ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Like a lot of Creighton fans, Jack
Horgan has been wandering the streets of St. Louis these past few days
in a New York State Of Mind.
"The Missouri
Valley is awesome," Horgan said, taking slow sips from a beer bottle as
his Bluejays put the finishing touches on Drake in the quarterfinals of
the 2013 MVC tournament. "No bad things to
say."
Sip.
"But
it's simply an opportunity you cannot pass up," Horgan said of the
possibility of Creighton joining the new, revamped Big East
Conference.
Sip.
"You
gotta go. You have to
go."
Sip.
"Creighton
doesn't really have a choice, if they're
offered."
Yes, these are conflicted, giddy
times for Jays faithful, who've congregated by the thousands to the
Gateway City for Arch Madness, their usual March pilgrimage, a blue army
in beads and overalls. For four days, downtown St. Louis is Omaha
East.
Creighton has won 11 MVC tourneys, more than
twice that of any other current member school (Southern Illinois is next
on the list, with five). If the Jays cut down the nets again, it'll be
their eighth Arch Madness title since 1999.
It might also be their
last.
The Big East conference officially
split into two camps Friday: Starting July 1, the "Catholic 7" cadre of
basketball-first schools is headed one direction, taking the "Big East"
name with them. Meanwhile, the football-playing schools are going the
other direction, reportedly to be rechristened the "America 12," a
moniker that sounds more like a movie multiplex than a sporting
collective.
The slimmer, hoops-first Big
East is slated to launch in the fall with 10 members, possibly as many
as 12. Creighton is expected to receive an invitation, part of an
alleged short list that includes peer Midwest institutions such as
Xavier, Dayton, Saint Louis, and Butler. Six of the projected members of
the rebranded Big East — half the loop — figure to be dancing in the
NCAA tournament later this month. From the starting blocks, it's going
to be a powerhouse.
Officially, though,
nothing is official yet — not from a membership standpoint,
anyway.
So the Jays are milling about Scottrade
Center, trying to act like it's business as usual, even though everyone
sort of knows it isn't. MVC commissioner Doug Elgin, a good man at the
head of a good, storied, stable league, has kept a brave face publicly
even as the sharks continue to circle.
But there's a
little less spring to Elgin's step than usual. He knows what's coming.
Everyone knows what's coming.
Well, OK,
almost everyone.
"Myself
and my staff and my team are not on the need-to-know list," Creighton
coach Greg McDermott cracked the other day. "So there's no chatter going
on with us. We know nothing. ... We haven't been let in on that.
Obviously, the chatter is out there, but it won't impact our
preparation."
To be frank, it hasn't
affected the enthusiasm of Jays fans, either. After the Drake game, Alex
Campbell, 26, of Omaha, stood outside of the arena wearing a replica
Doug McDermott jersey, offering high-fives to any passer-by wearing Jays
blue.
"You know what? When I picture
Marquette and Georgetown coming to Omaha, I think, ‘holy (expletive),
that would be huge,'" Campbell allowed. "In Omaha, when Wichita State
comes to town, it's like a huge, huge game. If we have those caliber of
schools coming to town every other week, I think that would be
huge."
From a purely economic purview, it
seems like a no-brainer. Creighton rakes in an estimated $350,000 or so
annually in television revenue as part of the MVC; The renovated Big
East will reportedly dole out roughly $3 million per year to each member
school as part of its new broadcast partnership with FOX Sports.
But from a basketball perspective, a move
isn't without complications, potentially. It remains to be seen how well
the Bluejays would go from being one of the biggest fish in a smallish
pond to just another fish in a sea of hoops
heavyweights.
Creighton reportedly spent $4.4 million
on basketball in 2011, according to an Omaha World-Herald report; the
average spending for "Catholic 7" schools over that same span was $7.5
million. A typical "Catholic 7" athletic department operated with a
$27.5-million budget in 2011; the Jays were at $15.1 million, according
to the newspaper.
The Catholic 7/Big East
is likely to keep historic Madison Square Garden as its tournament home,
which is a mixed blessing for Nebraskans used to chasing the Jays
throughout the month of March. There's the newness and obvious charms of
the bright lights of the Big Apple, Broadway, The City That Never
Sleeps. Then again, as of Friday, the cheapest round-trip flight between
Omaha and New York's La Guardia Airport between March 13-17, according
to the website Travelocity.com, checked in at
$695.30.
"We were just talking about that
in the car ride down here," said Tom Storm, Horgan's cousin and another
Creighton lifer. "Going to Madison Square Garden, don't get me wrong, is
going to be amazing. But you know, the first, what, five years,
everybody's going to go — it's like, ‘Wow, New York, The Garden, come on
Creighton!'
"And then after that, for me, I'm not
going to be able to afford it. You drive down here, you've got to fly
out there. I'm going to miss it."
"I think
it'll be a culture shock," Horgan added.
"The first few years are going to be
really difficult," Storm continued. "People are going to
question if this move was the right move. ... I think, overall, it's
going to be great for the school. It really is. I think they're
(initially) going to struggle and everyone's going to look, that doesn't
know the school, and be like, why the hell is this team in the
conference?'"
This year's MVC tournament is
the fifth Arch Madness junket for Storm, 31, and the sixth for Horgan,
23, who's on track to graduate from Creighton's law school in 2014.
After watching the first half of the Jays-Drake tilt in person, he and
Storm ducked out to catch the second half from the MVC Fan Hangout at
the Sheraton St. Louis City Center Hotel, a bar/restaurant about a block
south of the arena.
The Sheraton used to
be the official Jays team hotel, and the Fan Hangout used to be a sports
bar called Jacque's, where the blue army liked to drink up and get down
between game sessions.
Lots of history
here, some of it unprintable, much of it, um — hazy.
"Nothing I can say," Horgan cracked. "I
was waaaay underage at that
point."
"There were some good times here,"
Storm said. "It is sad."
"No doubt about
that," Jack countered. "But whatever change happens, you're going to
feel nostalgic about something, you know? I mean, it's something
Creighton has to do."
With that, Horgan
took another sip and grinned, a silent toast to the future. Like the
song goes, if Jays fans can make it there, they'll make it
anywhere.
You can follow Sean
Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler
or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com
