Why Not 14?

[Savannah Jay]

I have a feeling they'll do ok. ABC picked it up.

ABC had it last year too. 3.4M viewers vs SEC 13.4M. That's only a 10,000,000 viewer difference but understand that may be "okay" by AAC standards. ABC needs to air something between the Big 12 and ACC. Notice none of the major conferences or networks want to compete with the SEC title game.

Looks like ESPN/ABC was happy with the rating yesterday vs the SEC.

Bless your heart. So the AAC championship game was the "highest rated in AAC championship history!" Is that saying much? They are comparing their game to themselves, not the SEC or any other league.

Meanwhile, the SEC championship game had the highest rating of any regular season college football game in 7 years. It will, once again, be the highest rated conference championship game since 2007. When the final numbers are released, we will learn that it (again) had 4 times as many viewers as the AAC game.

ADmin: feel free to move this stupid shit or delete it altogether.

[scoscox]

Yesterday, SLU had an attendance of 9,572 against their game against the Bulldogs. This was their highest attendance game since 2015 when they faced #16 VCU.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for their addition. Chaiffetz holds 10600

9,572 is higher than the average attendance last year at Butler, DePaul, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall and St. Johns. With a Big East schedule, they would be in the top half of the league in attendance, thus bumping up our league average.

Fair point I guess but this is only the second time in 4 years they’ve done this. Have they ever even had a sellout? This is the highest attended game in 4 years and there are still 1000 empty seats

[prebilliken]

Yesterday, SLU had an attendance of 9,572 against their game against the Bulldogs. This was their highest attendance game since 2015 when they faced #16 VCU.

The Bills have not been good since rebuilding after firing Crews, thus, the down attendance numbers. During the 2012-14 run they ranked 66th, 64th, and 54th in the Nation in attendance. And yes, SLU has packed the joint out many a time:
1. 10,639 vs. VCU 2/15/14

2. 10,623 vs. George Washington 2/22/14

3. 10,612 vs. Butler 1/31/13

4. 10,603 vs. Dayton 2/21/09

5. 10,441 vs. Xavier 2/28/12

6. 10,414 vs. Dayton 2/4/12

7. 10,395 vs. Dayton 3/5/14

8. 10,272 vs. La Salle 3/9/13

9. 10,245 vs. Duquesne 2/27/14

10. 10,052 vs. Charlotte 2/16/13

If SLU is in the Big East, attendance will not be an issue.

[Xudash]

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for their addition. Chaiffetz holds 10600

You need to recall that SLU under Spoonhour (sp) in the days when I believe they were a member of the Great Midwest with UL and UC, etc. used to play in an NBA-level arena and their attendance numbers reached into the 17k area.

Will SLU thrive in the event it gets a truly good coach and its act together? I would think the answer is pretty clear. They practically copied the Cintas Center for their on campus place. We know they're capable of making the capital commitment to fully dive in.

Those days in the A10 with SLU and Majerus were good times. SLU can certainly put it together again in a bigger way in the BE.

The question is WHEN, assuming it becomes necessary at all. I agree with Gumby that SLU will have to get itself on some kind of track where it can demonstrate that its inclusion becomes viable. I doubt that Fox would normalize our existing agreement for the existing 10 if SLU were brought in right now.

[scoscox]

Sounds like they have good support and my assumptions were wrong. I’d still like to see them put together some extended success.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Fair point I guess but this is only the second time in 4 years they’ve done this. Have they ever even had a sellout? This is the highest attended game in 4 years and there are still 1000 empty seats

Well, Marquette *only* had over 15k on Saturday when we beat #12 Kansas State (it seats 17,500). Seton Hall averages about 1k empty seats per game over the course of an entire season. DePaul averages 5k empty seats. Georgetown can average 10k empty seats, depending on the opponent.

9,500 people at a non-conference game against an unranked opponent is impressive to say the least. Imagine if they had top programs like Villanova, St. Johns, Marquette, Creighton, et al on their conference schedule. They would definitely be getting a strong number of 10k games.

That also does not speak to the recruiting bump they would receive being in a power conference, nor does it take into account the St. Louis media market we would suddenly have direct access to (a big sports city without an NBA or NFL franchise).

[adoraz]

Anyone think the Creighton vs Gonzaga game (on Fox) was a test to see how Gonzaga would do ratings wise for the Big East/Fox? I wonder how the game did. Fox seems to be getting a lot of nice BE games OOC. They gotta be happy with our scheduling (including the upcoming Big XII series).

Well, Marquette *only* had over 15k on Saturday when we beat #12 Kansas State (it seats 17,500). Seton Hall averages about 1k empty seats per game over the course of an entire season. DePaul averages 5k empty seats. Georgetown can average 10k empty seats, depending on the opponent.

9,500 people at a non-conference game against an unranked opponent is impressive to say the least. Imagine if they had top programs like Villanova, St. Johns, Marquette, Creighton, et al on their conference schedule. They would definitely be getting a strong number of 10k games.

That also does not speak to the recruiting bump they would receive being in a power conference, nor does it take into account the St. Louis media market we would suddenly have direct access to (a big sports city without an NBA or NFL franchise).

While home attendance is important, I honestly doubt they'd really help with attendance much outside of their own region. That I believe is a lot more important than home attendance.

Creighton fans for example we knew traveled well. We knew they'd contribute to MSG ticket sales despite being across the country.

Of the current expansion candidates, obviously UConn would be the best for attendance. I'm not talking so much about home attendance, but rather for their away games vs Providence, SJU (at MSG), Georgetown, Nova, Hall, the Big East Tournament, etc. Pretty much with everything, they'd help attendance.

Of the more realistic candidates, VCU and Dayton both travel very well. They would at least help attendance for MSG Tournament games.

St. Louis though? Would they travel? Would opposing fan bases show up to watch them? Would a national audience watch their TV games? I feel St. Louis away games (and home games for all of us) would compete with DePaul for lowest attended.

From SJU's perspective, St. Louis would never get an MSG game from us (barring a massive change in on court success). VCU might, Gonzaga might, UConn definitely would. I'm sure most BE schools would feel the same way scheduling them.

[prebilliken]

St. Louis though? Would they travel? Would opposing fan bases show up to watch them? Would a national audience watch their TV games? I feel St. Louis away games (and home games for all of us) would compete with DePaul for lowest attended.

From SJU's perspective, St. Louis would never get an MSG game from us (barring a massive change in on court success). VCU might, Gonzaga might, UConn definitely would. I'm sure most BE schools would feel the same way scheduling them.

Saint Louis' largest alumni bases (outside of St. Louis) are in Chicago and NYC, they run massive alumni chapters in those cities that host multiple well-attended non-sports related events, so game attendance at DePaul, SJU, and MSG games would not be an issue without even having any traveling fans coming into the city. The school is a huge feeder from Cincy, Milwaukee, and Omaha so you'd have a lot of visiting fans at those games as well.

[adoraz]

St. Louis though? Would they travel? Would opposing fan bases show up to watch them? Would a national audience watch their TV games? I feel St. Louis away games (and home games for all of us) would compete with DePaul for lowest attended.

From SJU's perspective, St. Louis would never get an MSG game from us (barring a massive change in on court success). VCU might, Gonzaga might, UConn definitely would. I'm sure most BE schools would feel the same way scheduling them.

Saint Louis' largest alumni bases (outside of St. Louis) are in Chicago and NYC, they run massive alumni chapters in those cities that host multiple well-attended non-sports related events, so game attendance at DePaul, SJU, and MSG games would not be an issue without even having any traveling fans coming into the city. The school is a huge feeder from Cincy, Milwaukee, and Omaha so you'd have a lot of visiting fans at those games as well.

Wouldn't that likely be true for most colleges though? Largest alumni bases outside their own cities being the biggest cities in the USA? I don't remember SJU playing SLU anytime recently, so I'm not certain that they'd put them in CA rather than MSG. But all the Midwest teams, even Marquette, currently play at CA rather than MSG. You may be right that they'd help with BET attendance, but again I'm not certain.

[paulxu]

I think there may be pressure soon on whether to follow the major conferences to a 20 game conference schedule.
We have the strong matches with Gavitt Games and new Big 12 deal to bolster OOC resumes; and exempt tournaments.

That makes adding one team to keep the round robin likely. I could see it being St Louis for the market, and East-West balance. Hopefully they continue to improve.