DoubleJayAlum wrote:valleychamp wrote:Who in this conference has been of more "value" (both publicity-wise and monetarily) to this conference than UNI in that span?
Okay, I'll bite.
First we'll talk about the money side of your statement.
It is without question that UNI has had its best ever success in basketball since 2004. In the ten year span you outline, UNI has 5 appearances all coming in 2004 or after (although it may be worth pointing out that the coach that earned three of those bids is now the coach at Creighton). In that same period, UNI has two NCAA tournament wins.
In the last 10 years, Creighton has 5 tourney appearances and two NCAA wins as well. On top of that, since you want to discuss monetary figures, I'd add that Creighton almost universally has the most or second most fans in St Louis, most of which buy all session ticket passes. Contrast the revenue Creighton has generated for the conference via tourney ticket sales to UNI's and they aren't even in the same stratosphere. Then, multiply that tremendous discrepancy by ten to reflect the fact that Creighton has brought huge crowds down there for all of the last ten years. Since that conference tourney ticket money goes to the MVC is spread throughout the conference, I'd suggest that Creighton has contributed more from a monetary perspective.
[Of course, limiting the time period to the last decade is pretty beneficial in skewing the results UNI's way. Make it eleven years and Creighton has another NCAA appearance. Make it 12 and there are two more, start with Y2k and there are three more for Creighton, but we'll stick to your arbitrary period for now.]
Switching the issue to "publicity-wise" to use your words---
There is no doubt that UNI's win over Kansas was great for the conference. However, I'd argue that Doug making first team all american last year and being a preseason all american this year in every single publication/website/blog that discusses college basketball at a bare bones minimum offsets the attention UNI received. Add to that the publicity garnered by playing UNC last year, Creighton's preseason rankings this year (highest for any MVC conference member since about 1981!!!) and the corresponding "publicity-wise" attention such rankings bring nationally and I'd say the scale tips toward Creighton's side. I'd also add that Creighton currently has two players in the NBA, thereby generating a bit more attention and providing all MVC schools with a counter to the "you have to play in a BCS conference to make the league" recruiting pitch that is often used against us. UNI has no NBA players.
Case in point, at best Creighton has achieved equal to UNI the last 10 years, despite their market (!) advantage, and their attendance advantage. I am not/was not knocking Creighton or anyone else. I was only arguing for UNI. Creighton, like UNI, has a lot to be proud of.
-No, its not worth mentioning that Creighton's coach is UNI's former coach (unless you want to talk about the only reason in which he is at Creighton, which is that he was a complete an utter failure at Iowa State).
-Exactly what time period would you like me to utilize DJA??? Is 10 years not a round enough number for you? If my intent was to skew toward UNI, I would have used 8 years. Use whatever time frame you want I don't care, it doesn't change UNI's accomplishments.
-UNI does well in STL ticket sales. No, not in the same realm as CU and WSU at this point.
-Winning two NCAA tournament games 10 years apart =/= 2 wins in the same year making the S16. Idiotic argument.
-Equating Doug being an All-American to UNI beating #1 KU to make the Sweet Sixteen is completely silly, and disrespectful to UNI. There is no way to say this without sounding like a condescending a-hole (you should know what that feels like) so I apologize for this, but you will know what I am talking about if Creighton is ever fortunate enough to make a deep run in the NCAA's.
