If we go to 12 who do you want (choose 2) poll?

[Fargobison]

NDSU's football program has a positive impact on the basketball program, heck it has a positive impact on every sport on campus. The football booster group pays for every athletic scholarship on campus and full cost of attendance for every athlete on scholarship. NDSU Is an example of a school that feeds its football revenue to sports across campus.

San Diego State can pay a Rocky Long and a Steve Fisher and have $10 million left over, but no MVFC programs have that luxury. My point is that, when you get below a certain point, you need to make a choice-- do we want to put more resources into football or basketball? NDSU is an example of a school which, while earning revenue near the top of the MVC, will starve its basketball to prop up its football.

The school has pumped $40 million into basketball facilities, added charter flights and offered full cost of attendance the second the school had the chance. Yep, we are starving our basketball program. Not sure some people realize that the Dakota schools moved up from D2 and it was a process to realign its athletic budget while upgrading facilities. The move up from D2 basketball to DI is much bigger move then football, both we and SDSU are finally moving into a position to where we can start paying our coaches more.

[Nebraskajack]

Most people seem to want NDSU because they beat MSU and have good FCS football.

Sure they beat MSU, but NDSU opened the season with an 85-66 loss to UC Santa Barbara. So, jury's still out there.

Second, there's no correlation between FCS success and basketball success. If anything it's a negative correlation. All of the best midmajor basketball teams DON'T play football, or if they do it's non-scholie. Butler, Gonzaga, Creighton, Wichita, St. Mary's, Dayton, Rhode Island, Davidson, VCU, SLU. Makes sense, because they're not spending money on football.

Meanwhile, here's the FCS top 25 poll. A lot of really bad basketball teams.

1 James Madison (26) 650 10-0 1
2 Jacksonville State 618 9-1 2
3 Central Arkansas 572 9-1 3
4 Sam Houston State 558 9-1 4
5 South Dakota State 544 8-2 5
6 North Dakota State 535 9-1 6
T-7 North Carolina A&T 473 10-0 7
T-7 Wofford 473 9-1 8
9 Weber State 397 8-2 12
10 Western Illinois 387 7-3 13
11 Grambling State 385 9-1 11
12 Stony Brook 318 8-2 15
13 Samford 312 7-3 14
14 New Hampshire 307 7-3 16
15 Elon 269 8-2 9
16 South Dakota 257 7-3 10
17 Nicholls 217 8-2 17
18 Southern Utah 213 8-2 19
19 McNeese 199 8-2 18
20 Eastern Washington 138 6-4 21
21 Kennesaw State 136 9-1 23
22 Monmouth 135 9-1 22
23 Northern Arizona 77 7-3 24
24 Furman 73 7-3 NR
25 Illinois State 67 6-4 20

They add nothing to the recruiting footprint, they run their basketball program on the cheap and get coaches poached by Wright State. Not a wise bet for long term success on the hardwood.

Who is to say that NDSU or SDSU wouldn't step up and match current budgets or salaries in the MVC if invited. Right now they have shared the last seven tournament appearances for their conference. Why would they increase their current budgets to only get the same results? In hopes of getting into a conference that has no interest in them?

If that's the case why wouldn't your school double its budget, all the sweet sixteens that are guaranteed to come from a larger budget would help offset the difference and ensure your invite to a better conference, correct? I do understand a larger budget can help, but it is far from a guarantee. There are plenty of teams in both conferences that prove that point.

As for SDSU having their coaches poached. Up until Nagy left, all three of their major coaches (MBB, WBB, FB) were approaching twenty years in tenure and had been very successful. I still believe Nagy left more because he didn't want to spend 40 years at the same school plus he had the opportunity to get closer to family. I do understand not wanting to lose coaches and the stability that comes with it. But one thing worse than having a coach poached is never having one poached because there isn't enough success for anyone to want them.

[VUGrad1314]

I personally do not have a problem with adding the Dakotas if they are as committed to basketball as these fans say they are. The potential and success seem to be there. I would like to see a bit more consistency in their metrics but that could be predominantly because of their conference competition which is on the whole very bad. Nevertheless these look like potentially consistent top 100 programs that may occasionally challenge for a title just what we need to keep the conference strong. I still prefer Murray Belmont SLU and NKU but we could do a lot worse than the Dakotas.

[mvfcfan]

I mean I'm an Indiana State fan and the last two times we have played NDSU in Terre Haute they have brought well over a thousand fans with them. How dare we add teams to the conference that actually have real fanbases. Then they pack out the Fargodome every game (capacity somewhere around 18000). I don't remember how many fans SDSU brought to Terre Haute the last time they played down here, but I know they typically average 15000 per game. Point being both teams have large fanbases and they would no doubt bring fans to St Louis. They pack out the Sioux Falls tournament already and their tournament had a higher attendance (per session) than ours. NDSU and SDSU are just common sense pick ups long term and both schools already have good basketball teams and they've both have had good basketball almost this whole decade. And there is no doubt that they would raise their budget in basketball if the were competing in the MVC. Both of those schools have administrations and fan bases that expect to win.

[Valleyball]

I can see that. I personally don't care about football being a Bradley fan. The Dakotas would be way down my list.

[VUGrad1314]

If we're still waiting on SLU as we should be then we need to wait for the BE and AAC to make their moves. If the AAC raids the A10 in search of basketball power and the A10 takes a hit in prestige along with the MVC somehow finishing ahead of it anyway we may be able to convince SLU and maybe even Dayton to join, (though that's a tougher sell since A10 vs MVC travel probably favors staying in the A10 for the Flyers) especially if we can establish the MVC as a conference that is consistently as good or better than the A10. The Billikins may soon realize that the travel benefit is real and significant and would allow them to invest in other areas of their program and perhaps make their road to the Big East a little easier. Failing that, and if Belmont doesn't come to their senses especially with Murray State looking for leave the OVC, it should be noted that NKU, which makes sense as a travel partner for the Racers and delivers the Cincinnati market, is 4-1 with their only loss coming today to Vermont on a buzzer beater in the Bahamas showcase Final. They presently own double digit wins over programs like East Tennessee State and Iona, so it's not like the Norse are gorging on cupcakes. They are in position for another strong season and should be in consideration as the 12th team if Belmont and SLU say no.

I think the order of preference should be as follows:
Murray State and Belmont\SLU
Murray State and NKU
NDSU and SDSU
Murray State by itself
Any other scenario

[ptownbraves]

KenPom just tweeted that he has the MVC ranked in front of the A10. So obviously St. Louis needs to come to their senses and join the better conference.

[VUGrad1314]

This just begs the question: what if the MVC has an awesome year gets 2-3 bids and more than one of our "holdouts" says they want to join? Do we seize the opportunity and the momentum and expand massively to 14-16 teams? Let's just say BOTH Belmont and SLU want to join? Do we tell Murray State to wait or do we go with Belmont SLU Murray State AND NKU which would be incredible for the conference? Would we still consider other schools like to Dakotas or stop and re-evaluate if\when SLU leaves?

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

This just begs the question: what if the MVC has an awesome year gets 2-3 bids and more than one of our "holdouts" says they want to join? Do we seize the opportunity and the momentum and expand massively to 14-16 teams? Let's just say BOTH Belmont and SLU want to join? Do we tell Murray State to wait or do we go with Belmont SLU Murray State AND NKU which would be incredible for the conference? Would we still consider other schools like to Dakotas or stop and re-evaluate if\when SLU leaves?

Going to 14 would be smart but it won't happen

[jsaluki080]

We have multiple good options. I'm interested to see what happens. I'm just worried that MVC commission ends up doing nothing at all like in years past.