RandBall: Will St. Thomas and the Gophers develop a sports rivalry?

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UST being good would be a benefit imo for a couple reasons.
  1. Competition creates urgency and forced growth. I think a little competition would help the U in donations and not allow complacency.
  2. It will create more attention if it becomes a rivalry and everyone will benefit. More tickets will be sold (revenue), more media attention, and more TV viewership because the game would be in demand.
UST has a shot to be good. If you look at larger metro universities who are successful in basketball, many are private schools. They have a good donor base and will be supported. Having a Cincinnati/Xavier or Marquette/Wiskey rivalry helps those programs.
 
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manderson1984 said:
UST being good would be a benefit imo for a couple reasons.
  1. Competition creates urgency and forced growth. I think a little competition would help the U in donations and not allow complacency.
  2. It will create more attention if it becomes a rivalry and everyone will benefit. More tickets will be sold (revenue), more media attention, and more TV viewership because the game would be in demand.
UST has a shot to be good. If you look at larger metro universities who are successful in basketball, many are in larger metro areas. They have a good donor base and will be supported. Having a Cincinnati/Xavier or Marquette/Wiskey rivalry helps those programs.
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UST may get larger donations.
 

MplsGopher said:
OK, well I don't need Marquette to be great in order for them to 1) have a rivalry with Wisconsin, and 2) point out that the rivalry hasn't prevented Wisconsin from doing great things.

I was only proposing that UST can be analogous to Marquette, in that sense.
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You said they were great, I simply said Marquette has not been a great team over the last 8 years because they haven't even been close
 

If I was the Gophers I would stay away from playing St. Thomas. The Gophers will probably lose.
 

manderson1984 said:
UST being good would be a benefit imo for a couple reasons.
  1. Competition creates urgency and forced growth. I think a little competition would help the U in donations and not allow complacency.
  2. It will create more attention if it becomes a rivalry and everyone will benefit. More tickets will be sold (revenue), more media attention, and more TV viewership because the game would be in demand.
UST has a shot to be good. If you look at larger metro universities who are successful in basketball, many are in larger metro areas. They have a good donor base and will be supported. Having a Cincinnati/Xavier or Marquette/Wiskey rivalry helps those programs.
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I like the idea of a grand sort of Big Ten publics vs Big East Catholic privates cross-over challenge, as well.

And yes obviously this isn't an exact, perfect fit of that. But perhaps one day ...

Minnesota - UST
Wisconsin - Marquette
Iowa - Drake
Nebraska - Creighton
NW - Depaul
Illinois - Loyola Chicago
Purdue - Notre Dame

IU - Butler (note: not Catholic, did not know that!)
OSU - Dayton
Michigan -
Michigan St -
Penn St - Villanova
Maryland - Georgetown
Rutgers - Seton Hall

Bonus:
Cincinati - Xavier
Pitt - Duquesne
UConn - Providence
Syracuse - St John's
Umass - Boston College



Not sure who to pick for the Michigan schools. There is Detroit Mercy, but they're fairly low level in the Horizon League. Otherwise there are some other choices in the A10 that are Catholic. None in Michigan though.
 




It is great for basketball. More camps, more clinics, more kids playing, more competition. Play them every 3rd year or so like UW has with Green Bay, UWM.
 





howeda7 said:
There is no argument that St. Thomas becoming a power 5-ish team is helpful to the Gophers.
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How can any argument every be made that any other team doing anything good helps your team?

The argument, rather, is that it wouldn't hurt the Gophers.
 

There AD is a former Gopher Associate AD and professor. He will try to play the Gophers as soon as possible. It will be whether the Gophers decline the offer. Rivalries are good and this will be one that should happen IMO. If they get the right coach after the transition, the sky is the limit.
 





MplsGopher said:
Marquette is a great program, and Wisc still has done great things.

I don't think IU or OSU complain about Butler or Xavier. And so on. I see way more good overall than bad. That is my opinion. And still obviously a very long way for them to go. But it seems like a no-brainer to me. St Paul/TC is a great Catholic market that makes sense for them to have a team.
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Saying the buckeyes don’t complain about... the musketeers...!?!

UC says ouch to that comment ;)
 

MaxyJR1 said:
There AD is a former Gopher Associate AD and professor. He will try to play the Gophers as soon as possible. It will be whether the Gophers decline the offer. Rivalries are good and this will be one that should happen IMO. If they get the right coach after the transition, the sky is the limit.
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The Gophers play Summit League teams every year, in the "warm up" games.

I don't see why that doesn't "help" those schools (usually Dakota teams), so it's OK to do it, but if it's St Thomas it would "help" them too much and so we shouldn't do it.

The Dakotas and St Thomas are going to be recruiting a lot of the same kids. 2*, low 3* in the upper midwest.
 

With schools having budget issues they may play sooner than you think.
 

Money-wise, it makes sense to play UST.

They probably would take a lower guarantee than other Summit League teams, and would draw more.

Unless they play their games off-campus (either Target Center, with the top closed off, like the Lynx or Wilkins), their home court only seats about 1,500. Playing at Williams would allow more of the students and other curious UST fans to see the team. The U would get the $$$$ from those fans.
 

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