(04-26-2017 01:37 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-25-2017 07:15 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  Stever, are Holylanders really trashing Dayton?

hell yeah they are. One literally posted

I'm a Villanova fan and am sick of hearing about Dayton.

They are not our peer in any way (basketball success, academics). I don't want to be associated with them or hear about them on this board.

I replied the question about if Dayton wasn't nova's peer now, were Butler, Creighton, or Xavier Nova's peers 4 years ago, For some reason that post didn't get approved. Guess it was too sensitive for those folks ears.

But you get hardheaded one-liners on message boards all the time. The art of conversation is lost when there is no face-to-face, or no actual evaluation of what the other side says. Earlier you made the statement that those who think Dayton and VCU have no chance are ignorant. You are pushing your opinion as fact and denigrating anyone who doesn't share the opinion. I am happy to have the conversation, to banter and the back and forth, and even to disagree, but would prefer to do so without the inflammatory remarks. I am more than willing to learn, as you often have interesting facts and numbers, but like most posters I'm not interested in potshots. We disagree frequently, but normally don't get nasty about it to each other. Keep things respectful on your end and watch the tone change from others.

That being said, I am not of the opinion that Dayton has been ruled out permanently. I do believe that XU will be given at least a decade in the BE before Dayton is considered, and XU will need to bless Dayton's membership. No blessing, no membership. I also believe SLU would be asked to join before Dayton. I don't see Dayton as #11 or #12, regardless of success. They may get in if there is a bump to 14, provided that there are at least two east coast schools added to the current 10.

I am also not of the opinion that VCU has been ruled out permanently, but I believe that the road for VCU is more difficult than Dayton's because of fit. When Bilas made the comment about the BE being a conference and the P5 being media entities, he was on to something. The institutional fit is important to the BE in 2017. Will that be the same in 2027? Who knows. VCU has to overcome that piece, and the scars from the old BE, where the fit wasn't there, are not yet healed.

Finally, your point about Butler, Xavier and Creighton being peers is interesting. But the counter to that is the decision-making process when you are surviving is different than when you are expanding. When the C7 was surviving, the question was which schools have the best opportunity to become peers of the C7. Was CU the biggest question mark of the three? Maybe. Was CU a bigger question mark than Dayton or SLU? Not in my opinion. The question in 2017 has changed to which school is currently a peer to the BE schools, would make the conference better overall and potentially bring revenue to the conference. Much different question and much different standard.