by VUGrad1314 » March 31st, 2019, 2:05 pm
The fact is that Elgin has done and continues to do good work for the conference overall. The scheduling mandate was bold and brilliant and put the conference on the map. It's what really made me fall in love with MVC hoops and made me view the MVC as the absolute dream conference for Valpo as a youngster growing up here. Then, quick as it came, the mandate went away, programs with the exception of Wichita State Creighton and UNI began to slide, but the league was able to remain strong thanks to this core. There were some pretty strong misses along the way (Butler Western Kentucky etc the latter of which predates the end of the mandate if my memory is correct) but the league maintained multibid status and its teams continued to do damage in the tournament. The Loyola addition is also a testament to Elgin and his foresight and it has paid off in a big way. What fans like me are upset about however is that a program like Murray State which stacks up really well against most MVC teams especially when you consider the past decade and would absolutely elevate the profile of the conference is left out because of either politics or numbers. There was no good reason why Valpo and Murray State shouldn't have both been admitted after Wichita State left and then to hear him lament the increasing difficulty to garner at large bids and talk about a projected 2\3 drop in tournament revenue while begging the tournament to expand when he has a chance to make his own conference better it just sounds weak and hollow. Surely there is some kind of deal or arm twisting he could have done if he really wanted to add Murray State and make the conference stronger. He could have even offered Murray State a delayed invitation (Would have saved them the OVC exit fee and put their football addition better in line with the addition of North Dakota and given the league time to adjust its scheduling to accommodate the move while delaying the travel burden and pie division as long as possible and the fact that he himself is not pushing for that addition or working to make a deal to get a very deserving program into this conference is very upsetting. No adding Murray State does not guarantee more bids but the scheduling mandate wasn't guaranteed to work either. Where did that boldness go from Elgin and the Presidents? That's the MVC I want to be a part of. That's the MVC I thought my school was joining. The fact is we need both. We need to get better as a conference and we're doing that but we need to take advantage of the right external opportunities when they present themselves. No that does not mean we need to go off on a serial adding spree and add anyone who might just be middle of the pack, but Murray State is an opportunity to add a potential league and tournament game winner without expanding the footprint. It's a dream scenario and it's something the MVC needs to do.
Last edited by
VUGrad1314 on March 31st, 2019, 3:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
