

Outliers: Loyola Chicago, Drake (maybe worth it to go further west to get them, SLU needs company?), Wofford, UNC Greenboro (maybe not quite good enough), Navy, Army (not sure of the fit, not consistently good)

As to the Fordham question, I considered Iona, Wagner and Hofstra before Fordham, if you're looking for and NYC presence.
 
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bighornn said:
Bingo, Havoc City .... VCU can play with ANYONE (on the right night) .... but can it withstand a steady diet of programs with equal or greater resources?
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Playing good teams every night would definitely be a challenge, but it’s a necessary challenge if we want to build a top 25 program.
 
Since we’re doing dreams, I’ll post mine. But these kind of things are dreams. Conference affiliation changes happen in small steps, not all at once.

East Division:
Davidson
Rhode Island
Temple
VCU

Midwest Division:
Cincinnati
Dayton
Memphis
Wichita State

South Division:
Houston
SMU
UCF
USF

West Division:
BYU/UNLV
Gonzaga
San Diego State
Saint Mary’s

Scheduling would be a round-robin in your division and one game against each of the other 12 teams for an 18 game schedule. If it was desired to have 20 games (which I would prefer), then each program could have two permanent rivals from outside their division that they played twice each year. VCU’s two rivals could be Dayton and Davidson. Travel expenses could be limited by having two game road trips where, for example, an east coast team played both of its west coast away games in one 3-4 day trip and both of its Texas or Florida games in another road trip.
 
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I don't get how NYC and Boston have such crappie bball programs. Neither of those two cities have a perennial strong team Philly has Villanova and DC has ....well Georgetown (they haven't been strong lately but likely will in the future) and Maryland. But I guess Atlanta doesn't have any strong teams and Tampa/St Pete has USF but they aren't/haven't been strong for a long time. Miami has Miami.
Kind of interesting that many of the strong programs (including ours) are located in more regional type or even local cities
 
BradRamFan said:
I don't get how NYC and Boston have such crappie bball programs. Neither of those two cities have a perennial strong team Philly has Villanova and DC has ....well Georgetown (they haven't been strong lately but likely will in the future) and Maryland. But I guess Atlanta doesn't have any strong teams and Tampa/St Pete has USF but they aren't/haven't been strong for a long time. Miami has Miami.
Kind of interesting that many of the strong programs (including ours) are located in more regional type or even local cities
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It’s expensive to build good facilities in big cities.

Also, being in a power conference is more important than being in a big city. And power conferences are driven by football.
 
Ramlove81 said:
Okay I'll give it a try. New conference! Trying to remain regionally based.

VCU, SBU, SLU, UR, Davidson, Dayton, URI, (best of A10)

Toledo, Buffalo, Akron, Ohio U. (best of MAC)

Wright St., Furman, Winthrop, Belmont (best of the rest)

Outliers: Loyola Chicago, Drake (maybe worth it to go further west to get them, SLU needs company?), Wofford, UNC Greenboro (maybe not quite good enough), Navy, Army (not sure of the fit, not consistently good)

As to the Fordham question, I considered Iona, Wagner and Hofstra before Fordham, if you're looking for and NYC presence.
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Bring back former NCAA/NIT champion City College of New York ... folks have forgotten the point shaving after all these decades. Remember, CCNY played in VCU tournament during Noe era, with Floyd "Shaver" Layne coaching the Noo Yawkuhs.
 
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