Creighton and the new Catholic 7 league

[braveatheart]

TAS,
You are the only one talking on this subject who even mentions TV and media
markets. It seems to me that media market is the dominant consideration in how desirable a team would be to a conference. Peoria is not the best bait to dangle out there. What are your thoughts on the subject?

[stevebu91]

The fox sports tv broadcasts of the games have had their pom poms out for the mvc. Which is certainly fine, but is this an mvc paid program? I have heard almost nothing from the announcers on the realignment. Unsure if the regime told them not to discuss the significant issue at hand.

[tornado]

I have to think the MVC has the rights to choose the announcers and did not want any mention of teams exiting
they did hype everything there was about the MVC - and at least for a while in the first half - you'd have thought Odum was Player of the Year & NBA material

btw - as I noted elsewhere - even though the announcers never mentioned the MVC's future....
almost every team loses a ton of their talent so next year could be WIDE open and might be the year some completely dark horse team can win it...
hey - it might as well be us - I say let's get a shooter, and big, and go for it!!

[Da Coach]

The fox sports tv broadcasts of the games have had their pom poms out for the mvc. Which is certainly fine, but is this an mvc paid program? I have heard almost nothing from the announcers on the realignment. Unsure if the regime told them not to discuss the significant issue at hand.

John Rooney is a good announcer, but there is no way he is coming up with all the information about the MVC and the MVC teams on his own. The MVC publicity department has obviously fed him a ton of the information they want him to have, yet he has never mentioned Creighton leaving or realignment. I suspect they intentionally want to avoid any talk about that.

[TheAsianSensation]

TAS,
You are the only one talking on this subject who even mentions TV and media
markets. It seems to me that media market is the dominant consideration in how desirable a team would be to a conference. Peoria is not the best bait to dangle out there. What are your thoughts on the subject?

It matters more based on how good the conference is.

Obviously for the C7, it matters very significantly. Fox is willing to throw out over $3 mill per school because they're big names, in big markets too. They want national brands to advertise. That's why Bradley wouldn't have a chance, unless they reached a Gonzaga or Butler level of exposure. And even if they did, with schools directly to the north and south in the league (Marq/DePaul and maybe St Louis), FOX wouldn't be getting any further benefit to expanding their TV coverage on their sports channel.

For leagues smaller than the MVC/A-10 (think Horizon and below), it starts to not matter much. You get local TV coverage, and a "national" package to show a number of games on ESPN and other outlets.

In between is the gray area. Let's say the A-10 keeps St Louis and Dayton, and comes calling on Bradley. A-10 has a contact with CBS and their sports channel, I believe, that is still going on. Could they look at Bradley as a backdoor way to get their channel in more TV sets in Illinois and especially Chicago? Maybe, maybe not.

And also: if a new conference gets started, remember that everything has to start fresh, including TV coverage. It all has to be negotiated. So if there's some radical realignment that shifts a lot of schools, you have to ask what each school brings to the table on and off the court. Peoria isn't exactly a viable market. But it's possible to sell people on the idea we bring the Chicago area better than Loyola or UIC.

And if you're wondering, Omaha isn't the greatest market, but it is a bit isolated - you can get a wide area out of it, and Creighton has massive attendance, and they make all the tournaments they do - and they're still right on the edge. I'm honestly a bit surprised they're the clear #10 right now - I was thinking originally they'd be in a 12-teamer only.

[LarryBird]

The one thing Bradley currently has going for it is the STRONG fan base so I sure hope there aren't any more bad moves that send more of the fan base packing...
(and when I say fan base I mean more than the guy buying walk-up tickets or owning a pair of upper bowl season tix)


Had all this happened in 2006, or back in 1996 - BU would have been in a MUCH better position - people woulda been calling......
Bradley sure did pick a bad time to make moves that sunk us to the bottom of the picking order...

A few questions and thoughts here.Just wondering what your idea of fan base is? I am the guy buying walk-up tickets as I have 1 son currently at Bradley and another going there in 2 years and have to save my money for that. Are you saying true Bradley fans have to be rich? Just wondering.
I will agree with the last comment as I too feel like Bradley waited too long to make a coaching change. But the grass is always not greener on the other side and it may be a blessing and when Geno gets us back to where we need to be I feel things will fall into place.

[Old Coach]

There are lots of other Catholic schools they are not going after - but Creighton's success & attendance are the keys...note they are not calling Detroit, Loyola, LaSalle, St. Joe's, St. Bonaventure, Fordham, Duquesne, Holy Cross, Fairfield, Loyola of MD, Siena, and others..

How many of those Catholic schools play in a 17,000 seat arena?

None

[tornado]

Thank you - my point exactly -- one poster said the main reason the league is going after Creighton and not interested in a school like Bradley was because they were Catholic...

but the main reason is because of their loyal fan base - the size of their crowds....pretty much exactly what Bradley had going for them up thru 2009 or 2010...and now we've lost some or much of that "clout".

[Old Coach]

Thank you - my point exactly -- one poster said the main reason the league is going after Creighton and not interested in a school like Bradley was because they were Catholic...

but the main reason is because of their loyal fan base - the size of their crowds....pretty much exactly what Bradley had going for them up thru 2009 or 2010...and now we've lost some or much of that "clout".

You're reaching really far on this, and getting your nose well beyond the tips of your skis. That being said, I can appreciate your commitment to sticking with your bad argument to the very end. I'll concede that Bradley wouldn't have lost 25 games last year without the coaching change, and probably would have won more games this year than they did as well. However, what they never did, nor did it look like they were on the path to was reel off 25-28 win seasons. And that is exactly what it would have taken for Bradley to be given any consideration for moving up (like Butler). Being a Catholic institution is what makes Creighton the total package. Butler is only getting in because of the high level of excellence that they have exhibited. It takes more for them because they aren't Catholic. Ten straight years of 22 wins wouldn't have helped Bradley in this.

[tornado]

The Catholic 7 have specifically stated they are interested in adding members who are NOT Catholic -- and Bradley people were STRONGLY interested in exploring that option.......and it has been reported thus....
so why do you think BU tried so hard to make a good presentation and tried to get into the league??
BUT as I have said - we were on stronger grounds a few years ago - if you think otherwise you will have ignore major facts.

[Old Coach]

The Catholic 7 have specifically stated they are interested in adding members who are NOT Catholic -- and Bradley people were STRONGLY interested in exploring that option.......and it has been reported thus....
so why do you think BU tried so hard to make a good presentation and tried to get into the league??
BUT as I have said - we were on stronger grounds a few years ago - if you think otherwise you will have ignore major facts.

If I'm ignoring facts, then you're ignoring common sense and reality.

[tornado]

so -- all of BU's people who went hard after the Georgetown people and spent time & effort to lobby to get into the league..
they were all ignorant and oblivious to common sense??

[Old Coach]

so -- all of BU's people who went hard after the Georgetown people and spent time & effort to lobby to get into the league..
they were all ignorant and oblivious to common sense??

I think Mike Cross knows exactly what his job is, but that league isn't going to add any teams with Bradley's resume' (regardless of the last two years).

[Tulsa Brave]

Bradley wouldn't be heading to the Catholic 7 if Jim Les were still coach. Anyone who truly believes otherwise is simply deluding themselves.

[Da Coach]

Bradley wouldn't be heading to the Catholic 7 if Jim Les were still coach. Anyone who truly believes otherwise is simply deluding themselves.

That seems obvious- so why the reports that we were making calls and sending out brochures to try to get support to get included?