BCPanther wrote:I'll reiterate the Wichita chose the s*** covered bed and now they can lay in it.
When the entire reason your league exists is because everyone got passed over and everyone's stated goal is to get out, you don't get complain when everyone starts getting out.
Zero sympathy for them. Hitch your horse to a racist bully that says the dumbest, arrogant things imaginable and get what you deserve.
100% agree with BC on this. The Valpo fan and others who are pining for Wichita sound like some lonely, jilted lover, sitting by the phone waiting on the cheating ex to call back. I don't begrudge them for leaving..I would take Creighton back in a nano-second. They simply do not fit.
Q1 wins today don't equal automatic Q1 wins forever. How many Q1 wins were the Shockers good for between 88-06? Everyone in this league has had periods of success and periods of being the dregs. The good thing with us, is when our schools are the dregs, they typically are still spending and drawing well above the dregs in many conferences. The point being, presidents don't care about the hot basketball team of the day, or if the online fanbase is full of assbags like Wichita, as much as they do things like institutional compatibility, academics and reputation. When we finally resolve the Murray obstacles, we will have 6 publics who are fantastic fits across the board, and 6 privates the same. Where does a non-football public in Kansas fit into this scenario? Again, it simply doesn't.
I know Valpo fan, they have a national image. Wichita and Loyola gave this league a recent Final Four run. Loyola gave us Sister Jean and Chicago. Wichita presented an abusive coach who went down in flames as well as his drunken wife. Their last period of success came crashing down with probation in the late 80's. In between those periods, the only other time they were in the national spotlight was when they looked the other way, and actually defended their beloved baseball coach, after he ordered a 95MPH fastball to the temple of an opposing player, who was in the on-deck circle. All for the horrible crime of appearing to time pitches. Unlike some of you, my image of Wichita has nothing to do with their on-line warriors. I actually enjoyed some of them.
The Great Midwest, Conference USA, Sun Belt and now AAC were all conferences that started out as the hottest new thing in athletics. All have or are falling for the exact reasons some of you are advocating we follow....add schools for current basketball or football status without any institutional fit. SLU, Dayton and now Wichita are just some of the programs who have been burned by jumping into these situations, and then suddenly left behind when the others bolt. The new Big East is the one exception, and guess what, they all have institutional fit.
We will never be a P5 conference, and it is doubtful any of our members will be in one. It is also entirely possible at some point, we won't even be playing in the same tournament. If our end game is to be the best of the rest, then our stability, and institutional compatibility will be our biggest strength. Like I said, our soon to be 12 members all bring a history of athletic success, as well as long term stability and compatibility. Finish up the Murray details, and turn the No Vacancy light on.
