Candidates?

[TheHall]

I would take Kansas now I don't count that as a football school. They pay students to go to the games is there any other school that does that? if the Big 12 falls apart take Kansas why not we would then have one of the elite historical Basketball schools. Kansas would ensure us a top basketball conference status no one could over look us. While I don't see it happening I certainly wouldn't be opposed.

Kansas would be a good add. If we were going to 14, also Indiana, UNC and Duke.

If by some chance those 4 were not interested in the Big East, we could fall back on an invite to UConn.

Hahahaha!

[Bill Marsh]

On paper, the idea of Gonzaga and BYU sounds great.

Unfortunately I think there are too many problems to overcome. I know many east coasters think Omaha is "west", but consider that it is only about half way to those schools. On top of that, they are two time zones away from Omaha/Milwaukee/Chicago and three time zones away from everybody else. That makes midweek game start times a little difficult. Are you really interested in watching games that don't start until 10:00 or 11:00pm on the east coast? Is the rest of the nation really going to stay up and watch those games? Would FS1 want to forgo airing its nightly recap show/Sportscenter-type show on each one of those nights?

There is one other issue with BYU that had a role in keeping them from joining the oBE -- they won't play any game in any sport on Sundays. Looking at the basketball schedule (lots and lots of Sunday games) and even the VB schedule (where Creighton home games were moved to Sundays in some cases to give the east coast teams an extra day to travel), and I think the "no Sundays" thing may not be workable. Don't get me wrong - I'd love BYU as they present a loyal, national fanbase that will show up at any venue. I also kind of like the whole "religious, but not just catholic" angle that adding BYU would provide. Unfortunately I just don't see them being workable, although this is the one school with football where football isn't a problem. (Notre Dame doesn't count as they have made it clear they want a tie to one of the BCS leagues for the bowl tie-ins.)

SLU is still the leading candidate in my eyes because of the St Louis media market. You would suspect that FS1 would covet that greatly. St Louis is also a pretty fertile recruiting ground for basketball talent in the midwest. And yes, they present one of the best soccer programs in the country.

I don't think that any of these problems are insurmountable. Certainly not the Sunday issue. We don't play the BE Tourney on a Sunday and there are no other games that have to be played on Sundays.

The distance sounds like a lot, but worse distances are already being done routinely by Hawaii for every away game for every team. UT-Pan American flies to Seattle in the WAC, a similar distance as Spokane to NYC. ODU makes long flights to El Paso in CUSA. Modern airliners fly at speeds approaching 600 mph. Distance isn't the issue it used to be as long as you have the money to pay the costs. At least the Big East doesn't have the expense of flying football teams plus a band.

Think about it. Schools have been taking horrendous bus trips for generations sometimes of 8-10 hours and during basketball season often in awful weather. Think of bus trips from NYC to Buffal and Niagara in the MAAC, or from Philly and Princeton to Hanover, NH in the Ivy League, Or from Storrs, CT and South Kingstown, RI to Orono, ME and Burlington, VT in the old Yankee Conference. Now think of those same trips in the days before superhighways. NYC to Spokane is less than 5 hours and planes can fly over bad weather. Modern transportation makes these trips completely different.

Game times are also a very solvable problem. Hardly an insurmountable issue. Lookup at the upside. The BE would be bringing in the team that was #1 in the country going into the tournament last year, has been to 15 straight tournaments, and is a household name in college basketball. With BYU, they'd be bringing in a team that sells out a 16,000 seat arena every home game, a team that is a consistent winner, and a team that will give a major boost to TV ratings. That's an enormous up side. There is no combination of any other 2 teams available that offers anywhere close to the benefits that can be had from this pair. Frankly I don't see how the Big East can pass up such an opportunity. Nor do I see how Fox would let them.