Should the Missouri Valley expand?

by **MVCfans** » October 7th, 2011, 3:13 pm

I posted my thoughts as a note on The MVC Report - I'd rather be the aggressor than the victim. If we could add schools like Butler, Cleveland State, Detroit, and Saint Louis we could be the premier non-BCS leagues.

link: A plan for Missouri Valley Conference expansion

**Sponsor**

by **AndShock** » October 7th, 2011, 4:02 pm

Detroit and Cleveland State?

2k attendance schools are the last thing I want.

by **SubGod22** » October 7th, 2011, 4:03 pm

I would actually be ok with that conference. Butler has been great and Cleveland State is pretty solid. I believe Detroit has some potential. Outside of that, those are nice markets to have in play. I could probably go for that. It's sure a heck of a lot better than AFA.

by **MVCfans** » October 7th, 2011, 4:05 pm

AndShock wrote:Detroit and Cleveland State?

2k attendance schools are the last thing I want.

Well, I see that side of it too - I probably looked too closely at the size of the possible television markets. The more I think about it, if Xavier and Temple left the A-10, we might be able to get Dayton.

by **SubGod22** » October 7th, 2011, 4:08 pm

I knew Detroits attendance wouldn't be great but was surprised to see CSU at only 3200. Does CSU have the potential to do much better? I'm not familiar enough to know. Most schools we'd be looking at would be over shadowed by bigger in state schools.

by **FeartheQ** » October 7th, 2011, 6:31 pm

The West Division would be tough!

by **AndShock** » October 7th, 2011, 7:37 pm

SubGod22 wrote:I knew Detroits attendance wouldn't be great but was surprised to see CSU at only 3200. Does CSU have the potential to do much better? I'm not familiar enough to know. Most schools we'd be looking at would be over shadowed by bigger in state schools.

They had 2500 for a game against us a couple of years ago. Last year in a huge game against Butler they had 8k, but I don't know if Butler fans traveled for that. I expect 3-4k per game is about their peak, they had a really good year last year. They managed 5000 on senior night.

by **sixth ace** » October 7th, 2011, 9:50 pm

I would believe a north /south division would be better for travel

North

Drake
Creighton
UNI
Cleveland State
Detroit
Bradley
Ill State

South

Butler
St Louis
InSU
WSU
UE
SIU
MSU

All the schools are within 5 hours bus rides of each other excluding WSU in the South and Cleveland State in the North
TV market would be served with regional schools playing each other
:Cheers:

by **DUBulldog** » October 7th, 2011, 10:28 pm

sixth ace wrote:I would believe a north /south division would be better for travel

North

Drake
Creighton
UNI
Cleveland State
Detroit
Bradley
Ill State

South

Butler
St Louis
InSU
WSU
UE
SIU
MSU

All the schools are within 5 hours bus rides of each other excluding WSU in the South and Cleveland State in the North
TV market would be served with regional schools playing each other

Detroit would have a 12 hour bus ride to Omaha, and nearly that long to Des Moines. Other than Drake and UNI, Creighton would have longer than a 5 hour bus ride to every other North Division team.

by **pafan** » October 7th, 2011, 11:11 pm

East:
Bradley
Butler
Cleveland State
Detroit
Evansville
Indiana State
Illinois State

Longest bus trip: Detroit <=> Evansville: 8 hrs.
Close second: Normal <=> Cleveland: 7:45 hrs
This division has a centroid near Marion, IN.

West:
Creighton
Drake
Missouri State
Northern Iowa
Saint Louis
Southern Illinois
Wichita State

Longest bus trip: Carbondale <=> Wichita: 9 hrs
This division has a centroid near Chillicothe, MO.

This proposed conference structure and schedule (h&h in division, one game each year in opposite division) might actually reduce travel costs for hoops. But you have to look at scheduling for sports like Volleyball and Baseball to get a full picture of the travel needs of each member school.