Updated 1/6/18: MVC Expansion Poll

[swimmer]

Read the last 10 pages. VUGrad1314 talking conference realignment is a trainwreck you can’t keep your eyes away from.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Haters going to hate.

[Spike]

Read the last 10 pages. VUGrad1314 talking conference realignment is a trainwreck you can’t keep your eyes away from.

Its not just VUAGrad. Whenever any fan from any Valley team they talk about them with some air of reverence. "Wow we are playing UMass". "UMass is on the schedule, I love that!" "Conferences are going to clamor to get UMass!".

It makes no sense. They have been s*** athletically across the board-both mens and womens basketball, football, baseball-for two decades. They aren't a particularly good academic school. They are over 100 miles from Boston. Their average attendance last year in a 9000 seat arena was 2747, which if they were the 11th team in the Valley would have placed them 10th.

[VUGrad1314]

Where did I mention that anything was the smoking gun of anything? All I did was state why UMASS to the AAC might make sense and the moves that might result from it. I never called these moves locks to happen. I merely posted these things for the sake of discussion because realignment is an interesting topic especially in this increasingly tough climate for mid majors. As for Tulsa, if you believe that multiple years of salary cuts for staff--even if it hasn't affected the programs themselves yet-- is no big deal and isn't a situation that bears watching then more power to you. I only linked them with the MVC potentially because of their 61 year relationship with the conference. Again I never stated that it was likely to happen. Did any of you read The Cinderella Code? FBS football is a money pit for virtually everyone outside the P5. The precedent has already been set by Idaho. If they can drop FBS football it can happen to any G5 school. NMSU is struggling. When the next round of realignment hits, I think you could see a lot of schools begin to question the wisdom of continuing with FBS football.

[VUGrad1314]

Pivoting this discussion back to more MVC-centric topics, I was very surprised and impressed to see that Wright State's budget now exceeds $3million. That would put them second only to Bradley in the conference. Perhaps they are attempting to position themselves to get into the MVC one day. I could understand reluctance on the part of the conference to come that far east, but they do check a lot of boxes for the MVC. Also surprising to me was that Murray State and NKU are under $2million which would put them near the bottom of the MVC. I know budgets aren't everything but it's certainly a factor to consider.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Everyone mentioned besides the unrealistic will all be there for the taking. I say wait until the AAC and A-10 are raided and then decide who to take. It allows the chancd to monitor 10 programs and see which one steps forward. Also, once the dust settles the possibility that the Big East doest take St. Louis is very possible. Then it may become realistic because who would want to stay in the A-10 without some combination of Dayton, UMass, Rhode Island, or VCU? At that point the MVC will be superior on an annual bases. Worst case everyone unrealistic is taken and we end up with Murray State and X...which is the very same were talking about now. Why rush? Let's wait for other conferences to duke it out and we might get lucky.

[VUGrad1314]

Can we afford to wait until 2025? We're already struggling to get at-large bids as it is.

[Mikovio]

Tulsa has oil money powering its program that Idaho can only dream of. They're an anomoly. Others like in the MAC have to bus to keep their expenses down and take $million+ paydays for their noncon.

UMass actually despite their attendance isn't a bad AAC add. The MAC in fact added them solely because it could sell the Boston market to ESPN and get more money. They actually played a season or two in Foxboro when their stadium underwent renovations. That said, I don't know why I'm talking about this.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Can we afford to wait until 2025? We're already struggling to get at-large bids as it is.

Afford to wait? You think Murray and NKU/Wright State are getting the MVC an extra bid?

[VUGrad1314]

I fail to see how adding 2 more top 100 schools with potential to grow hurts our chances at more bids especially with Murray State being a good bet to finish in the top 60 at least once every three years. Those numbers would be higher in the MVC because losses to better team hurt less and there are more chances for good wins.