(02-24-2020 12:10 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(02-22-2020 12:27 PM)Section 200 Wrote:  Also, the east coast Big East schools likely don't want anymore Midwest schools - it would be easier to for their athletes and fans to travel to Boston vs. St Louis or wherever. Plus there is a better opportunity for media attention in Boston vs. any Midwest city.

Circling back to this in a more general sense, I don't think this is actually true. The Big East has had every opportunity over the years to add any of St Joe's/GW/Richmond/Davidson/St Bonaventure/Duquesne and still chose the Midwestern schools. There's no sprawl issue in the Big East - with the 6 east coast teams and the tournament in MSG there's no shortage of accessible away games as it is. The Midwestern teams form their own similar block of road-trippable schools with each other. So long as you're growing the footprint coherently (Gonzaga's only real knock) I think that what the program brings on the court far outweighs any East Coast preference.

Points well made. If the BE adds, for example, Dayton, Saint Louis and VCU, it would have eight "non-Northeast" schools and six Northeast schools (though Georgetown is not as "NE" as the other five) — thus becoming less so a "Northeast conference" than old-school "league purists" might prefer. I'm fine with that.