The Catholic Basketball Conference

The Big East is no more. Ok...well maybe the Big East will survive, but in a much different state than it is currently in. It has appeared inevitable for months as we watched the Big East continue to be the victim of the bigger football conferences. Schools like Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, TCU, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Louisville have all moved on. Instead of retooling with quality, the conference focused on quantity with the addition of schools like Tulane, East Carolina, SMU, and UCF. So, in what has been one of the worst kept secrets, the “Catholic Seven” (Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, Providence, Saint John’s, Seton Hall, and DePaul) have decided to exit the Big East and form a new Basketball-only conference. You may be asking what does this have to do with Gonzaga? Well for one, according to sources, Gonzaga has already reached out to the Catholic Seven and has put feelers out there to see if they are interested in making this a national conference. Also, Gonzaga is a catholic institution (Jesuit to be specific), they are a school without a Football program, and they happen to be one of most consistent successful basketball schools in the nation. This makes the Zags very attractive to the emerging basketball-only league. From Gonzaga’s perspective, the Basketball program is at a point where it can plateau and stagnate in the West Coast Conference or it can move on find a more lucrative arrangement and continue to grow. Growth could mean more money for the endowment of the university and increased television revenue. Not to mention what a boon this would be for the recruiting potential of Mark Few and Women’s coach Kelly Graves.

What would the new Basketball Only conference look like? For starters if Gonzaga does merge with the new league, it will have to be within a Western Division for scheduling purposes. It would be too cost prohibitive to travel every other sport all across the country on a regular basis. To combat this they could form separate Divisions consisting of 6-9 Western/Eastern US schools that would receive an annual true round robin schedule. Potential Western teams could include Marquette, DePaul, Creighton, Saint Louis, Saint Mary’s, Loyola Marymount, San Francisco, Santa Clara, BYU, and Butler (The Latter two not being Catholic or Basketball only, perhaps making them less attractive). The Eastern Division could include teams like Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, Saint John’s, Xavier, VCU, Dayton, Fordham, Saint Joseph’s, George Mason and Temple (The Latter two not being Catholic, and Temple not being Basketball Only). The Divisions could look something like this:

Western Division	Eastern Division
Saint Mary’s	Villanova
Loyola Marymount	Georgetown
Marquette	Providence
Creighton	Seton Hall
DePaul	Saint John’s
Saint Louis	Xavier
Butler	VCU
Gonzaga	Dayton
BYU	Saint Joseph’s

After considering the divisions, both the East and West could meet up annually and either play each of the other members once or a few every other year. This would create natural rivalries and allow the teams to relax their travel budget significantly. With such a national profile in so many major television markets, the league could see significant gains in Television revenue and increased recruiting profile. This would not just be a run of the mill basketball conference. This league would compete annually for one of the best in the country and could gain anywhere from 8-12 Seeds in the NCAA tourney. Imagine the Conference tourney alone in Madison Square Garden or any number of major venues across the country hosting some of the most storied schools throughout College Basketball history. Some may see this as a very big move for a small private Jesuit institution from the Inland Northwest, but when else will the Zags get the opportunity to join such an amazing gathering of like-minded institutions? 

The reality is that while Gonzaga would be a great addition to a league like this, the Catholic Seven could still decide to keep this an Eastern league and just poach several teams from the Atlantic Ten conference. It is still so early in the process to know for sure what will occur. So when could we expect a move like this to occur? Maybe next year or perhaps over the course of the next few seasons. We are intrigued to find out what the fans think? Should Gonzaga join a Catholic Basketball Conference? Or should they stay in the WCC? More Analysis to follow as the news trickles in. As Always, GO ZAGS!