Could it be because things work both ways, and SLU is partly to blame? SLU could be "king" in their own city if they knew how to work with media, because unlike Chicago where there are numerous D1 schools to follow (including Notre Dame, & Illinois which aren't in the city), Saint Louis University is the only D1 school in STL. Yes, they still have to compete with Missouri University, but for years the people at SLU haven't gone out of their way to work with the media and fan base the way they should.
Possible their biggest mistake was joining the Atlantic-10. I won't rehash all the reasons why this was such an absurd decision, but the obvious ones are that St. Louis isn't anywhere near the Atlantic, the closest A-10 team is more than 350+ miles away (Xavier, Dayton), the rest of the A-10 teams average closer to 1000 miles away making travel unbearable, the press in those eastern cities virtually ignores SLU, and looks down on the Midwest, and the conference itself is not as good year-in and year-out as other conferences that SLU could have chosen to join.
The one advantage they have over the MVC is that all the other schools (except St. Bonaventure- which is another story) are located in large cities, making commercial travel reasonably easy. Rick should shut up, behave himself, and count his money.