Butler and Xavier sound like done deals....VCU should be the 3rd Team

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

No, absolutely not. This is a full membership conference we are talking about. Having the volleyball team, or the soccer team, or the cross country team, fly to Spokane, Washington is ridiculous.

You can allow a perennial top-25 in for on sport if it adds significant value, which it would. But even if they are full members, so what? The travel cost difference between Spokane and Dayton, for example, would be less than $50,000, about 0.2% of Marquette's athletic budget. A negligible amount. And for Gonzaga, they are already traveling 850 miles to San Fran 3 times a year and over 1,300 miles to San Diego. If you do 2 divisions, the travel costs wouldn't be much more than they already face in the WCC.

Leaving out Gonzaga is thinking small time. They legitimize this as a national conference and give us the best and most consistent basketball program on the West Coast.

[Smee]

As a father of a Gonzaga Sophomore, I would love to have them in the conference...but you can't get there from here. It is a two leg flight and takes most of your day. I am not as concerned about basketball, but flying the volleyball team, the cross country team and other teams out there is not wise. One way I could consider adding Gonzaga would be as a two league conference. They would be an anchor in the west. West would mostly play west. East would mostly play east.

[TedBaxter]

I'd rather have Dayton or Saint Louis in the conference than VCU or Gonzaga with Creighton another option. Creighton has had two stints in the Missouri Valley, initially being in the conference in 1928, so I'm not sure they want to change.

VCU's former athletic director, Norwood Teague and one of his VCU assistants are now at Minnesota, so does Smart have as much loyalty to that program, plus VCU is a larger public university. Gonzaga is just too damn far away and how long does Few stay there? Remember, we are only thinking of MU's travel cost. Gonzaga would have to think about travel for every one of their programs for EVERY road game.

Nothing is a done deal yet, so lets wait to find out if the schools are really going to leave before we speculate on additional schools.

[TAS35]

Why can't Gonzaga just join for hoops only then? They can keep their other sports in the WCC? Same with BYU for that matter. They want to be independent in football and in the WCC for all else. Why can't that work?

[MU_Iceman]

The reason we all have different opinions on who should be added is because there is a faction of the board that is looking at this from a "tradition, market size, and geography" perspective, and others of us that are looking at this from a "quality" perspective. I don't care where you are located, what your tradition is, or how many TV sets you bring, I want the best BB programs(and by that I mean consistently good, recently), you can find. Gonzaga qualifies. You make it work. VCU qualifies. STL and Dayton do not. Quality will sell. I guarantee you, if you put together the best possible BB conference you can together, people will watch, regardless of market size or anything else.

What's going to draw more eyeballs?? A game between MU and Dayton, or a game between MU and Gonzaga?? The fans of Dayton and MU will watch obviously, but nationally, that game won't resonate at all. Now Gonzaga and MU?? people are familiar with them, and would look at it as a big matchup. They'll watch!

[IrwinFletcher]

I was going to post essentially the same thing and then remembered that Anthony Grant did a pretty damn nice job for them (2 tourney's in 3 years). Again, 5 years doesn't make a program but they've been more than just Shaka. I still don't know who I'd want as my third (if my pipedream of adding temple and memphis and having them park fball in cusa doesnt happen)...vcu, creighton, gonzaga, not really sure who i prefer.

And by moving into a higher profile conference, Smart may be more inclined to stick around. I seem to remember that VCU was making a big financial committment to basketball and this would aid in those efforts.

College buckets is as much about Head Coaches as anything else. This league would have Buzz, J Wright, GT III, and Brad Stephens as headliners. 4 well known and repected coaches that will only raise the awareness of the league as it tries to get things up and running.

[TheSultan]

Why can't Gonzaga just join for hoops only then? They can keep their other sports in the WCC? Same with BYU for that matter. They want to be independent in football and in the WCC for all else. Why can't that work?

Because it is doubtful that the WCC will allow them to do so. Why should they be allowed to park their primary sport, one that the conference sponsors, in another conference while making everyone trudge up to Spokane for soccer games and the like?

[MU_Iceman]

The thing with Gonzaga is...so MU's teams have to go there no more than every other year. And not even all of them would go every other year. Big deal. Besides, MU is the closest of all the schools in this new conference to Gonzaga. Bring them IN!

[MU/Panther]

No, absolutely not. This is a full membership conference we are talking about. Having the volleyball team, or the soccer team, or the cross country team, fly to Spokane, Washington is ridiculous.

I don't think any of these schools want to fly soccer, volleyball, etc to Spokane, Washington.

[kneelb4zerg]

I get the appeal of Gonzaga, and it would be tough to turn them away, but I won't be broken up if they are not involved. Part of the unique appeal of this league should be the geographical aspect of the league. Too much of the realignment nonsense throws that stuff out the window. This is a more sane approach.