Creighton and Evansville to leave the MVC

[Gary the Gargoyle]

Man, I'm sorry but I just find this very depressing and disappointing.

It certainly isn't ideal, but look like a real possibility.

[TheAsianSensation]

If we were in the year 2006 right now, directly after our S16 run, and this Catholic breakaway happened....we'd be in the exact same position we would be today.

Like it or not, we're constrained by our geography and lack of football. Those 2 things are just so ridiculously more important today than everything else combined.

[Chibearsfan10125]

If we were in the year 2006 right now, directly after our S16 run, and this Catholic breakaway happened....we'd be in the exact same position we would be today.

Like it or not, we're constrained by our geography and lack of football. Those 2 things are just so ridiculously more important today than everything else combined.

Geography is not a constraint at all. We are constrained by our lack of football, for sure, but geography is not an issue in the slightest in today's college sports landscape. Before these Catholic schools broke away from the Big East, Bosie State and San Diego State were slated to join the conference. If anything, as these conferences go for a money grab, geography is becoming less and less important. No Football is Bradley's biggest constraint at the moment.

[Gary the Gargoyle]

Geography is not a constraint at all. We are constrained by our lack of football, for sure, but geography is not an issue in the slightest in today's college sports landscape. Before these Catholic schools broke away from the Big East, Bosie State and San Diego State were slated to join the conference. If anything, as these conferences go for a money grab, geography is becoming less and less important. No Football is Bradley's biggest constraint at the moment.

It doesn't sound like a lack of football is going to hurt Creighton.

[tornado]

Seems some have a pretty short memory but.......

only a few seem to recall this --- Dana Altman's final year -- just three years ago - in the fall of 2009 --
Creighton had a roster full of studs-on-paper like Kenny Lawson, P'Allen Stinnett, Antoine Young, Wragge, Witter, and even 4-Star transfer Chad Millard and 4-Star freshman Andrew Bock..they had tremendously high expectations, but....
they started the season winning only 5 of their first 13 games...losing to a few pretty weak teams...
Creighton fans were angry, wanted Altman canned, and were even posting on their board in a thread titled...
"We Suck"

Then - to make things worse - Altman started to make it known he was unhappy as well - then Creighton limped thru the Valley schedule finishing barely above .500,
then met BRADLEY in St. Louis in the MVC Tourney (a team Creighton had beaten by 11 a few nights earlier) and we spanked them soundly 81-62 with Sam Maniscalco netting 31...
(in what turned out to be the final game Sammy ever played for BU while reasonably healthy)!

Then Altman left...so as of Summer 2010 - Creighton's basketball program and their future were shaky at best and with turmoil surrounding the departures of Kenton Walker and P'Allen the Jay's looked to be right on the heels of the Saluikis in tanking their program.

So what's happened in the interval -- we've sent coaches, assistants, and players packing and started from scratch and they likewise hired a new coach - and he's guy who had NOT even been all that successful where he came from -- a guy who had lost way more than he had won at Iowa State, been a big-time flop there and who had record amounts of discipline issues and player departures as well....not everyone was happy with that hiring but...
McDermott was allowed to run the program, allowed to go out and recruit his own kid away from UNI - which ODDLY he didn't do when he was at Iowa State...he was allowed to hire who he wanted including one ex-Bradley guy..and presto....now Creighton is sitting pretty while BU is not....
...

[Chico]

So give Geno a chance, it's only his 2nd year. Let him get his players.

[TheAsianSensation]

Geography is not a constraint at all. We are constrained by our lack of football, for sure, but geography is not an issue in the slightest in today's college sports landscape. Before these Catholic schools broke away from the Big East, Bosie State and San Diego State were slated to join the conference. If anything, as these conferences go for a money grab, geography is becoming less and less important. No Football is Bradley's biggest constraint at the moment.

It's not geography as in actual location. It's about relative location.

The Peoria market is surrounded by Chicago on top and St Louis on bottom. Adding them adds virtually no value to a TV contract. Adding Creighton, while Omaha isn't all that big, allows a brand new footprint in a new state.

I'd go as far to say that if Bradley had Creighton's on-court results and Creighton had Bradley's on-court results, Creighton would still be the favorite to get courted by this new conference.

[tornado]

nope - Creighton is attractive to any basketball conference because of their attendance - you can't really be saying an east-coast centered group of schools really lusts for the Omaha media market!!
...BU would be in the discussion if we were still averaging 10K but now we're down to a mythical 6K .... FALLOUT

Things could change overnight so we need to get planning...just a year ago - the head of Georgetown said they had ZERO thoughts of leaving the Big East - so look how things have changed...
we still have a chance but the window is closing then we'll be looking here and our 100 year history/tradition will be run aground and evaporate in no time...

[Braves4Life]

So what's happened in the interval -- we've sent coaches, assistants, and players packing and started from scratch and they likewise hired a new coach - and he's guy who had NOT even been all that successful where he came from -- a guy who had lost way more than he had won at Iowa State, been a big-time flop there and who had record amounts of discipline issues and player departures as well....not everyone was happy with that hiring but...
McDermott was allowed to run the program, allowed to go out and recruit his own kid away from UNI - which ODDLY he didn't do when he was at Iowa State...he was allowed to hire who he wanted including one ex-Bradley guy..and presto....now Creighton is sitting pretty while BU is not....
...

With all due respect tornado, I sometimes find your logic and take on things extremely amusing and laughable.

[tornado]

Bradley has been the better and more prominent basketball school (between CU & BU) for the better part of 100 years (I haven't been around that long but I have studied the past!)
...but in the past few years, now....
Creighton is headed to a bigger and better conference and we're down 4K in attendance and not being invited anywhere -
I am not laughing about it.....I think it hurts...

[Braves4Life]

nope - Creighton is attractive to any basketball conference because of their attendance - you can't really be saying an east-coast centered group of schools really lusts for the Omaha media market!!
...BU would be in the discussion if we were still averaging 10K but now we're down to a mythical 6K .... FALLOUT

Wrong! Attendance has little to nothing to do with the decision to bring CU into the conference. The Omaha market does not even compare to the Peoria market -- http://www.selectgreateromaha.com/si...ographics.aspx . Here are the demographics and they are NOTHING like Peoria's. I'm sure demographics and their TV market played at least a slight role in this.

I'd argue Creighton's appeal has more to due with their recent consistent winning tradition, having won 50% of the MVC Tournament titles over the past 17 years -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missour...all_Tournament . How many has BU won? NONE! Our last title was 1988 for cripes sake. And you're telling me our Administration didn't need to "shake things up"?!

[Braves4Life]

Creighton is headed to a bigger and better conference and we're down 4K in attendance and not being invited anywhere -
I am not laughing about it.....I think it hurts...

I agree that it does hurt tornado. Geno Ford was brought in to try to reverse BU's downward attendance trend. I suspect we will begin to see that trend tick upward once again when wins become more plentiful... It always has.

To quote the PJS immediately after a coaching change was made:

Bradley's announced attendance (tickets sold) this season averaged 8,447, the lowest at the school since the 1992-93 season (7,271). More troubling was the significant number of no-shows.

[JMM28]

Bradley has been the better and more prominent basketball school (between CU & BU) for the better part of 100 years (I haven't been around that long but I have studied the past!)
...but in the past few years, now....
Creighton is headed to a bigger and better conference and we're down 4K in attendance and not being invited anywhere -
I am not laughing about it.....I think it hurts...

Bradley would not be in the discussion regardless. Creighton has a better basketball program. They have committed more resources for the past few decades. Previous admins at Bradley could have put Bradley in position for this but nothing was going to change in the past 2 or 3 years.

Creighton has been more successful over the past 10 years and now has a recognizable brand. They also have the Jesuit affiliation with many of the schools. The Omaha market is also a top 75 tv market. Peoria is somewhere around 115-120.

[Bravesfan]

nope - Creighton is attractive to any basketball conference because of their attendance - you can't really be saying an east-coast centered group of schools really lusts for the Omaha media market!!
...BU would be in the discussion if we were still averaging 10K but now we're down to a mythical 6K .... FALLOUT

Things could change overnight so we need to get planning...just a year ago - the head of Georgetown said they had ZERO thoughts of leaving the Big East - so look how things have changed...
we still have a chance but the window is closing then we'll be looking here and our 100 year history/tradition will be run aground and evaporate in no time...

I still think Creighton would have the advantage even if the records were reversed. Even if we were still averaging 10K, they would still average 15K. Money talks in this day and age.

But we may be getting ahead of ourselves anyway. I'm not sure Creighton is out of the MVC just yet. With rumors that the new Big East will hold at ten teams for the time being, it's obvious that the Big East will go after Xavier, Butler and Dayton ahead of Creighton. If those are the ten teams, Creighton may not be leaving, at least for the time being. It will be fun to watch though how things play out, but perhaps not as fast as some would lead us to believe.

[SFP]

Man, I'm sorry but I just find this very depressing and disappointing.

This would be very depressing but I do not believe it will be what will happen. The Big East will take 2 years to dissolve and in that time BU hopefully will make its case. There's a fighting chance would have of being part of a grand conference. I'm going to stop predicting where BU will end up by 2015 without knowing what we are working on. I'm just hoping we have been planting seeds with the schools who are in position to give us the nudge. If this current group of BU administrators fail then it will be the responsibility of the next group to right the ship. We'll be fine as long as we can recruit good players and start winning.