University of Southern Indiana moving to D1

[DUBulldog]

Right now, I don't see any good choices for expansion, unless somebody like Wichita or St Louis want to join.

I think 12 is a good number. If you expand any further, I think you have to add a team that is likely to increase the number of bids the MVC gets. I don't see St. Thomas, UMKC, UNO, etc doing that. South Dakota State is intriguing, but I'm not sure if you can add them without adding all the Dakota schools, which would be difficult from a travel standpoint for most of the MVC.

[bleach]

I wouldn't want two programs in Chicago, let alone Evansville or any other city in the MVC. It really makes no sense.

I think USI has the potential to make a successful transition. The facilities, especially their new arena is better than many D-1 schools, including a few of our own. I truly hope they do, and I hope it pushes our administration to finally wake the hell up. Evansville can support 2 D-1 programs, but they both better be running on all cylinders.

Agreed. Could we replace Evansville with USI?

[Roberts Stadium]

USI to The Valley would make no sense. Back in the day when it was about rivalries and bus trips maybe, but today it's about markets and athletic budgets and you'd be doubling down on a small city with next to no additional value. And even if UE left you'd be replacing a private with a public which would throw off the balance even more.

I think it'll be interesting to see if a market this size can support two Div I teams although the lower echelon of Div I today is basically Div II of yesterday. I will admit I wouldn't be surprised if UE dropped down a division or two eventually because I still think when everything is said and done there will be a huge fallout from COVID with a lot of teams having to make tough decisions. I had heard that there were more teams wanting to drop down to Div II then move up to Div I. I'm surprised that there hasn't been movement on that already especially with the future of education shifting away from big universities as well. UE is a small private university that can't rely on public funding like USI and they've been fighting off relegation already.

This move would have been much better for both programs if the city would have built the downtown arena when they were trying in 98 with Pearl and USI instead of UE. I'll miss GLVC basketball but am looking forward to seeing both the valley conferences in town.

[AcesAces]

USI to The Valley would make no sense. Back in the day when it was about rivalries and bus trips maybe, but today it's about markets and athletic budgets and you'd be doubling down on a small city with next to no additional value. And even if UE left you'd be replacing a private with a public which would throw off the balance even more.

I think it'll be interesting to see if a market this size can support two Div I teams although the lower echelon of Div I today is basically Div II of yesterday. I will admit I wouldn't be surprised if UE dropped down a division or two eventually because I still think when everything is said and done there will be a huge fallout from COVID with a lot of teams having to make tough decisions. I had heard that there were more teams wanting to drop down to Div II then move up to Div I. I'm surprised that there hasn't been movement on that already especially with the future of education shifting away from big universities as well. UE is a small private university that can't rely on public funding like USI and they've been fighting off relegation already.

This move would have been much better for both programs if the city would have built the downtown arena when they were trying in 98 with Pearl and USI instead of UE. I'll miss GLVC basketball but am looking forward to seeing both the valley conferences in town.

I think it is great for both schools, the city, the local high schools and the entire region. Those of us in the Evansville area now have 2 schools that will be competing for our attention and money. We have more variety in the D1 teams coming to Evansville. USI in the OVC, or ASUN, or Horizon, means an entire conference of new teams coming to Evansville. Our local players now have 2 choices if they want to stay around home.

UE must get its act together, not just in MBB basketball, but in baseball (USI has a great coach, great program and 2 recent NCAA D2 Championships), Women's Softball (Another NCAA D2 championship), WBB and Soccer. If UE continues to suck it, then a trip to the West side will be more attractive.

And I can see the Ford Center stuffed with 10,000+ for an annual crosstown showdown.

Step up to the challenge UE Aces or get left behind.

[Milanmiracle]

No reason to think that Belmont could do what they did in the short amount of time they did it either, but they did. Im just not willing to write off anybody just yet.

Same. They have a strong program at the level they’re at, but pairing them with NKU is intriguing after some improvements from both. NKU with budget and USI with stepping up a level.

[BCPanther]

No reason to think that Belmont could do what they did in the short amount of time they did it either, but they did. Im just not willing to write off anybody just yet.

Same. They have a strong program at the level they’re at, but pairing them with NKU is intriguing after some improvements from both. NKU with budget and USI with stepping up a level.

I'm in favor of anything to get the Eastern Schools more bus trips. We need to dominate the highly coveted Evansville market.

[IllinoisState]

No reason to think that Belmont could do what they did in the short amount of time they did it either, but they did. Im just not willing to write off anybody just yet.

Same. They have a strong program at the level they’re at, but pairing them with NKU is intriguing after some improvements from both. NKU with budget and USI with stepping up a level.

I'm in favor of anything to get the Eastern Schools more bus trips. We need to dominate the highly coveted Evansville market.

If we were to expand to 16 teams for the 23-24 season who are the 4 best options currently available?

[VUGrad1314]

You asked me what intrigues me most about St Thomas? It's the market and location (it's a nod to the western schools because it's clear that the league has shifted decidedly south and east over the past quarter century or so but also the endowment. I think I saw somewhere that they're at $400million or so which might be a bit dated but it would to my knowledge be one of the largest endowments in the MVC showing that they have the money to compete. There also appears to be a great deal of will on the part of the alumni base to support a competitive athletics program as evidenced by their D3 to D1 transition. They are to my knowledge in year one of that D3 to D1 transition whereas Bellarmine is in year two of a D2 to D1 transition. I would expect that Bellarmine would be ahead of St Thomas as a program. I'm also pretty sure that Bellarmine has a smaller endowment than UST. I like the potential of both and I think the MVC should be monitoring their progress but this is a 5-10+ year project in virtually any case. I believe that any expansion add needs to add to the MVC's prospects of multiple bids so we need to see a Belmont\Murray State run of success from any school to seriously consider it. At a minimum we need to see a string of top 100 seasons which will provide at least a Q2 opportunity for the league to enhance the resumes within the league. I also believe that geographic preference should be given to western locations at this point which is why South Dakota State and Oral Roberts are on the list of teams that should be considered if the MVC expands. My primary objection to the western adds considered in the last round of expansion was that we were expanding our travel budgets for bad or risky programs like UMKC UNO and UTA. I don't see the point in doing that for the MVC especially when these adds would have been potentially made at the expense of an obvious candidate like Murray State or would have diluted the league to 14 teams with only one of the adds (Murray) being a known quantity. When a known quantity in the west shows up that enhances the league we should absolutely consider adding them. The only eastern schools that merit consideration outside of Bellarmine are NKU and Wright State and both of them need work before they can really be considered. As I said this is a 5-10+ year process and I don't think a move should be made until we see a proven track record of performance. The only thing that jumps this timeline would be if a realignment caused by a reorganization of the NCAA gives us a great potential candidate we weren't expecting that can enhance the league. Other than that we're fine right now.

[VUGrad1314]

Same. They have a strong program at the level they’re at, but pairing them with NKU is intriguing after some improvements from both. NKU with budget and USI with stepping up a level.

I'm in favor of anything to get the Eastern Schools more bus trips. We need to dominate the highly coveted Evansville market.

If we were to expand to 16 teams for the 23-24 season who are the 4 best options currently available?

Nobody. Why would we do that?

[TBS_20]

Best? NDSU, SDSU, NKU, St. Thomas

Likely? UTA, UMKC, Milwaukee, Oral Roberts

But, I agree that we should wait it out or better quality. Someone will be left out we want to snatch up.