Loyola Leaving for A-10

[Salukimadness86]

We become the old Summit or the OVC with weak additions like UTA and Kansas City. Id rather keep 10 with Belmont and tell the rest to go f off. I dont see Missouri st going anywhere...they havent achieved enough to be sought after elsewhere

Totally agree. UTA and the Fightn Kangaroos have zero basketball tradition. Actually, they have zero relevance in any sport.
As for MSU, why do folks keep saying that they have left? Usually a FCS football program wins multiple National Championships before moving up to FCS. See Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Marshall. If attendance is a requirement, MSU had a sparse crowd last Saturday in their win over UNI, and they don't seem to bring a lot of fans to Arch Madness either.

[Bulldog4life24]

We become the old Summit or the OVC with weak additions like UTA and Kansas City. Id rather keep 10 with Belmont and tell the rest to go f off. I dont see Missouri st going anywhere...they havent achieved enough to be sought after elsewhere

+1

[ColonialBulldog]

Because it's been brought up, Norlander is reporting that UMKC investment is critical for a Valley invite:

"In order for Kansas City to be a viable candidate, per one source, there needs to be "shovels in the ground" on new facilities as quickly as possible." https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... nsas-city/

I love Kansas City as a city but this feels like even more of a gamble than Loyola was. If the above is true, I think there are logical reasons to get on board (or maybe just stomach) the addition. Belmont and Murray State are great basketball additions and UMKC could be a good wild-card add.

From a purely selfish standpoint, I really want this to happen. Right now there's really only one easy conference road trip from Des Moines, and that's to Cedar Falls. As much as I love the Brown Bottle, CF just isn't as fun as KC.

We need to be concerned about the A-10 having 15 teams and moving west only for huge markets. Belmont seems to fit a mold for the A-10.

[Sir Sci]

Wholehearted congratulations to Loyola. When I went to Arch Madness I always walked away loving the Ramblers' game and style of play. Had a lot of fun rooting for ya'll in the NCAA Tournament as well. Hope you do well in the A-10.

Now that's been said, I really dislike the prospect of UMKC in the Valley. NOT because I have anything against the school (have a lot of friends who went there and loved it) but because their program has just... never been good. There's really nothing they add in terms of quality or history to the Valley.

[unipanther99]

If Kansas City has somehow found the money to build a 5000 seat on-campus arena, it might work out in the long term... But you have to ask, what has changed that has allowed them to do this now?

[bradley_townie]

Well it was fun while it lasted Ramblers.

Really can't say I understand the move. I am sure somewhere there is a cost/benefit analysis that says how much better being in the A10 is than the MVC even with the added travel expenses. Feels like they were going to be a cornerstone of the new and improved MVC and could have really had sustained success had they stayed.

I wonder how SLU feels about this. Both geographically similar urban Jesuit schools going after the same east coast and international kids. Although one is in Chicago and one is in St. Louis. One of those cities has a lot more going for it than the other.

[MSUBear42]

Omaha wouldn’t be a terrible addition. Just saying.

If we're just spit-balling at recent D-2 converts in major markets, I'd rather go with St. Thomas.

But no reason to be in a hurry about either of those programs.

I'd rather go Lindenwood and get the STL market.

[MSUBear42]

MSU had a sparse crowd last Saturday in their win over UNI, and they don't seem to bring a lot of fans to Arch Madness either.

We literally had one of the biggest crowds in FCS this past week (little under 10k) on a cold ass day on the start of deer hunting season and we bring plenty of fans to Arch Madness when we are actually winning in basketball, but we've had so many mediocre years lately that we don't bring as many. Same could be said for literally every other school in this conference, why would we want to drive 4 hours to go watch us lose a Friday night Arch Madness game against Drake?

[VUGrad1314]

Because it's been brought up, Norlander is reporting that UMKC investment is critical for a Valley invite:

"In order for Kansas City to be a viable candidate, per one source, there needs to be "shovels in the ground" on new facilities as quickly as possible." https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... nsas-city/

I love Kansas City as a city but this feels like even more of a gamble than Loyola was. If the above is true, I think there are logical reasons to get on board (or maybe just stomach) the addition. Belmont and Murray State are great basketball additions and UMKC could be a good wild-card add.

From a purely selfish standpoint, I really want this to happen. Right now there's really only one easy conference road trip from Des Moines, and that's to Cedar Falls. As much as I love the Brown Bottle, CF just isn't as fun as KC.

We need to be concerned about the A-10 having 15 teams and moving west only for huge markets. Belmont seems to fit a mold for the A-10.

Belmont is a possibility for the A-10 but you have to think that that would be a more down the line thing because it would have been utterly stupid of them to jump to the MVC if the A-10 was even a remote possibility in the immediate future. I think Belmont will have to prove they can handle the bump up in weight class to the MVC first before the A-10 gets serious about them.

From the MVC side of things though if we're going for markets there are much much better options than Arlington and UMKC. I hope those two aren't true. That sounds like a last ditch attempt to hold on to Missouri State and if we have to dilute the conference this badly in order to do it then I would much rather they just go FBS and we can focus on making the best move for the conference as a whole without having to do shortsighted things to attempt to keep Missouri State which probably won't work anyway.

Our priority for post Loyola adds should be as follows:

1. Murray State

2. NKU\Wright State (assuming Wright State can financially support the move)

3. SDSU\NDSU

4. Milwaukee\UIC

5. Little Rock\Oral Roberts

(3-5 are pretty interchangeable if the entire profile as taken as a whole if it's just basketball then Miwaukee and UIC are the least appealing on the list if academics and other stuff matter this is the correct ranking though you could certainly put UIC and Milwaukee (both R1 institutions ahead of NDSU and SDSU even though they are state flagships).

6. St Thomas

7. Oakland\Detroit

8. Anybody else (Please God no to Arlington and UMKC)

[BCPanther]

Y'all this wouldn't have been leaked to Norlander if it weren't happening.

I mean, the pearl clutching doesn't do any good. Arlington has said they're ready to spend and we're obviously requiring KC to show it.

The sky isn't falling. Belmont and Murray are both better historically than Loyola. We're going to be fine.

There will continue to not be much difference between the A10 and the Valley, they just have the advantage of that east coast media machine.