VUGrad1314 wrote:The scuttlebutt that the MVC will be going to 20 conference games leads me to believe (perhaps naively) that sanity has won out and Murray State and only Murray State out of this otherwise lackluster pool of candidates will be added. I hope that is right. As a conference that thrives on its ability to punch above its weight class I hope we only add teams that fit that profile regardless of where they are located. Sometimes we will get lucky and find a Belmont who is in a big market and fits this mission but we can't chase markets and hope we get a Loyola every time because that simply isn't going to happen. Markets will do nothing unless the team in that market wins consistently and only if the team in that market wins consistently. Otherwise it's little more than an anchor. Being in big markets alone does nothing for the Horizon League. It did nothing for CUSA. It probably won't do anything for the AAC (considering that those schools all came from the CUSA failed experiment). We can't and shouldn't make the same mistake. From this pool it's Murray and Murray only and keep the double round robin. Any expansion beyond 11 needs to be done with a new pool of candidates in mind with performance alone as the driving factor. That's what's going to make money for the MVC not adding markets.
My gut says Arlington only for next year since they don't have any exit fee issues. The Sun Belt is more than happy to wish them well in their new endeavors since they don't play football.
UIC in 23-24 and Murray in 24-25. Murray could be sooner if they can find a non-MVFC home. The 2024 season is the earliest they could get in the MVFC from a scheduling perspective and iron out how scheduling is going to work that doesn't completely screw UNI and Missouri State.
Also gives you two full years for whoever #14 is to show that they should be #14.
