I think there are more fans who follow their favorite schools, but I wouldn’t just brush aside basketball fans who enjoy watching the best players dominate during college.

Both sets of fans exist.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

If it were as provincial as Brick keeps suggesting then why hasn't there been interest in DePaul basketball for the better part of 25 years?

I say this as a guy that can remember a time (bet Brick can't) when Depaul basketball was bigger in this city than the Chicago Bulls.

Why isn't there interest in St. John's?. Its obvious. When they stopped paying for iconic players no one much cared about them any longer.

Yes they have and if they weren't then Depaul would have been selling out for years.

Why isn't Northwestern a hot bed for basketball?

Penn State?

In the shadow of football
At a school where the football program captures the vast majority of media and fan interest, the basketball program has historically struggled for relevance. According to ESPN.com writer and Penn State graduate[2] Dana O'Neil,

“ For years the basketball team has been a little sister of the poor stepchild to football, a winter afterthought given all the tending and care of a vegetable garden positioned in the middle of a nuclear field. Administrative support waffles between tepid applause and casual indifference.[3] ”
In O'Neil's view, the "stepchild" status of the program was most starkly illustrated by the last weeks of the 2010–11 season. The team normally practices at a dedicated facility within the Jordan Center. However, for nearly a week in February, while the team was making a run for an NCAA at-large bid, Bon Jovi took over the entire BJC—including the practice facilities—for rehearsals for their upcoming concert tour, which opened at the BJC. The following week, the team was evicted from the BJC for a career fair[2] and for the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.[4] On both occasions, the team was forced to practice at the nearby Intramural Building, a facility normally used by Penn State's volleyball teams. Although retrofitted with basketball hoops, the space left much to be desired. Multiple holes for volleyball net stanchions had to be taped over. During the Bon Jovi rehearsals, the hoops had been visibly lower than regulation height. While this error was corrected the following week, one of the hoops remained visibly misaligned.[4]

If it were as provincial as Brick keeps suggesting then why hasn't there been interest in DePaul basketball for the better part of 25 years?

I say this as a guy that can remember a time (bet Brick can't) when Depaul basketball was bigger in this city than the Chicago Bulls.

Why isn't there interest in St. John's?. Its obvious. When they stopped paying for iconic players no one much cared about them any longer.

Well, Minnesota football was once the dominant football team in the country. Times change and there are a lot of reasons why other teams may have passed them.

Are you just randomly naming teams now? Do I have to give you a list of every team in the country and why they are what they are?

St Johns was never a national power either but their decline, like most but not all of the non-football schools, has a lot to do with that too.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

I know she has to write from a sports writers perspective but her proposal really shows the corrupted position sports hold on college campuses.

The answer to irrelevance for a college isn't to become better at sports. That only leads to greater ruination. Going through the college application process, kids find great schools, most of whom have sports as an afterthought.

This thought, almost the premise of the article, is completely incorrect

"It was a moment of hope for HBCUs, and it should have been a moment of fear for the predominantly white institutions whose collective multibillion-dollar revenues have been built largely on the exertions of (uncompensated) black athletes."

Show me the school in this group who couldn't cut out sports entirely and dominate in terms of endowment: https://thebestschools.org/features/ric ... -research/

The proposal should be for the best AA students to go to these schools. That will bring back relevance without selling your academic soul to a corrupted system.

If it were as provincial as Brick keeps suggesting then why hasn't there been interest in DePaul basketball for the better part of 25 years?

I say this as a guy that can remember a time (bet Brick can't) when Depaul basketball was bigger in this city than the Chicago Bulls.

Why isn't there interest in St. John's?. Its obvious. When they stopped paying for iconic players no one much cared about them any longer.

St. John's was a national power during the 80's. You don't know what you are talking about. Why? because they played a ton of nationally televised games. When they churned out NBA caliber players more people cared about them. If you think that people care about college basketball simply because its college basketball then you are mistaken. People care about watching quality college basketball teams play. I can give you a myriad of teams that were relevant 20-30 years that aren't (GT anyone) simply because they do not have star players anymore.

Again you don't know what you are talking about.

St. John's was a national power during the 80's. You don't know what you are talking about. Why? because they played a ton of nationally televised games. When they churned out NBA caliber players more people cared about them. If you think that people care about college basketball simply because its college basketball then you are mistaken. People care about watching quality college basketball teams play. I can give you a myriad of teams that were relevant 20-30 years that aren't (GT anyone) simply because they do not have star players anymore.

Again you don't know what you are talking about.

So Duke was a mid major prior to Coach K but St John's was a national power because you saw them on tv?

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

You and Jemele are proposing to the elite athlete, Just Do It. and you expect them to come running. Why would they come running? There a a dozen reasons they wouldn't and from what I can tell, one one that they would. And the one reason is certainly against theirs and their family's self interests. Philanthropy is for those that are already successful.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

I don't think what you and Hill are suggesting is impossible but it would be a lot more difficult than Howard and Grambling signing Duke and Kentucky's recruiting classes.

I think you're underestimating the impact of the sizes of these schools and their huge alumni bases. I don't think Harvard or Claremont could pull it off either.

Your point about Northwestern actually supports the argument against you. NU is a small school more like the HBCUs in size than the massive state universities.

As far is DePaul is concerned, yeah it's big, but it's a commuter school in a big pro city.

There's something about spending four or five years in a college town that builds loyalty in a way I don't think attending college in D.C. or Atlanta or Chicago can.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

Sure its in their family's best interest to take the money that elite programs offer. The primary reason that elite players attend Kentucky, Duke and Kansas is because they are paid to attend Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky. If they paid the same way at HBCUs those same players would attend those schools too.

I haven't heard anything yet which suggests otherwise.

Do you have anything to suggest that Duke was a national power prior to the arrival of Coach K or are you simply pontificating about things you have no knowledge of as usual?

Depaul was also a big commuter school and bigger than the Bulls during the period in which you attended also. I know you are aware of that. Brick isn't however. When they had iconic, legendary players and nationally ranked every year they were a big deal. ONce they stopped attracting said players they were not.

You may not know this (You don't) but the creation and growth of the Big East was heavily powered by St. John's back then.

Do you have anything to suggest that Duke was a national power prior to the arrival of Coach K or are you simply pontificating about things you have no knowledge of as usual?

Depaul was also a big commuter school and bigger than the Bulls during the period in which you attended also. I know you are aware of that. Brick isn't however. When they had iconic, legendary players and nationally ranked every year they were a big deal. ONce they stopped attracting said players they were not.

OK. I'll concede the point. It's probable if Grambling had a slush fund, an elite athlete would consider attending. UNLV back in the day is an outstanding example. But I haven't heard you say anything about Jemele promoting segregation due to comfort.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

They played in the Final Four in 1963, 1964, 1966, and 1978.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

You said Duke was a mid major. That is 100 percent false.

This is going to reach a head pretty soon.

I did not attend DePaul. Like many Chicagoans, I certainly was a HUGE fan. But I will say what happened with them in the late 70s/early 80s was a perfect storm. I don't think if you had a ten year run of teams that good now that it would be received the same way. Chicago was so starved for a winner at that time that we would have latched onto anything.

There is not a damned thing wrong with people who are bull shitters.

Loyola also played in the National Championship game in 1963 and by 1984 they were a mid major too.

It would take more than one "Fab 5" like class at a HBCU school to make "white universities" lose power.

It would need to be years of sustained influx to multiple schools to even make a dent.

Getting on TV would be easy though.

No you aren't making any points other than "you're wrong" which is pretty weak. You have no frame of reference to back up anything that you're saying. I can however. St. John's basketball was much bigger during the early 80's than Duke happened to be.

You're abusing the term "mid-major". There was no such thing in the 60s or 70s. That's a term that relates to conference power based upon television money that didn't exist when Oscar Robertson was playing at Cincinnati or when Rutgers made the Final Four.

It would likely help their general student population. Not sure if HBCUs would follow the model as other schools who get tv exposure. Even Butler had massive jumps in applications after their success in the tournament. Alabama has a much higher quality of student today than a generation ago partially due to futbol norteamericano.

Weird, I see Dolphin looking in my asshole