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Bradley Conference Realignment

BUBraves 33

BUBraves 33

Member
I’m sure this has discussed before, but what all goes into changing conferences? It’s hard not to think about it given the current landscape in college basketball. If Bradley really wants to stay relevant don’t they have to consider it? Is it even a possibility to play in a conference like the Big East? Even if they could compete on the floor could Bradley meet requirements of a Big East team? What are those requirements? I don’t know how delusional this is or if it could really be a possibility. Just spitballing here but thought it would be an interesting topic.
 
I know I'm a little off topic from the original post in the thread...I will always have a love for the MVC - maybe not as strong as it used to be, but it's the best conference still, and we're able to land solid players in the current regime.

I'd hate to see BU go to "greener pastures" and I like the "intimacy" of having other schools in the same region, unlike the A-10. Not a fan of conferences with teams scattered. Nice to also have the schools with basketball at the forefront.

Maybe it's not the best place for BU to be in the sense of having more shots at making the NCAA tourney, but if that's the sole reason for moving on, then I'm not for it. Maybe just a personal viewpt. :)
 
Yes, it's come up before, and it's always good to keep looking at possibilities. But the options are extremely limited, and I believe none are better than staying in the MVC. Every conference that plays FBS football would want only football schools (like what happened to Missouri State).
That rules out the MAC, MWC, CUSA, Sun Belt

And the Big East only would consider schools in big cities (preferable Eastern schools) with major media markets. Peoria and Bradley would not be considered. Joanne Glasser made a trip to NY City back in 2012 to pitch Bradley to the Big East, and they laughed at her.
Wichita State moved to the American Athletic Conference as a non-football member. But they are strong in every other sport, and the AAC would not consider a school like Bradley only for basketball.
That rules out the AAC, MAC, MWC, CUSA, CAA, and Sun Belt Conferences.

That leaves very few options, and IMO, none are better than staying in the MVC.
The Ohio Valley- they play FCS level football (joined with the Big South) and do have a couple non-football members, but it is a significant step down from the MVC. The MVC has already taken their best 2 teams, and most of the other good basketball programs moved to other conferences. Every team now in the OVC would love to jump to the MVC if they could, so why would Bradley want to move there?
The Horizon League- It is non-football, so that would be a fit. But it's a big step down. The MVC already has taken a couple of the Horizon's best teams (Valpo and UIC), so there is no chance it would be considered by Bradley.
The Summit League- same as the Horizon, but even a bigger step down, and even more reasons not to consider.
That leaves only the Atlantic 10, where Loyola moved to. They are non-football, and the do have a much better TV deal (with Fox Sports), but that's about the only attraction. They are not a substantially better conference, and we'd lose all our natural rivalries.
If several of the A-10 teams left the conference, which is not going to happen since they have nowhere to go but down, they might consider adding a school like Bradley. But I don't think it's a very good fit for BU. Almost all the schools are in east coast states, and there would be an impossible amount of travel from a city like Peoria that doesn't have a major airport hub.

So it's fun to discuss this, but I'd love to hear a reasonable option for where Bradley would transfer to that would benefit them.
 
The reality is that even if Bradley did move "up" to the A10 or AAC would that really help anything? Both of those conferences only got in 1 team to the NCAA tournament this year despite having some solid teams. Those conferences would also come with some downsides like increased travel costs. Also as others have mentioned, I would hate to lose out on all our local rivalries.

If I could pick any conference I would pick the Big East but then again we don't fit their profile and would we be able to compete for the top like in the MVC? Or would we be a bottom feeder team like DePaul?
 
I would only entertain the Big East. No matter how realistic. I don’t understand everything with needing the big cities/media market thing. What I do know is that Bradley has the fan base, the history, we have better attendance than a handful of Big East teams. The A10 is a single bid league with 15 teams so no thanks on that. The AAC is definitely not better than the valley in my biased opinion. The MVC is likely the best and only option for us, the Big East would be my pipe dream just for the possibility of being relevant. Especially in the revenue sharing era, Big East schools not having football puts them at a major advantage. Would we be a bottom feeder? Maybe? I think maybe the low/middle area to start. This gives us a better chance at dancing though in the long run.
 
The Big East would be incredible by bringing in Elite teams to Peoria! I know it's not going to Happen, but Imagine Connecticut & St.Johns coming to play BU! Imagine being able to go to Historic Hinkle Fieldhouse to see BU play Butler! It is fun to Dream!
 
BUBraves 33 said:
I would only entertain the Big East. No matter how realistic. I don’t understand everything with needing the big cities/media market thing. What I do know is that Bradley has the fan base, the history, we have better attendance than a handful of Big East teams. The A10 is a single bid league with 15 teams so no thanks on that. The AAC is definitely not better than the valley in my biased opinion. The MVC is likely the best and only option for us, the Big East would be my pipe dream just for the possibility of being relevant. Especially in the revenue sharing era, Big East schools not having football puts them at a major advantage. Would we be a bottom feeder? Maybe? I think maybe the low/middle area to start. This gives us a better chance at dancing though in the long run.
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I concur. The only way I see a Big East option play out is this:

The SEC, BIG10, ACC, and BIG 12 all go to at least 20 team conferences. The only way for the new PAC and BIG East conferences to keep up is to snatch as many other schools as possible and try to capture the rest of the top 100 programs in the country. Eventually we have a mens BB tournament where the BIG East and new PAC are considered the "lower" conferences that get to participate with the Big 4. In an effort to stay relevant in this situation, the BIG East raids the A10 and the MVC for any remaining decent market, private type basketball schools, and Bradley gets in that way. BIG East would need to add at least 9 teams, as they are currently at 11. I could see them taking Loyola Chicago, Bradley, St. Louis, and some mix of Rhode Island, Richmond, Dayton, VCU, George Mason, and St. Bon or something to get to 20.

Either way, I think the BIG East has a problem being at 11 teams. They may not be able to compete with the 4 big boys in their current form, and that could open a door, however small it may be.
 
Butler is a similar school to Bradley, except they play in a far larger city and media market, and of course, they are farther east, which fit the Big East better. And they were invited to join mainly because they had become a national basketball power, playing in the NCAA National Championship game in 2010 and 2011.
They joined the Big East in 2013, and they are still the only private, non-Catholic school in the league.
They had been very successful in the years leading up to joining, including their back-to-back National Championship games in 2010- and 2011.
And they continued to have success their first 5 years in the Big East. But the last 7 seasons have been far less successful. They have had losing records in 6 of the last 7 years, and they have not made the NCAA Tournament now for the last 7 years. They have become a perennial lower half Big East team, and it's not looking like they will be challenging for championships any time soon.
It is still more profitable for them in the Big East, due to sharing in a lucrative new TV deal worth nearly half a billion dollars - The Big East’s new $480 Million TV deal is a huge win for all basketball fans

​
 
Da Coach said:
Butler is a similar school to Bradley, except they play in a far larger city and media market, and of course, they are farther east, which fit the Big East better. And they were invited to join mainly because they had become a national basketball power, playing in the NCAA National Championship game in 2010 and 2011.
They joined the Big East in 2013, and they are still the only private, non-Catholic school in the league.
They had been very successful in the years leading up to joining, including their back-to-back National Championship games in 2010- and 2011.
And they continued to have success their first 5 years in the Big East. But the last 7 seasons have been far less successful. They have had losing records in 6 of the last 7 years, and they have not made the NCAA Tournament now for the last 7 years. They have become a perennial lower half Big East team, and it's not looking like they will be challenging for championships any time soon.
It is still more profitable for them in the Big East, due to sharing in a lucrative new TV deal worth nearly half a billion dollars - The Big East’s new $480 Million TV deal is a huge win for all basketball fans

​
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I know I would rather be in a bigger tougher league and finish lower, than be in our current position where at-large bids are not realistic for our conference anymore, and even when we have a great team we see one other team in the league outperform expectations and take the AQ from us (Drake this year).
 
.... Joanne Glasser made a trip to NY City back in 2012 to pitch Bradley to the Big East, and they laughed at her.
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LOL, that story is true... she and Cross went to meet with the then Commissioner of the Big East, but she was clueless to the fact
that the Commissioner was LEE REED, who was a close, lifelong friend of Jim Les' and a former college teammate at Cleveland State. It did not go well as Reed knew all about her.
 
Stryker said:
I know I would rather be in a bigger tougher league and finish lower, than be in our current position where at-large bids are not realistic for our conference anymore, and even when we have a great team we see one other team in the league outperform expectations and take the AQ from us (Drake this year).
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100% agree
 
yoda said:
LOL, that story is true... she and Cross went to meet with the then Commissioner of the Big East, but she was clueless to the fact
that the Commissioner was LEE REED, who was a close, lifelong friend of Jim Les' and a former college teammate at Cleveland State. It did not go well as Reed knew all about her.
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What goes around comes around.Payback
 
We are right where we belong simply because of the overall cost it would take to send all your teams to the East. The Valley needs to look to expand more and 16 teams seems like a good number.
 
I am a bit surprised with all the love for the Big East. I can't stand most of the teams in the conf. - other than Butler, Creighton, DePaul...maybe Marquette
Would hate to trade a rivalry with ISU or Northern Iowa with St. John's or Georgetown. I can see how DePaul is a better fit vs teams like that, but not Bradley.
The only conference I envy is the Mountain West, as we were about their equal 10 yrs ago, but they took off and we regressed, but have come back a little stronger the last few seasons. Would be nice to get the MVC stronger to about 7th or 8th again, but I think the NIL doesn't do schools like Valpo and Evansville much justice, and we'll (MVC) hover around 9th strongest for a while.
 
tomahawk chop said:
We are right where we belong simply because of the overall cost it would take to send all your teams to the East. The Valley needs to look to expand more and 16 teams seems like a good number.
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Would LOVE to see that too!
But be selective above who to bring in...Middle TN, Kent St., Milwaukee could be options...W Kentucky but they have a solid football program
 
LittleBrave said:
I am a bit surprised with all the love for the Big East. I can't stand most of the teams in the conf. - other than Butler, Creighton, DePaul...maybe Marquette
Would hate to trade a rivalry with ISU or Northern Iowa with St. John's or Georgetown. I can see how DePaul is a better fit vs teams like that, but not Bradley.
The only conference I envy is the Mountain West, as we were about their equal 10 yrs ago, but they took off and we regressed, but have come back a little stronger the last few seasons. Would be nice to get the MVC stronger to about 7th or 8th again, but I think the NIL doesn't do schools like Valpo and Evansville much justice, and we'll (MVC) hover around 9th strongest for a while.
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First, why would BU establish a rivalry with St. John's or Georgetown instead of Butler, Creighton, Depaul, or Marquette if they were in the Big East? It would almost assuredly be one of the those three teams that are relatively closer to BU. I would absolutely take a rivalry with anyone in the BIG East over ISU as well. We would be playing much better teams with much better exposure that would elevate BU as well. In addition the share of the TV deal revenue would more than pay for any additional travel expense.

In regards to the MWC vs MVC, look at what the MVC lost, Creighton (Almost annually Top 25 team now that they are in the Big East), and Wichita State (While down now, they were amazing while in the MVC). In addition the teams added to the MVC have either jumped like Loyola, or been baaad programs like Valpo. Belmont and Murray St. have both under performed IMO since joining the MVC. MWC benefits from football in a way that the MVC can't do, which has bolstered their conference. Their teams are also in bigger markets generally and are more prosperous schools than MVC schools.
 
Stryker said:
I know I would rather be in a bigger tougher league and finish lower, than be in our current position where at-large bids are not realistic for our conference anymore, and even when we have a great team we see one other team in the league outperform expectations and take the AQ from us (Drake this year).
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I'd rather become the Gonzaga of the Valley.
 
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