Report Cincinnati and UCon want to form a new league

[macphisto]

I only wanted the championship game to be in StL for selfish reasons as that's where I live. Realistically, you'd still want to have it on a campus site. The BBall tourney could be Arch Madness, although the MVC already has claim to that.

St. Louis makes sense, with its central location and the interesting blend of its sports culture. I think it is actually a good city for basketball.

I agree. I think KC is actually closer to the geographic center of the lower 48, but St. Louis is close enough to that and does have a more interesting blend. The basketball tournament would be great to have there. I do love that suggested name too - "Arch Madness", though the Missouri Valley Conference uses that name and plays in St. Louis. That's why I think we could only have our football championship game there or at Arrowhead in KC. I wonder if we could actually hold the championship game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis instead of in the Dome? Probably could seat around 35,000 or so for a game and that might be best, at least to start.

Or you could alternate. One year in the east and one in the west. Same for the basketball tournament. Could even just have two set cities that are not cities where the schools play.

Part of me thinks that it might be better to make this games TV events and more exclusive by playing them in smaller stadiums, like the Jeld-Wen soccer stadium in Portland, OR. Might be better to find a slightly bigger stadium, but if you can fill up a 22.000 seat stadium in Portland versus having a big stadium more than half empty, that works better for a championship game.

Part of me says that a new conference alternate the basketball tourney and football championship game between Salt Lake City and Philly. The years that the basketball tourney is in Philly, the football championship is in Salt Lake City. You play in the soccer stadiums to start and, if popularity grows, you move to the big stadium in Philly and move out of Salt Lake to Denver.

With basketball, you also play regional. Two games against everyone in your division (total of 10) and then eight games against the other division, meaning only four games per season are scheduled on the other side of the country.

Same goes for football with eight games. Five games against your division opponents and three against the other division, so you play half of the other division every year. One year you will play two home games against those other division teams and the next you play one, minimizing the cross country travel.

[Doc]

I'm not sure if new Busch could hold a FBall field. It has similar dimensions to old Busch, but there they used to slide the seats apart to make room for the endzone in centerfield. Would still much prefer that idea over the Edward Jones Dome, which just feels like a big, sterile, airplane hangar. As an overall "sports town," StL is a bit over-rated. They love their baseball, and hockey gets good support too. But football is all bandwagon (Rams likely gone soon after they already kicked out my Cardinals). And for college hoops, good luck finding a sportsbar that carries the FullCourt package - I've been struggling for years!

As for the MVC's Arch Madness, it does get good buzz, and much of the interest is generated by the traveling fans that overrun the city as many of the schools are nearby. ScottTrade is a 20K seat arena with a hockey rink configuration, nothing special but adequate. Arch Madness usually ends just before the BE tourney starts, and so there would be time to hold two tournaments here. Chaifetz Arena, where the Billikens now play, is a sparkling new gym which feels a lot lke the SunDome in that you're right on top of the action. Although at only about 10K capacity, probably too small for a tourney.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Doc

[Doc]

As for KC, I know they have a bigtime BBall arena downtown to lure an NBA team. I think they host the B12 tourney, at least on some years. I'm not a big fan of going to KC for much of anything, and Arrowhead is one of only two NFL venues where I was physically threatened by opposing fans (Tampa was the other). Saw my Cardinals in 23 NFL cities (yes, including Philly), and never had a problem anywhere else!

[WoolyBully]

[SRQ]

KC has great BBQ

[macphisto]

As for KC, I know they have a bigtime BBall arena downtown to lure an NBA team. I think they host the B12 tourney, at least on some years. I'm not a big fan of going to KC for much of anything, and Arrowhead is one of only two NFL venues where I was physically threatened by opposing fans (Tampa was the other). Saw my Cardinals in 23 NFL cities (yes, including Philly), and never had a problem anywhere else!

I wasn't threatened here in Tampa, but I'm originally from Cleveland and still am loyal to all those teams. Once when the Browns were down, I wore a jersey to the stadium with a green USF hat. I got screamed at by several fans because they thought that I was not only rooting for the opposing team, but that I was wearing a Packers hat. Was not a fun experience.

Thinking about it, it really would be best to have the conference championship in the stadium of one of the teams playing. Just alternate that each year, east and west. So if we would win in an eastern year, RayJay would host. Might have to do some clearance, though, for NFL stadiums in years for that division.

Might not be a bad idea to rotate the basketball tourney between Denver and Nashville.

[Triple B]

I'm all for it. The new Big East is a ****** joke. A new league with no Tulane, no ECU.

Why no ECU? They have won CUSA championships, which USF hasn't. You want teams on the rise that win games in your conference, right? If USF is going into a new conference, let the football played be good. Worrying about markets and TV money is why the Big East is in its current situation.

Who in their right mind wouldn't want a road trip to Tulane? .... and what have we ever done to get this freaking elitist type attitude??

[inTransit]

I'm all for it. The new Big East is a ****** joke. A new league with no Tulane, no ECU.

Why no ECU? They have won CUSA championships, which USF hasn't. You want teams on the rise that win games in your conference, right? If USF is going into a new conference, let the football played be good. Worrying about markets and TV money is why the Big East is in its current situation.

I think most people on this board don't like ECU and UCF (obvious) and would rather see them a rung below us rather than on par.

Those two programs have also suffered from a lack of signature wins that could elevate their stature in public opinion. I went back 8 years and it looks like in 07/08 ECU beat Va Tech and WVU back to back to start the season but aside from that they lose (quite often badly) against the bigger mid-atlantic programs when they play. What they've done in conference is great and their fans rightfully can be proud of that. But beating the CUSA teams they are supposed to doesn't seem to translate into much respect for them.

[Who'sYourData?]

I'm all for it. The new Big East is a ****** joke. A new league with no Tulane, no ECU.

Why no ECU? They have won CUSA championships, which USF hasn't. You want teams on the rise that win games in your conference, right? If USF is going into a new conference, let the football played be good. Worrying about markets and TV money is why the Big East is in its current situation.

Who in their right mind wouldn't want a road trip to Tulane? .... and what have we ever done to get this freaking elitist type attitude??

Why shouldn't we have an elitest attitude? We been playing big time football over 100 years and have 14 national titles!

Oh, wait, that is Alambama. I always get the two schools mixed up.

[BroBeans]

I'd appreciate some trips to Tulane so I can walk on over and see my Bulls.

Kthxbye.