Just one thing here: Xavier Basketball

Here's what Xavier's A10 schedule will look like:

Home: Dayton, Fordham, GW, LaSalle, St. Louis, Temple,  UMass, VCU
Away: Dayton, Butler, Charlotte, Duquesne, Rhode Island, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joe's

It's nice to get SLU and VCU at home.  Road games at Butler and St. Joe's will certainly be tough.

This means that either the ESPN Season Kickoff game vs. Butler at Cintas will not be played or it will be played but considered a non-conference game.

Can't wait for the season!  Once the dates and times of these are posted, we will pass those along.  Go Muskies!

Update - A10's listing of all conference games: 
www.atlantic10.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/060512aaa.html
  
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That makes an even 16 team for this fall.

Xavier was already scheduled to play Butler in non-conference play in the ESPN Marathon day to kick off the season so we'll have to see if that will be handled as a conference game or how that will be handled.

 

The Horizon League might be in a bad way come June 1st.  Rumors popping up today are suggesting that Butler is preparing to announce that they'll be leaving the Horizon League and joining the A10 immediately.

If true, both VCU and Butler will be playing basketball in the Atlantic 10 Conference this fall.  Xavier and Butler were scheduled to play in ESPN's 24-hour basketball marathon so that might be subject to change if both are now A10 schools.  

With Charlotte and Temple staying in the A10 until 2013, this would mean the A10 would be a 16 team league for one season.

Go Muskies!
 

Well, after it was reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer early yesterday that the next 2 years of Crosstown Shootouts will be at USBank Arena downtown, both schools have said that there is no deal in place.  An announcement will come in the next few weeks.

Maybe after hearing fans, media, writers, etc. ripping this move, the schools are reconsidering.  I sure hope so.  While I'm sure the atmosphere at USBank will be more exciting than your average game, there are so many students and players over the next two years that will miss out on the unique experience and atmosphere of attending/playing in their last Shootout on their home floor.  It is a memory they would have the rest of their lives.

Go Muskies!

We may never know exactly why this move has happened.  Was it entirely because the schools wanted to show the fans that they are trying to improve the atmosphere of this event?  Was it for safety reasons?  Was it for money?  It's probably some combination of those but it's a bad move regardless of the reasons.

This is a college rivalry.  It should be played on the college campuses!  Every year for 25 years in a row it has been done this way.  We know that the coaches, referees, and players will be ultra-aware of what's happened during the next Shootout.  There's no way there will be a fight between the players so changing the venue doesn't change that.  And moving it to USBank makes there a GREATER chance for problems among fans.  When less than 5% of the crowd is one fan base, they are going to avoid altercations with the home crowd for the most part.  When there are 8,000 fans from each side and some of them have spent all day getting drunk at the Banks bars and restaurants leading up to the game, there is the potential for a lot to go wrong.

The schools have handled this all wrong for the reasons above and more.  Now that we are in this "wait and see" period of 2 years at USBank, we are keeping the focus on the fight and the ugliness of the rivalry.  Everyone going to the games, watching them on TV, and reading articles about them will be reminded that these games were moved here because of the fight, whether or not that was the sole reason. (Thanks in advance to the media for continuing to mention this in the future.)  Instead of refocusing and putting the fight in the past, this will only keep reminding everyone of it.  Why not ask players, students, coaches, etc from both schools to volunteer together in the community and show that we are all bigger than this?  Nope, it seems that the only things happening are reactionary changes that are just being made to be made and they don't make sense.

Oh, and a final thought.  USBank Arena is a dump.  These are the two biggest athletic programs in the area.  They put money into their sports facilities so that fans and players can enjoy big-time games like this one in those facilities, not have to go pay some 3rd party to watch their teams.  And, if security is really an issue, why are you moving it to be handled by the USBank Arena staff who have not be in charge of handling a Crosstown Shootout for the last 25 years???

Okay, had to get that off my chest.

Go Muskies!