Welcome Loyola

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Right, but to put it even more in perspective. Evansville, IN is about 45-50 mins. from Illinois towns just across the Indiana-Illinois border like Grayville, IL; Mt. Carmel, IL; and Grayville, IL. Indiana State in Terre Haute, IN is about 25-30 mins. from towns just across the Illinois-Indiana border like Marshall, IL and Paris, IL. So if the league were to add Valpo, UIC, and Loyola, that would make eight schools out of 12 that are in Illinois or under an hour from the Illinois-Indiana border.

That's cool. There is also this school in Tulsa that is little over two hours away for us and Wichita and they have a great basketball tradition and are mostly pretty awesome at baseball. But let's do what we can to help the schools in Illinois and Indiana that have achieved so much for this conference.

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Some Loyola fans are complaining they can't get get admin approval to join our site...said they have sent several request. Just fyi for an admin

I agree wholeheartily with this. I'd love for a couple of them to join and explain in their own words what they have to offer. They might be able to make salient points that I am unable to see. Perhaps.

Also I saw a picture of their gym and it pretty much looks like the O'Reilly Center at Drury University. And I think they just renovated it too.

[ilstu2013]

I'll copy and paste one of Rambler63's points that he posted elsewhere but not able to make on this forum because he has yet to receive admin approval to join the board.
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A note of caution. Loyola is not as much of a cupcake as you guys seem to think.

From Ramblermania.yuku.com:

For those assuming that Loyola will automatically be a doormat in the MVC, here are our last 12 meetings against MVC teams, since 2005:

2011-12
@ Bradley Loyola 56, Bradley 44

2010-11
vs. Indiana State Loyola 86, Indiana State* 74

2009-10
@ Bradley Loyola 68, Bradley 65
@ Creighton Creighton 78, Loyola 58

2008-09
vs. Bradley Bradley 86, Loyola 75

2007-08
vs. Bradley Bradley 64, Loyola 47
@ Northern Iowa Northern Iowa 61, Loyola 50

2006-07
vs. Northern Iowa Loyola 76, Northern Iowa 67
@ Bradley Bradley 82, Loyola 73

2005-06
vs. Evansville Loyola 99, Evansville 86
vs. Bradley Loyola 86, Bradley* 72
@ Northern Iowa Northern Iowa* 72, Loyola 56

* NCAA Tournament team

A 6-6 record, 4-2 at home, 2-4 on the road. 2-1 against NCAA Tournament teams. The 2005-06 win against Bradley was their Sweet 16 year and one of only 3 non-conference losses for Bradley that year (the other two were to fellow Horizon League school Butler, and Memphis in the NCAA Tournament).
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This news came on the heels of Loyola announcing Sheryl Swoopes as new Women's Basketball coach earlier in the day. The opening of the multi-million dollar Damen Student Center (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybH7MUXD ... e=youtu.be) happened the day after the MVC visit to Loyola on April 2, which I assume was impressive to the visiting team. Overall Loyola has spent roughly $100 million on facility upgrades and new construction over the past two years. Additionally, Loyola is currently in first place in the Horizon League in terms of its overall performance in all athletic programs (http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/loyol ... ships.html). I think it's obvious from what I know about the athletic program that there is a willingness and intent on Loyola's part to invest a lot in the athletic program.

And lastly, from the point of view of the MVC presidents, I have to feel that Loyola's finances and resources must make a difference. With the departure of Creighton, the MVC lost its highest endowed school. Creighton had a $375 million endowment, more than twice as much as the average of the other nine MVC schools. Loyola's endowment is now $389 million. Loyola has assets of $1.2 Billion and they average $159 Million in donations per year. They also average $10 Million per year on investments in dividends and interest. By comparison, Creighton had $853 million in assets, $64 million in donations.

So although Loyola may not have had as much success leading up to the change in the leadership of its athletic department two years ago, there are some significant upgrades in progress and there is no financial impediment to Loyola becoming a major factor in a league with the stature and typical budgets in the MVC. It just depends on their will to spend and compete financially. I think there's enough proof that they're willing to do so to satisfy the concerns the MVC might have had.

[MVCfans]

Some Loyola fans are complaining they can't get get admin approval to join our site...said they have sent several request. Just fyi for an admin

I agree wholeheartily with this. I'd love for a couple of them to join and explain in their own words what they have to offer. They might be able to make salient points that I am unable to see. Perhaps.

There's not a single inactive user waiting to be activated at the moment.

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Some Loyola fans are complaining they can't get get admin approval to join our site...said they have sent several request. Just fyi for an admin

I agree wholeheartily with this. I'd love for a couple of them to join and explain in their own words what they have to offer. They might be able to make salient points that I am unable to see. Perhaps.

There's not a single inactive user waiting to be activated at the moment.

Maybe they got us confused with the OVC and were looking for the Ohio Valley Conference message board. Because, you know, that was where they were expecting an invite from.

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

They are also saying this on their message board:

"Would be excited if this is true. And for all the other MVC fans who doubt Loyola...all I have to say is: "Suck it!" And now that college b-ball season is over, go watch the corn grow until next season.

Aside from Creighton and Wichita State, none of the other MVC schools have been that impressive either."

So they think we are hayseeds or something. That's cool.

[MVCfans]

Maybe they got us confused with the OVC and were looking for the Ohio Valley Conference message board. Because, you know, that was where they were expecting an invite from.

DUb has been doing all the activating of accounts and I went back through those he deleted over the past few days. There was one that was probably inadvertently deleted that was a Loyola fan based on the username. Other than that, I don't see anything.

[DUBulldog]

Maybe they got us confused with the OVC and were looking for the Ohio Valley Conference message board. Because, you know, that was where they were expecting an invite from.

DUb has been doing all the activating of accounts and I went back through those he deleted over the past few days. There was one that was probably inadvertently deleted that was a Loyola fan based on the username. Other than that, I don't see anything.

Lots and lots of spambot registrations every day....it's very easy for legit accounts to get deleted along with those, especially if screen name is something random. If you register and still haven't been activated a day later, then try re-registering. I don't have the time or the inclination to look at each of the 50 or so registrations per day in detail, so if you register with some random name that doesn't jump out at me, you'll probably get deleted with the spambots.

[Valleyball]

That's cool. There is also this school in Tulsa that is little over two hours away for us and Wichita and they have a great basketball tradition and are mostly pretty awesome at baseball. But let's do what we can to help the schools in Illinois and Indiana that have achieved so much for this conference.

Yes let's add Kansas also. No need to be realistic.

Your choices would be- Denver,ORU,UMKC nobody else around that would be interested. I'd pick Denver by far.

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Yes let's add Kansas also. No need to be realistic.

Your choices would be- Denver,ORU,UMKC nobody else around that would be interested. I'd pick Denver by far.

I think those three are better than Loyola. Definitely ORU. By any objective measure ORU would come out ahead. Any relevent measure at least.

Maybe there ain't a HR choice out there. ORU is maybe a ground rule double with a bad throw to the cutoff man getting you at third with an error. Okay? Loyola is sort of like reaching first via a dropped third strike.

I'd love to be wrong about all of this. Trust me. I really would. But I can't see how this school is going to be successful in the Missouri Valley Conference, short term or long term. And I'd love for anyone to make a salient point as to why we should expect them to actually better this conference. And bonus points if you can do it without using any form of the word "potential."