Sounds like Wichita St to the AAC... Who gets an Invite?

[Khan4Cats]

Gonzaga is also in a conference with similar schools with similar missions. Wichita is not.

I don't disagree at all. My question, not having been around when they left, but why did Wichita stay in the conference when Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, et al decided to leave? Those seem to be the true peer institutions (city based public university) to Wichita.

[SubGod22]

Gonzaga is also in a conference with similar schools with similar missions. Wichita is not.

I don't disagree at all. My question, not having been around when they left, but why did Wichita stay in the conference when Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, et al decided to leave? Those seem to be the true peer institutions (city based public university) to Wichita.

That's a good question and I don't know the answer. That was all well before my time. Doing so also could have saved our football as well. By the time we dropped football, in large part because the MVC dropped down a level, we had piss poor leadership and just about everything fell apart athletically outside of baseball which was basically run on its own.

The good news, if this goes down like we think/hope it will, we will be reunited with those schools soon enough. Maybe it's taken years/decades longer than it should have, but it will be nice and beneficial on a number of levels.

[uniftw]

A real interesting take on realignment and where the MVC/A10/Horizon are going.

Honestly, I like this idea and would like to see explored

http://pantheru.com/2017/03/upon-this-rock/

It's a longer read, but well worth it. Very well thought out.

Eseentially it's the "formation" of a new conference - the Greater Central Conference (GCC). Headquartered in Milwaukee. Conference tournament in Milwaukee at the Bucks new arena.

It's a solid conference. Not going to have the top 25-40 RPI teams like Wichita is, but it avoids the albatross 200+ RPI programs - which is the biggest issue in the MVC right now. Everyone's RPIs are hurt by the number of 200+ programs we have. It drags everyone down, big time.

The new conference members listed if you don't want to read it - I do suggest reading it though to understand the thought process

“For Sure”
Northern Iowa
Illinois State
Milwaukee
Valpo
Dayton
St. Louis


“The rest” listed in apparent desired order– depending on conference size of 8/10/12/14. Article says 10 is best – it then says 8 but I’d go 10/12/14/8

Wichita State – dark horse if AAC deal doesn’t look as good…counting on them to the AAC though
Wright State – high
Bradley – high
Oakland – high
Northern Kentucky – high
Belmont – medium
Southern Illinois – medium
UI-Chicago – medium
Green Bay – medium
Loyola - low
Missouri State – low
Detroit – low
North Dakota state – low
South Dakota State – low

Anyone not listed above is a complete non-starter and is going to be part of a A10/Summit/OVC/MVC reshuffle.

A few of the fundamental rules of new conference

Games against teams outside the top 250 of the RPI are especially damaging, and teams are better off starting their season with a non-D-I game as a tune-up. Those games may not be exciting, but they’ll be better than beating a low-major D-I team by 40 and then seeing your RPI drop the next morning.

Other boundaries can be set, like a minimum for recruiting expenses, assistant coaches salaries, or travel expenses. Fail to meet that minimum over a couple years or schedule too many teams that finish outside the top 300, and you could stand to lose a percentage of your school’s cut of the conference revenue – that includes both revenue from NCAA Tournament units as well as revenue from television.

Speaking of television, the new conference will have a hell of a bargaining chip with the major networks. ESPN may be flush, but FS1 needs more first run major programming. That need is even greater at the NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network, two channels that have other benefits – such as the conference tournament semifinals and finals taking place live on national broadcast television.

The conference commissioner and staff would be people who have had experience negotiating such broadcast deals. That experience doesn’t even have to come from the realm of sports, as long as we know they were part of a team that won a great television deal with one of the networks. Get me the people who got the Westminster Dog Show on frickin’ national television every year.

Budgets of the schools
UNI $2.9m
ISUR $2.5m
UWM $2.9m
VALPO $2.7m
DAYTON $5.0m
SLU $6.4m

WRIGHT $2.5m
BRADLEY $3.1m
OAKLAND $2.1m
UNK $1.6m
BELMONT $2.9m
SIU $2.2m
UIC $2.2m
UWGB $1.7m
LUC $2.7m
MSU $2.3m
DET $2.5m
NDSU $1.4m
SDSU $1.4m


Certainly takes a Horizon bias (and UWM, but it was written by a UWM guy), but if we take Illinois State, UNI, Bradley and SIU from the MVC and Valpo, Dayton, SLU, Wright State and Belmont for the other 5 we have a pretty solid conference.

[acepurple84]

AAC is going to be in conference tier purgatory. Even with Wichita, you can't put them in the same tier as the P5+BE. At the same time, you can't put them in the same tier as the A-10 and everyone below them.

The AAC will be a tier upon themselves. They need the terrible teams to be merely bad, the bad teams to be average, and the above-average teams to be NIT teams. If everyone takes a half-step forward, they'll make the power 6 a power 7.

But also don't forget SMU is a ticking time bomb. Larry Brown is out and Jankovich is in, which means that thing is heading south

New conference tiers:

Tier 1: ACC, B1G, Big 12, Pac-12, $EC, Big Priest
Tier 2: American
Tier 3: A-10, MWC (last 2 years results would argue MWC should be below this, but the decade of track record before makes me leave them here for now)
Tier 4: MVC, WCC (the funny thing is, WCC and MVC were more or less equal...but our members (Creighton, Wichita) were geographically positioned to be poached while Gonzaga and St Mary's aren't)

I don't think Gonzaga and St. Mary's have any interest in being "poached." Obviously Gonzaga was in a similar situation to WSU ten years ago, but chose to not think their conference was holding them back. WSU apparently thinks otherwise. If WSU was confident that they could maintain their current level of recruiting and play, it seems that they would want to stay put. Their chances of sliding and beconming less relevant increase in a conference where there are multiple schools spending as much as they do on basketball. I'm guessing we'll se more of Gonzaga one the national scene over the next ten years than we will of WSU, but who knows?

Gonzaga has St Mary's. BYU too. It's not about "thinking" a conference is holding you back, it's about a conference full of teams that spend less that half on basketball compared to WSU. Bradley is the only other team that wouldn't be last in the WCC in basketball expenditures.

How about Creighton, Xavier, and Butler? They followed a different model than the Zags. Were they wrong too?

The grass is not always Greener on the other side. Creighton did well this year and so did butler. But they also were out of Both NCAA and NIT a year or so after they joined the Big East. WSU will do well but they will also have much better competition. They might not be the Big Dog in the AAC.

[SubGod22]

And Evansville won't be the big dog in any conference. You don't have to dominate a league to make it worth being in. Better competition. Better name recognition. Better exposure. Better recruiting. Better seeding. Those make the move matter. Not the ability to go undefeated in conference.

[Wufan]

The grass is not always Greener on the other side. Creighton did well this year and so did butler. But they also were out of Both NCAA and NIT a year or so after they joined the Big East. WSU will do well but they will also have much better competition. They might not be the Big Dog in the AAC.

Both Butler and Gonzaga made the dance two of 4 years prior to moving to the Big Priest. Creighton replicated that in the first four years in the new conference. Butler did one better.

Based on your metric, the move was a net positive.

[squirrel]

I've been advocating some kind of Valley/Horizon/A10 hybrid league, but until a split of DI happens, the autobid piece is a problem. But I would go heavier on the A10 with SLU, St. Joseph's, and LaSalle, to get started.

[Svoboda]

Realism... catch the fever. Meanwhile, back in the read world:

http://missouristatebears.com/news/2017 ... um=twitter

[BirdsEyeView]

Realism... catch the fever. Meanwhile, back in the read world:

http://missouristatebears.com/news/2017 ... um=twitter

Women's Beach Volleyball!!

[uniftw]

I've been advocating some kind of Valley/Horizon/A10 hybrid league, but until a split of DI happens, the autobid piece is a problem. But I would go heavier on the A10 with SLU, St. Joseph's, and LaSalle, to get started.

Agreed. The article I linked was written by a UW-Milwaukee guy - which is why UW-M was in to begin with I'd guess.

UNI doesn't fit the A10 profile at all currently, but I'd say yes in a second to it. The issue is the A10 is already at 14 teams. It's going to take a few teams going elsewhere for a spot to open up, and if that happens is a the A10 somewhere that UNI wants to be? I think this is where the idea of being able to draw SLU and Dayton into the MVC to make a 12 team conference was always preferred by man fans. However, now that WSU is on it's way out those two joining is even less likely, and if they did they would need a third to even the conference out. I would guess Valpo would be the most likely 12th.

My spin on that article would be a 12-14 team conference with:
Dayton
SLU
Duquense
St Bonaventure
UNI
Illinois State
SIU
Oakland
Wright State
Valpo

Then 1 to 3 of the following (to get to 12-14)
Bradley
Northern Kentucky - yes, they are a recent move up, but they seem to have a ton of upside and commitment. They have, what looks like amazing facilities.
Evansville
George Mason
St Joes
La Salle
VCU
Richmond

That all depends on how far east we go. The last few are simply "dream" situations. Realistically 12 with either Bradley or NKU is best.