Exhibition game results - DePauw 66 Evansville 62

[jayball]

Perhaps, the good Dr. is really talking about trying to strengthen the Valley and thereby upgrade the "respectablity" of being a Valley school. So to do that the Valley should trade Eville for someone else like Butler, ect.

I can understand that, but I wonder if the Valley would really be able to add someone that would be a huge boost to the conference. Does adding a Butler help put the Valley over the top? I don't know if it would. I think you would have to add a Marquette, Xavier type school to really get noticed. Most of the candidates for Valley addition wouldn't necessarily add to the "cache" of the conference, even if they might bring a bit more to the table from a commitment to athletics.

No one I've seen mentioned as replacements for Evile will put the MVC automatically on the map. They might add some competition and increase the RPI slightly, but I question if that would help garner any additional national attention/respect for the conference.

[Ace Dad]

JayBall, your argument is logical, valid, and needs to be made. I fully understand how adding a Butler, or Marquette, or Xavier may increase the "market value" of the MVC. However, I believe the downside is you add another school that increases the bloodbath of conference play and instead of having 3-4 teams who should compete for two NCAA berths, we now have 4-5. There comes a point of diminishing returns in a conference when parity means that 6-7 of the schools and compete for the title, year in and year out. Conversely, there is nothing more magical in college sports than watching a "bottom feeder" team move from the lower third, to the upper third or winning four games in a row to make the tournament. Lower level teams, in my opinion, do not tarnish the conference.

[SubGod22]

But if adding stronger teams who will actually win not only out of conference games, but good OOC games brings even more recognition and multiple bids. UE appears to bring nothing to the league and definitely doesn't do anything to help the other member schools. Competition for a title amongst a number of teams is a good thing if those teams also perfor well OOC and get recognized as good teams.

I don't see anybody getting removed from the league unless they volunteer, but I'd love to see teams/schools start paying for poor scheduling. That would help boost the league I believe and maybe it would give a school like UE a reason to leave the Valley.

[TNMSUFAN]

Evansville better play a little better their next game because Kentucky Wesleyan is a pretty good DII team that returns 3 starters from a 29-5 team plus added former Bear Cardell McFarland and a couple decent jucos.

[SubGod22]

Evansville better play a little better their next game because Kentucky Wesleyan is a pretty good DII team that returns 3 starters from a 29-5 team plus added former Bear Cardell McFarland and a couple decent jucos.

So you're saying 0-2 exhibition record for the Pimps isn't out of the question? Great...

[Ace Dad]

Unsmooth Moment wrote:
Good to see Wichita State, MSU, and Creighton near the top. Good for the Valley when these schools play well. Can't wait for senior night in Springfield against the Shockers. Hopefully the top of the valley can handle the bottom half of the league. 18 conference games takes a toll, but in order to have a chance of 2 or even 3 bids we have to have some separation.

Imagine conference play with no separation? Imagine 6 teams with very similiar records. Do you really believe that this scenario leads to more NCAA bids?

[SubGod22]

Unsmooth Moment wrote:
Good to see Wichita State, MSU, and Creighton near the top. Good for the Valley when these schools play well. Can't wait for senior night in Springfield against the Shockers. Hopefully the top of the valley can handle the bottom half of the league. 18 conference games takes a toll, but in order to have a chance of 2 or even 3 bids we have to have some separation.

Imagine conference play with no separation? Imagine 6 teams with very similiar records. Do you really believe that this scenario leads to more NCAA bids?

If the OOC schedule and wins were better than HELL YES there'd be more bids.

[Ace Dad]

Unsmooth Moment wrote:
Good to see Wichita State, MSU, and Creighton near the top. Good for the Valley when these schools play well. Can't wait for senior night in Springfield against the Shockers. Hopefully the top of the valley can handle the bottom half of the league. 18 conference games takes a toll, but in order to have a chance of 2 or even 3 bids we have to have some separation.

Imagine conference play with no separation? Imagine 6 teams with very similiar records. Do you really believe that this scenario leads to more NCAA bids?

If the OOC schedule and wins were better than HELL YES there'd be more bids.

Sub, we will agree to disagree. This is a zero-sum game. The big-boys are afraid to schedule us. The committee selects a third team from the MVC or a 5th team from a BCS conference. They will lean toward the big-boys. We continue to think that life is fair and only if we "work harder" we will be rewarded. Nope. The MVC is a two bid conference that will peak to a three bid from time to time, no matter what we do. We will never see four bids again. If we get five bids I will pay for your hotel room in St Louis for the conference tournament.

[jayball]

JayBall, your argument is logical, valid, and needs to be made. I fully understand how adding a Butler, or Marquette, or Xavier may increase the "market value" of the MVC. However, I believe the downside is you add another school that increases the bloodbath of conference play and instead of having 3-4 teams who should compete for two NCAA berths, we now have 4-5. There comes a point of diminishing returns in a conference when parity means that 6-7 of the schools and compete for the title, year in and year out. Conversely, there is nothing more magical in college sports than watching a "bottom feeder" team move from the lower third, to the upper third or winning four games in a row to make the tournament. Lower level teams, in my opinion, do not tarnish the conference.

I hear you AceDad....I think the Valley would have to add more than one "big name" team to get the national attention and respect that I think some people are looking for. I don't know that the candidates previously discussed for addition would really launch the Valley that much further. SLU, WKU, Butler?

Would adding SLU and Butler guarantee multiple bids? Perhaps it would increase the likelihood, but it would also make it harder to get one of those bids.

Would it bring more national attention? Probably for a time, but you would still have to win in March to get keep anyone's attention.

Would it greatly add marketing power and the value of TV rights for the league? Not sure. St Louis and Indy are bigger markets but do those school draw good $$ in those markets? I'm sure both would bring a few more $$ than Eville, but nothing close to the BCS school money.

I'm not against the Valley looking at ways to improve, but I'm not convinced that dropping Eville for SLU is going to big a giant shot in the arm for the conference.

We are all still nonBCS midwest schools that no one wants to schedule. We are going to have to earn it every year.

[klinky]

I'm not sure how people have determined that UE doesn't support their athletic programs. A quick review of their media guide reveals the following stats:

Women
2009 MVC Basketball Champions
2008 MVC Soccer Champions
2010 Volleyball record 16-8

Men
2006 MVC Baseball Champions
- 2006 NCAA Regional Finalist
- Nationally ranked 3 times in last 5 years
- 19 winning baseball seasons in the last 30 years

2009 MVC Soccer runner-up
2010 Soccer Top 30 ranking
Two NCAA Final Four Soccer appearances.

It appears that UE has had a fair amount of success in the MVC in several sports.