Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Christmas Wish List: The Catholic Seven needs to add more members

Buzz Williams

Over the course of the next two weeks, College Basketball Talk will be detailing what some of the country’s best, most intriguing, and thoroughly enigmatic teams need. It’s the spirit of the holidays. We’re in a giving mood.

What do other teams have on their Christmas Wish Lists? Click here to find out.

Gotta have it list-topper: More Members

With just seven members, the Catholic Seven will need to add more members to both increase revenue and round out the schedule of conference matchups. It was once discussed that the conference could merge with the Atlantic 10 and make a 21-team super-conference, but that seems unlikely. Instead, the Catholic Seven will likely grab a few of the best stocking stuffers from that conference to end up with either 10 or 12 teams.

Twelve teams would allow for a larger conference slate and, conceivably, more money for the conference. Butler and Xavier are almost considered locks to join the new league. Other teams being talked about are Creighton, Dayton, Saint Louis, Virginia Commonwealth, and, if the conference were looking to reach out west, Gonzaga and St. Mary’s.

Stocking stuffer: A Television Deal

It’s the lifeblood of any conference and this newly formed league will be looking for a home once its house is in order. The basketball-only focus on the conference makes it a solid right package for stations like the NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network, which are both gaining a foothold in the media rights market. Fox will also likely be in on the negotiations, whenever they begin to take place.

The conference has a solid collection of markets and, as they add more teams, that value should rise. There could be a cut in what revenue the conference is able to pull in compared to staying with the Big East, but these schools now have something they’ve wanted: stability. Now comes the pay day.

Planning on re-gifting: Legal Battles

The legal battles that ensue over exit fees, naming rights, and the rest of the defection from the Big East will likely be messy and every member would love to bypass them entirely. We will see how it all shakes out, but it’s unclear how long the process will take now. The legal implications of such defections are the unfortunate part of such defections, but it uncovers the root cause of this movement in the first place--money.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_