Ackerman: "Expansion isn't even on our plate"

[Bluejay]

I'm not sure why people are trying so hard to parse Ackerman's statement. It is pretty straight forward to me.

She doesn't even have an office yet. As Katz said, she needs to travel to each of the schools to meet with their athletic department personnel, check out their facilities, etc. She has to work on the basketball scheduling. She has to hire a freakin' staff. She's got way too much to do to even begin expansion and I suspect the same is true of most of the ADs in the league.

Honestly, about the only thing that would cause expansion to become a pressing topic is if Fox chooses to make it one.

I get why Dayton, SLU and Richmond fans are concerned. What I don't get is why some of our members are so concerned. At this point, I am not sure that any of the three main expansion candidates makes the league better right now, just bigger. As Katz alludes to and I've stated before, having a true round robin schedule becomes very satisfying once you've done it. It completely eliminates the unbalanced schedules and gives every team a chance to play every other team on their home floor. I think the biggest danger for the rumor expansion candidates is that the 10 team schedule is in place for a couple of years, the members all come to appreciate the fairness it presents and aren't as willing to add members and go back to unbalanced schedules. Creighton fans are the only member right now that have played in this sort of structure in the recent past, but I think many will come to appreciate it.

[BillEsq]

Katz is a tool. The PAC 12 was being killed in the RPI with a 10 team league. It was costing them tournament bids and seeding. The Big 12 out side of Kansas doesn't care about basketball. If you take the state of Kansas out of the picture the conference's RPI drops significantly. The league is run by Texas as its own personal football playground and I'm not even sure if most texas boosters/students even know Texas has a basketball team.

Did anyone expect that she would say anything different? Heck she just got hired. She's not going to say anything else other than its a great place and i can't wait to make it better. 10's great kiss some babies and go home. I swear i'm a huge proponent of 12 and if i was hired i wouldn't go straight to the media and say i was expanding day 1.

Also.... Of course the BE will say they aren't expanding. No conference says they are expanding. The BIG said they were done and then gobbled up Rutgers and Maryland. SEC was fine, happy and making schedules at 13. Then Missouri was taken. I'll argue that 12 is best till i'm blue in my face but parsing words to get any meaning out of realignment is useless. Even if she said there is 0% chance and over my dead body that we will expand, there is no guarantee. This is college sports what you said yesterday does not matter very much. you have but one certainty the Ivy League will remain at 8 teams. All other conferences are at the same time expanding and at risk of being poached equally.

[DumpsterFireA10]

Katz is a tool. The PAC 12 was being killed in the RPI with a 10 team league. It was costing them tournament bids and seeding. The Big 12 out side of Kansas doesn't care about basketball. If you take the state of Kansas out of the picture the conference's RPI drops significantly. The league is run by Texas as its own personal football playground and I'm not even sure if most texas boosters/students even know Texas has a basketball team.

Did anyone expect that she would say anything different? Heck she just got hired. She's not going to say anything else other than its a great place and i can't wait to make it better. 10's great kiss some babies and go home. I swear i'm a huge proponent of 12 and if i was hired i wouldn't go straight to the media and say i was expanding day 1.

Also.... Of course the BE will say they aren't expanding. No conference says they are expanding. The BIG said they were done and then gobbled up Rutgers and Maryland. SEC was fine, happy and making schedules at 13. Then Missouri was taken. I'll argue that 12 is best till i'm blue in my face but parsing words to get any meaning out of realignment is useless. Even if she said there is 0% chance and over my dead body that we will expand, there is no guarantee. This is college sports what you said yesterday does not matter very much. you have but one certainty the Ivy League will remain at 8 teams. All other conferences are at the same time expanding and at risk of being poached equally.

I'm not much of a Katz fan myself, but he's at least said the same thing over and over.

Do people believe Seton Hall and Depaul Administrations (12) or Andy Katz and the Commissioner (10)?

[Irishdawg]

I'm not sure why people are trying so hard to parse Ackerman's statement. It is pretty straight forward to me.

She doesn't even have an office yet. As Katz said, she needs to travel to each of the schools to meet with their athletic department personnel, check out their facilities, etc. She has to work on the basketball scheduling. She has to hire a freakin' staff. She's got way too much to do to even begin expansion and I suspect the same is true of most of the ADs in the league.

Honestly, about the only thing that would cause expansion to become a pressing topic is if Fox chooses to make it one.

I get why Dayton, SLU and Richmond fans are concerned. What I don't get is why some of our members are so concerned. At this point, I am not sure that any of the three main expansion candidates makes the league better right now, just bigger. As Katz alludes to and I've stated before, having a true round robin schedule becomes very satisfying once you've done it. It completely eliminates the unbalanced schedules and gives every team a chance to play every other team on their home floor. I think the biggest danger for the rumor expansion candidates is that the 10 team schedule is in place for a couple of years, the members all come to appreciate the fairness it presents and aren't as willing to add members and go back to unbalanced schedules. Creighton fans are the only member right now that have played in this sort of structure in the recent past, but I think many will come to appreciate it.

Butler did as well in the Horizon League, unless last year is the only thing that counts as "recent past" (which in today's society, is pretty much true), and I like the home and home scheduling a lot better than crossing your fingers and hoping the schedule works out in your favor.

[BillEsq]

I'd say common logic says 12 it makes Atheltic Departments jobs a lot easier. My guess is the AD's will eventually get their wish. I also would not put much stake in media reports in regards to realignment and well i'm not going to waste my time parsing an AD's twitter comments day one into a job. Especially to a question where the answer given is going to be the we love blank.... Seriously The BIG loves 14, the Big 12 loves 10, The SEC loves 14, the ACC loves 14, the PAC loves 12. Do we all really think that they are done expanding?

[shupat08]

The thing I really like about a 10 team round robin schedule is the ability to build up rivalries.

[yorost]

Katz is a tool. The PAC 12 was being killed in the RPI with a 10 team league. It was costing them tournament bids and seeding. The Big 12 out side of Kansas doesn't care about basketball. If you take the state of Kansas out of the picture the conference's RPI drops significantly. The league is run by Texas as its own personal football playground and I'm not even sure if most texas boosters/students even know Texas has a basketball team.

Did anyone expect that she would say anything different? Heck she just got hired. She's not going to say anything else other than its a great place and i can't wait to make it better. 10's great kiss some babies and go home. I swear i'm a huge proponent of 12 and if i was hired i wouldn't go straight to the media and say i was expanding day 1.

Also.... Of course the BE will say they aren't expanding. No conference says they are expanding. The BIG said they were done and then gobbled up Rutgers and Maryland. SEC was fine, happy and making schedules at 13. Then Missouri was taken. I'll argue that 12 is best till i'm blue in my face but parsing words to get any meaning out of realignment is useless. Even if she said there is 0% chance and over my dead body that we will expand, there is no guarantee. This is college sports what you said yesterday does not matter very much. you have but one certainty the Ivy League will remain at 8 teams. All other conferences are at the same time expanding and at risk of being poached equally.

I'm not much of a Katz fan myself, but he's at least said the same thing over and over.

Do people believe Seton Hall and Depaul Administrations (12) or Andy Katz and the Commissioner (10)?

Oh good grief. Katz's statement was just an overly strong paraphrase of what Ackerman said. She made no definitive claim 10 was here to stay. It ran the recent company line and doesn't even preclude expansion for next season. If you were still expecting St. Louis to join for 13-14, yeah, sorry, she probably ruled that out. ...so nobody from the inside has said we have no intention to go past 10, while up to and for the few days past the official announcement for the 10 we had many, many drops that 10 was temporary.

[DumpsterFireA10]

Katz is a tool. The PAC 12 was being killed in the RPI with a 10 team league. It was costing them tournament bids and seeding. The Big 12 out side of Kansas doesn't care about basketball. If you take the state of Kansas out of the picture the conference's RPI drops significantly. The league is run by Texas as its own personal football playground and I'm not even sure if most texas boosters/students even know Texas has a basketball team.

Did anyone expect that she would say anything different? Heck she just got hired. She's not going to say anything else other than its a great place and i can't wait to make it better. 10's great kiss some babies and go home. I swear i'm a huge proponent of 12 and if i was hired i wouldn't go straight to the media and say i was expanding day 1.

Also.... Of course the BE will say they aren't expanding. No conference says they are expanding. The BIG said they were done and then gobbled up Rutgers and Maryland. SEC was fine, happy and making schedules at 13. Then Missouri was taken. I'll argue that 12 is best till i'm blue in my face but parsing words to get any meaning out of realignment is useless. Even if she said there is 0% chance and over my dead body that we will expand, there is no guarantee. This is college sports what you said yesterday does not matter very much. you have but one certainty the Ivy League will remain at 8 teams. All other conferences are at the same time expanding and at risk of being poached equally.

I'm not much of a Katz fan myself, but he's at least said the same thing over and over.

Do people believe Seton Hall and Depaul Administrations (12) or Andy Katz and the Commissioner (10)?

Oh good grief. Katz's statement was just an overly strong paraphrase of what Ackerman said. She made no definitive claim 10 was here to stay. It ran the recent company line and doesn't even preclude expansion for next season. If you were still expecting St. Louis to join for 13-14, yeah, sorry, she probably ruled that out. ...so nobody from the inside has said we have no intention to go past 10, while up to and for the few days past the official announcement for the 10 we had many, many drops that 10 was temporary.

I'm not expecting anyone else to be admitted. Would like to be wrong, but that round-robin schedule will not go away easily.

[yorost]

...and that means you can pretend Ackerman made a more definitive statement than she did?

[DumpsterFireA10]

...and that means you can pretend Ackerman made a more definitive statement than she did?

I'm not pretending anything. I think she precluded expansion, and you didn't. That's fine...it's why message boards exist.