Welcome To The Big Midwest!

O.K., so Rick Majerus is unhappy in the Atlantic 10 conference, or at least he is unhappy being in the Atlantic 10 conference while not having access to charter jet services. In either case, it has been suggested by Majerus himself, and by the likes of ESPN commentator Dick Vitale, that SLU wold be better off in the Missouri Valley conference.

To my mind, that notion is madness, unless SLU decides to give up entirely on any notion of being at least a semi-regular Top 50 team. They could do that, just give up and become the Fordham of the Midwest, though I doubt the alumni would take too kindly to the idea. The Missouri Valley is a nice little league, and that is all it will ever be, a little league. The idea that it is anything like a "mid-major" is simply stupid. There simply are too few teams in the MVC that could consistently be considered Top 50 caliber.

So, where does this leave the Billikens? Well, if they want to attempt to grow into something of a basketball power (however limited that is for a team not in one of the big 5 conferences), there are only two options: stay in the A-10, or be part of a new conference. In this post I will propose just such a new conference, which I will call the Big Midwest.

The Big Midwest will be built upon a couple principles:

1. Geographic Integrity:

Too many conferences in the NCAA today have too many member spread out over too large a territory. Granted, some of the bitching of Majerus is misplaced. After all, A-10 travel from St. Louis to Philadelphia is actually less than Big 12 travel from Ames to Austin, or ACC travel from College Park to Miami. Still, representing a region would be nice. For that reason, I'm proposing a conference where all teams are within 350 miles of Terre Haute, Indiana. This would encompass the better part of the Midwest, and thus the name of the conference would be apt.

2. Athletic Integrity:

Because of the variety of sports offered by schools, and the fact that not every school offers every sport, you get some weird conference affiliations. This plan would centralize the vast majority of the sports offered at the conference schools. Thus, Big Midwest schools would compete in the Big Midwest in every sport, thus enhancing the branding of the product, and giving a sense of stability to the programs.

With these two principlse in place, the league takes shape pretty quickly. I propose the following schools for the Big Midwest:

1. Bradley
2. Butler
3. Dayton
4. DePaul
5. Eastern Illinois
6. Evansville
7. Illinois State
8. Indiana State
9. Marquette
10. Murray State
11. Saint Louis
12. Southern Illinois
13. Valparaiso
14. Xavier

Thus, the most of the major urban market located with the 350 mile radius of Terre Haute are contained: Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. Only Louisville and Nashville would not be included, but there are no institutions in those cities that would fit into such a conference.

As for sports programs broadly construed, the Big Midwest would be completely viable:

Basketball: 14 teams
Football (1-AA): 8 teams
Baseball: 12 teams
Soccer: 12 teams
Cross Country: 14 teams
Golf: 12 teams
Track & Field: 10 teams
Swimming and Diving: 7 teams
Tennis: 12 teams

This, to me at least, makes sense. Only Murray State's rifle team is left out of the Big Midwest men's athletic schedule, and the geographic balance is maintained.

By state:

Illinois: 5 schools
Indiana: 4 schools
Ohio: 2 schools
Missouri: 1 school
Kentucky: 1 school
Wisconsin: 1 school

For basketball play, I envision two divisions, East and West, divided thusly:

East Division:

Xavier
Dayton
Indiana State
Butler
Valparaiso
Evansville
Murray State


West Division:

St. Louis
DePaul
Marquette
Bradley
Illinois State
Eastern Illinois
Southern Illinois

This would make for an 16 game conference schedule (home and home in division, and one game with four teams from the other division) akin to what conferences like the ACC have already. Given the geographic proximity of the schools the natural rivalries that would develop are obvious (and some existing rivalries would be continued.)

Apropos Of Nothing

USA!!!! USA!!!!!!!!!!!!

USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As Predicted

The Magpies are having a tough go of it today. I have to imagine the spirit in the club is low, given all of the off-the-field trials.

Fulham up 2 at the half.

UPDATED:

Fulham 4 - 0 Notts County

Valiant run ending in naught.

Maybe like the entire existence of the club?

A New St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Notts County plays Fulham tomorrow in the 5th round of the FA Cup tomorrow, and I expect them to get absolutely drilled. Notts had been having their finest season in a decade, but the wheels have fallen off the club. Old investors turned out to be con-artists who have, basically, bankrupted the club; ol' Sven hung around as long as he could, but that only turned out to be six months; new owner seems committed to keeping the club out of administration (which is good), but seems to envision them as a permanent 3 or 4 division side (which is totally fucking unacceptable.)

It's one thing to support a side that is down of their luck, but which had a history of some success and the prospect of getting back to successful ways one day. It's another thing to be supporting the equivalent of Dag & Red. I mean, if I was living in Nottingham supporting the local side even though they always offer an inferior product would be fine. But, I don't live in Nottingham. I live in the United States.

If things continue this way, I may have to rethink some things.

A Modest Proposal

News concerning the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame:

*The financially stricken National Soccer Hall of Fame is departing its Oneonta, N.Y., facility and moving permanent displays to various locations around the country. Those sites are to be determined in the coming months. The Hall has existed since 1979 and been based at the current site for 11 years.

Given the historical importance of soccer to the St. Louis community, I believe the soccer powers that be ought to push to move the Soccer Hall of Fame permanently to the Gateway to the West.

No offense to Oneonta, which I'm sure is fabulous, but it's only claim to fame that I can see is that it is vaguely near Cooperstown. St. Louis, on the other hand, has World Cup history behind it, the Hermann Trophy, the (sadly long gone) NCAA soccer dynasty that was St. Louis University, and scores of U.S. soccer luminaries past and present. Also, the St. Louis community can be counted upon to support the Hall in a way few other communities could.

It makes sense.

Justice (The Lack Thereof In The NHL)

I'm just gonna say this: If experience is any guide, had the Blues "scored" the Red Wings "goals" last night, and the Red Wings had scored the Blues goals, the game would have ended 3-0 in regulation in favor of the Detroit. There is no way the first two goals would not have been called "kicked", or that the last goal would have either A) been blown dead as being "unsighted", or been ruled knocked in by a hand (which it was.)

Only when it will benefit their so-called "standard bearers" will the NHL call a back heel NOT a form of kicking. I guarantee you if the Blues (or Panthers or Hurricanes or any regular team) is playing Detroit or Pittsburgh, any back heeled goal will be called back as having been kicked.

This Is Wrong On So Many Levels

Another for the "What the fuck are they thinking" file: Brewers to erect 7-foot high statue of Bud Selig outside Miller Park

The Brewers are erecting a statue of baseball commissioner Bud Selig outside Miller Park and will unveil it on Aug. 24.

Selig headed a group that bought the Seattle Pilots in bankruptcy court in 1970, moved the franchise to Milwaukee and renamed it the Brewers.

Oh, wow. Someone call a sculptor, stat!

Really, this is the sort of stupid idea that usually only results in the aftermath of a head of state departing to the hereafter. And, yes, I'm thinking here of the McKinley monument in the Antietam National Battlefield Park, dedicated to the memory of the day the future President served coffee to troops while under fire.

I'm not joking. That really is what it commemorates. Compared to what they are planning to do in Milwaukee the McKinley monument seems downright sane.

Pitchers And Catchers Report In...

days.

Not that I'm counting or anything.

What A Fantastic Game

And I'm not talking about the stupid Super Bowl.

Idiots Desist, Please

If you ever read stories about the Billikens on Stltoday.com you are often bombarded by fools who keep saying how SLU would be better off in the Missouri Valley Conference as opposed to the Atlantic Ten. This is utter nonsense on a stick, and the basketball RPI makes this abundantly clear. As of today the top six teams in the A-10 have an average RPI of 31.33. The top six teams in the MVC have an average RPI of 85.17.

To give you some idea of context here, the Colonial Athletic Conferece, home of such basketball powers as VCU, Northeastern, and William & Mary, scores a 80.17 for its top six teams; the WAC, containing such stalwarts as Utah State, Louisiana Tech, and New Mexico State, come in at 95.33 in the rankings.

The top six teams in the Big 10, on the other hand, score a 29; the SEC scores a 33.

So, you really want to be in a league sitting somewhere between the CAA and the WAC, instead of a league sitting somewhere between the Big 10 and the SEC?

Good luck with that.

I Don't Remember Reading About This

Yikes. I mean yikes:

Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday he dropped John Harkes from the national team roster two months before the 1998 World Cup because the American captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda.

Harkes has long denied having an affair with Amy Wynalda.

Wynalda brought up the situation Monday night during a discussion on "Fox Football Fone-In" about a scandal in England over an alleged relationship between current English captain John Terry and the former partner of Wayne Bridge, his teammate on the national squad.

Sampson told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was glad the story was coming out now because "maybe people will have a little better of an understanding of what happened in the final months leading up to the World Cup."

---

Wynalda said he spoke out during the program he co-hosts on Fox Soccer Channel because he was asked about Terry, who has been front-page news since Saturday in British newspapers.

"There's a lot of similarities between what happened to us in '98 and what's happening now to England," Wynalda told the AP. "It's an unfortunate time for England, because I know how that can affect a team firsthand. Obviously, we all know how we did in the World Cup in '98."

Somehow Harkes forgot to put this into his book.

That is ironic because it seems, evidently, he's quite good and putting things into stuff.

Woooo - HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Go you Pies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wigan 0 - 2 Notts County

Notts County stunned Wigan with two late goals in their fourth-round replay to set up a clash with Fulham in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

League Two County, the lowest-ranked side remaining in the competition this season, eventually took the lead via a powerful header from Stephen Hunt.

Gary Caldwell then turned a Ben Davies cross into his own net only three minutes later to silence the crowd.

Wigan will rue a host of saves from County goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

The hosts, who came back to draw the first game 2-2, were on top for long periods but failed to find a way past the inspired keeper who turned in a performance reminiscent of his father Peter.

I really thought Notts had blown it when they gave up a late lead at home to force the replay. To go in an beat a Premiere League team on their home ground is simply fantastic.

Good going lads!!

Steve Ralston Signs With AC St. Louis

This is a nice feel-good story of local boy made good:

It took AC St. Louis exactly one signing to establish its St. Louis coaching and player connection.

That connection is midfielder Steve Ralston, who was announced Monday as the first player signed by the new professional men’s soccer team. Ralston, a native of Oakville, also will serve as the team’s assistant coach.

Ralston has played 14 seasons in Major League Soccer, the last eight in Boston with the New England Revolution. He’s been part of the MLS since it began, was the league’s rookie of the year, and holds several MLS records.

“My contract was up in New England, and negotiations were going OK,” Ralston said. “When I heard about this team in St. Louis, I asked my agent a couple weeks ago to give them a call and see what was up with that. It all snowballed pretty quickly.”

Ralston said he could have played another year in the MLS, but saw AC St. Louis as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help build a new team from the ground up in his hometown. “It was a chance to be part of something pretty special here,” he said.

It's great to see Ralston so pumped up about going home to build something, and I have to think the soccer fans in St. Louis are getting just as excited.

But, I'm in a quandary. I don't live in St. Louis anymore, but I'm still emotionally tied to the community. It never mattered in soccer (except the college game where I support SLU), as St. Louis didn't have an MLS club. My attachment to DC United it thus secure. However, in the lower leagues I've been following the Minnesota Thunder, as they are only forty minutes away and I can make multiple games a season. Do I switch to AC St. Louis now?

Ugh... I've no idea who I'm gonna wind up rooting for.

UPDATE:

Of course, I should have said "Un-named team formerly known as the Minnesota Thunder" but old habits die hard. Of course, if no teams comes together maybe I won't have an issue at all. That would suck. I've enjoyed going to the matches.

AC St. Louis Becomes More Tangible

Well, today is the day NASL side AC St. Louis announces its first signing. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is speculating that out of contract Steve Ralston, late of the New England Revolution in MLS, may be the guy. If so that would be quite a nice way for AC St. Louis to start.

It should be interesting whichever way they go.

More later on today....