Creighton going broke?

[tornado]

Well..not really but...
they just fired up a big new fund raising campaign to make up the shortfall.....
because they have found that their move to the Big East was much more costly than expected...

"..The move to the BIG EAST Conference ....
This new level of competition has required Creighton Athletics to commit additional resources due to the rising costs
of scholarships, escalating travel expenses, capital projects and staffing requirements."

Plus their increased costs to pay the players in order to keep up with the bigger schools.

"Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen has said that falling behind the other major schools is not an option for Creighton ...
... will do whatever the Big East has to do..."




BTW -- their home attendance is DOWN (slightly) this year from what it was in their last season in the MVC!
oh...and btw - they are currently 2-10 and dead last in the Big East - they have the worst RPI in the Big East and their remaining schedule has several games left against the frontrunners.

[wizard1]

Freight on going broke

Toooooooo BAD!....freight on was very solid in the MVC but their total lack of conference loyalty is now costing them...Toooooooooo BAD
Wiz

[wizard1]

Freight on going broke

My computer screwed up on the last post (Not me!). The word "freight" in the post should be Creighton....Sorry.
Wiz

[Chico]

No such thing as conference loyalty among the better programs. Can't blame teams for moving though. Why play in MVC in front of 4000 fans or less most places. Look for Wichita to be moving one of these years. Imagine they have had offers. MVC isn't like it used to be. BU should have joined the others in leaving a long time ago. Now they are stuck in a conference with a bunch, outside of 2 teams, of mid major teams who don't draw very well at home or on the road. With the rebuilding BU has to do it will be a long time before they think about leaving.

[tornado]

yeah - I really don't blame Creighton for jumping to what appeared to be a more lucrative situation - but it's still fun to poke fun at them when they find out it isn't all roses as they'd expected.

[Da Coach]

Here's a NY Times article chronicling Creighton's woes

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/sports/ncaabasketball/creightons-season-gets-more-difficult.html?_r=0

???Less than two years ago, we were in the Missouri Valley Conference,??? Greg McDermott said. ???In a lot of ways, we were built to compete in that league, not in this league. Our guys have continued to work and compete, to put us in position to have a chance. Today, we obviously weren??™t good enough.???

Rick Kreklow, a senior walk-on who transferred to Creighton from California in the off-season, said he had known that the roster would undergo a major overhaul and that the success of the previous three seasons was likely to take a hit. But he also knew that while the team might struggle, there were a number of upperclassmen left over who could keep the winning going.

Unfortunately for the Bluejays, that has not been the case.

???We haven??™t given up,??? Kreklow said. ???These guys have been part of successful teams. People aren??™t accustomed to losing. It??™s something you strive to do. You??™ve got a lot of the right kind of pride, in terms of not laying down and giving up on a season, because it would be easy to do that at this point.???

[tornado]

OMG - all their players - they are all experienced, seniors who have been to multiple post-seasons...
they were highly rated and were honored as high-caliber players when they won with Doug McDermott on the team & Greg McDermott got talk of COY..

but I think now we see that just maybe the real key was Doug's abilities...and without the National Player of the Year, just maybe the coaching is not COY-caliber

If they really didn't see this coming - then they are about the only ones who didn't...
everyone else voted them in the preseason way at the bottom ahead only of DePaul

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/college/Villanova-picked-No-in-Big-East-mens-basketball-preseason-poll.html

[Vent]

I think as bad as Creighton's record is, they'd still finish in the top 3 of the Valley this season. Maybe someday BU fans will be able to talk about the success of our own team instead of the misfortunes of other programs, that are still better than ours.

[Chico]

I think as bad as Creighton's record is, they'd still finish in the top 3 of the Valley this season. Maybe someday BU fans will be able to talk about the success of our own team instead of the misfortunes of other programs, that are still better than ours.

Agree. Why begrudge a team from going to a better league if they thought, or knew, our league was woefully weak. Hopefully it works out better for them.

[Vent]

No such thing as conference loyalty among the better programs. Can't blame teams for moving though. Why play in MVC in front of 4000 fans or less most places. Look for Wichita to be moving one of these years. Imagine they have had offers. MVC isn't like it used to be. BU should have joined the others in leaving a long time ago. Now they are stuck in a conference with a bunch, outside of 2 teams, of mid major teams who don't draw very well at home or on the road. With the rebuilding BU has to do it will be a long time before they think about leaving.

You couldn't be more correct! Wichita will leave to the Big West for better basketball, if it continues to dominate over the next couple of years. Most of the state schools will leave for the MAC and Sunbelt for football at some time, as has happened in the past.

If BU had a better program on a "consistent" basis, they would be asked to join better conferences, when opportunities arise. When you only finish in 4th place in your conference every 10 years or so, they're aren't going to be knocking down your door with invites. Other than Creighton, there hasn't been a Valley team asked to join another conference in a long time.

Here locally, we are partial to the Valley. If you get out of the Valley market, the league is just thought of as another mid-major program, at best. When we start getting multiple teams in the NCAA and NIT, on a yearly basis, we can say the league is where we want it to be. When the quality of the league improves, from top to bottom, the quality of officiating will improve as well. I'm not one to complain about officiating, but it is no secret, the MVC has better officiating crews (higher rated by the NCAA), on days that the Big Boys aren't playing. That is one reason why there are so many Sunday games in the Valley.

I agree Chico. I applaud Creighton for having a solid enough program to take the challenge and make the leap to a better conference. I will not be glad when they have a bad season.

[tornado]

I agree - at the most critical time in all of college basketball history, when it is mandatory that we present ourselves as an attractive member of the conference...
we have just spent 5 years at the bottom, and now getting worse. Who can doubt the fallout from the moves made in 2010 & 2011 and since then - they will continue to hurt years & even decades into the future.

[bradleyfan124]

You couldn't be more correct! Wichita will leave to the Big West for better basketball, if it continues to dominate over the next couple of years. Most of the state schools will leave for the MAC and Sunbelt for football at some time, as has happened in the past.

If BU had a better program on a "consistent" basis, they would be asked to join better conferences, when opportunities arise. When you only finish in 4th place in your conference every 10 years or so, they're aren't going to be knocking down your door with invites. Other than Creighton, there hasn't been a Valley team asked to join another conference in a long time.

Here locally, we are partial to the Valley. If you get out of the Valley market, the league is just thought of as another mid-major program, at best. When we start getting multiple teams in the NCAA and NIT, on a yearly basis, we can say the league is where we want it to be. When the quality of the league improves, from top to bottom, the quality of officiating will improve as well. I'm not one to complain about officiating, but it is no secret, the MVC has better officiating crews (higher rated by the NCAA), on days that the Big Boys aren't playing. That is one reason why there are so many Sunday games in the Valley.

I agree Chico. I applaud Creighton for having a solid enough program to take the challenge and make the leap to a better conference. I will not be glad when they have a bad season.

Problem is Vent when a team does get better in the conference they think grass looks greener on the other side and want to move. Just like the Board of Trustees members who bailed when they did not like what they saw.. why not stay and try to make it better. What kind of conference would the Missouri Valley be if Creighton, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Memphis State, Tulsa had stayed. How strong would we have been then?

[Chico]

Basketball was a lot more fun around here when the likes of Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Tulsa came to town every year.

[Da Coach]

Wichita State probably would have left the MVC by now except there aren't any good options for them.
The Mountain West schools all play football, so they would not receive any of the football money there and probably would not be welcome in the MWC.
The A-10 is basketball only, but the closest schools are St. Louis, almost 500 miles away, and Dayton, 800 miles away. Every other school is more than 1000 miles away from them. Plus St. Louis and Dayton will probably be leaving the A-10 in the next couple years as soon as the Big East decides to expand.
The Big East has the same geographical problems as the A-10, and if the Big East ever expanded, there are several better options for them than Wichita State (St. Louis, Dayton, Memphis, Cincinnati, VCU, and others).
Every other conference worth considering either has the football issue or is a step down from the MVC for them.

[tornado]

Cincy won't go Big East, they want football money