Sounds like Wichita St to the AAC... Who gets an Invite?

[Cdizzle]

If the Valley is scared because the opportunity to scoop up UMKC might pass them by...well...I think that just about sums it up.

So one person (with 3 lifetime posts on this site) constitutes the Valley as whole and their entire mindset for a replacement? That replacement being UMKC...

Yeah okay. Keep drinking

Perhaps this guy has an agenda?

This would be a really good argument.

If Loyola wasn't in the league.

[uniftw]

Whether WSU leaves or not, which I believe they will at some point make the jump....but if I am UNI and ISU, just join the MAC. You are essentially in a one-bid league with the MVC and at least you have an opportunity to have Division 1 football....

As I said, I can't speak to ISUr (though I'm sure they aren't different than UNI through this) but there have been initial discussions between UNI and the MAC simply asking what the future could potentially look like. Where each sees themselves moving forward, how they seem to get along with wrestling in the MAC. From all accounts having wrestling in the MAC is working great. The UNI program is getting back to where it belongs and has potential to finish top 5-10 at nationals next year with 5 or 6 All American caliber wrestlers all with 2 to 3 years of eligibility and highly ranked classes coming in. It sounds like there is a good relationship between all parties involved there. Whether that means UNI is a full member fit? Who knows. In terms of fudning, arena, and support, UNI (and ISUR) are MILES head of the MAC. Their basketball arenas aren't great. The coaches aren't amazingly well paid (I supposed on par with most MVC though). The conference tournament is in freaking Cleveland and is a strange format 1 and 2 seeds get a bye to the semis, the 3 and 4 seeds get byes to the quarters. First two rounds at higher seeds home arena and then to Cleveland or something...

I'll just stop because chances of anything happening is about .0000001% right now.

But yes, the MVC is in a very precarious spot. The privates have always thought they did (and did) have control. People are getting tired of it and football schools are starting to band together to push back.

[Redhawk]

Interesting comments from the Commissioner of the American Conference:

“We are not under any circumstances going back to the old Big East model of multiple basketball schools,” Aresco told Sirius XM satellite radio. The league is wary of adding multiple members for basketball after seeing how juggling football ambition and basketball tradition became untenable in the Big East. Ultimately, those tensions played a huge factor in driving the league apart."

That seems to be the issue that would drive a wedge through the MVC. The MVFC is getting stronger while
the departure of Creighton and ultimately WSU is making the MVC poorer. Other than getting Saint Louis back adding more non football schools would force ISUr, UNI and UNI to consider other options.

[Dean Wormer]

The MVC isn't a BIG pond right now. It's a small pond with WSU. It's a puddle if WSU leaves.

That's cute Cdizzle!

Trying to make point that a conference of Larger State Universities and Smaller Privates
is destined to fail because they are not peer institutions grouped together for mutual sucess.
If you are familiar with the famous MidMajority Redline essay about college athletic budgets it was determined that a High Major spent over 40 Mil, Mid-Major 25 Mil and anything under was just a Major.

In the current MVC only WSU, ISUr and MSU exceed 25 mil in athletic revenues. UNI and SIU are both close to that level though. ISUb is around 15 Mil and Privates are all range from 10-13 Mil. Therefore there are 5 public state universities in the Valley that spend almost double what the Privates do and it shows in the MVC All Sports Trophy standings. The XDSU's (both above 22 Mil) are so much more attractive additions because they will lift the boat of all sports programs by making the pond (or puddle if you prefer) bigger.

If we keep adding schools like Valpo (12 Mil) and Belmont (10 Mil) they might as well change the league name to HWC...Horizon West Conference!

Overall athletic budgets and All-Sports Standings mean little to the current makeup of the MVC. It is a basketball, and only basketball driven conference. UNI Wrestling, Loyola Volleyball, Evansville Soccer, etc mean little to the conference, and certainly has no bearing on where it evolves. If you are expecting the conference to expand based on anything besides basketball, it simply won't work. Overall athletic budgets and enrollments of several of the Big East schools would fall short as well. Who cares in terms of basketball?

For the MVC to survive, and possibly flourish in it's current state, you have to add the best you can in basketball period, which at this point, leads to Valpo and Belmont. If you want to blow it up, elevate the MVFC schools to FBS, then that is a completely different story.

[uniftw]

Interesting comments from the Commissioner of the American Conference:

“We are not under any circumstances going back to the old Big East model of multiple basketball schools,” Aresco told Sirius XM satellite radio. The league is wary of adding multiple members for basketball after seeing how juggling football ambition and basketball tradition became untenable in the Big East. Ultimately, those tensions played a huge factor in driving the league apart."

That seems to be the issue that would drive a wedge through the MVC. The MVFC is getting stronger while
the departure of Creighton and ultimately WSU is making the MVC poorer. Other than getting Saint Louis back adding more non football schools would force ISUr, UNI and UNI to consider other options.

Many warned of this happening to the MVC when the Big East issue was happening. The worry then was football MVC schools would care more about football than basketball and cause a split there.

Turns out, the MVFC schools care more about basketball than the non-football schools (sans WSU) and are the ones being held back and negatively affected by the small minded thinking of the privates. It's not football causing the issue, it's basketball and the football schools may start looking to use football as leverage to get out to protect basketball from the path the MVC is taking.

[Redhawk]

Interesting comments from the Commissioner of the American Conference:

“We are not under any circumstances going back to the old Big East model of multiple basketball schools,” Aresco told Sirius XM satellite radio. The league is wary of adding multiple members for basketball after seeing how juggling football ambition and basketball tradition became untenable in the Big East. Ultimately, those tensions played a huge factor in driving the league apart."

That seems to be the issue that would drive a wedge through the MVC. The MVFC is getting stronger while
the departure of Creighton and ultimately WSU is making the MVC poorer. Other than getting Saint Louis back adding more non football schools would force ISUr, UNI and UNI to consider other options.

Many warned of this happening to the MVC when the Big East issue was happening. The worry then was football MVC schools would care more about football than basketball and cause a split there.

Turns out, the MVFC schools care more about basketball than the non-football schools (sans WSU) and are the ones being held back and negatively affected by the small minded thinking of the privates. It's not football causing the issue, it's basketball and the football schools may start looking to use football as leverage to get out to protect basketball from the path the MVC is taking.

Problem is the Privates can't see the forest for the trees!

[SubGod22]

Interesting comments from the Commissioner of the American Conference:

“We are not under any circumstances going back to the old Big East model of multiple basketball schools,” Aresco told Sirius XM satellite radio. The league is wary of adding multiple members for basketball after seeing how juggling football ambition and basketball tradition became untenable in the Big East. Ultimately, those tensions played a huge factor in driving the league apart."

That seems to be the issue that would drive a wedge through the MVC. The MVFC is getting stronger while
the departure of Creighton and ultimately WSU is making the MVC poorer. Other than getting Saint Louis back adding more non football schools would force ISUr, UNI and UNI to consider other options.

Many warned of this happening to the MVC when the Big East issue was happening. The worry then was football MVC schools would care more about football than basketball and cause a split there.

Turns out, the MVFC schools care more about basketball than the non-football schools (sans WSU) and are the ones being held back and negatively affected by the small minded thinking of the privates. It's not football causing the issue, it's basketball and the football schools may start looking to use football as leverage to get out to protect basketball from the path the MVC is taking.

Problem is the Privates can't see the forest for the trees!

The Trees don't bring much to the table either....

[Redbirds4Life]

Whether WSU leaves or not, which I believe they will at some point make the jump....but if I am UNI and ISU, just join the MAC. You are essentially in a one-bid league with the MVC and at least you have an opportunity to have Division 1 football....

As I said, I can't speak to ISUr (though I'm sure they aren't different than UNI through this) but there have been initial discussions between UNI and the MAC simply asking what the future could potentially look like. Where each sees themselves moving forward, how they seem to get along with wrestling in the MAC. From all accounts having wrestling in the MAC is working great. The UNI program is getting back to where it belongs and has potential to finish top 5-10 at nationals next year with 5 or 6 All American caliber wrestlers all with 2 to 3 years of eligibility and highly ranked classes coming in. It sounds like there is a good relationship between all parties involved there. Whether that means UNI is a full member fit? Who knows. In terms of fudning, arena, and support, UNI (and ISUR) are MILES head of the MAC. Their basketball arenas aren't great. The coaches aren't amazingly well paid (I supposed on par with most MVC though). The conference tournament is in freaking Cleveland and is a strange format 1 and 2 seeds get a bye to the semis, the 3 and 4 seeds get byes to the quarters. First two rounds at higher seeds home arena and then to Cleveland or something...

I'll just stop because chances of anything happening is about .0000001% right now.

But yes, the MVC is in a very precarious spot. The privates have always thought they did (and did) have control. People are getting tired of it and football schools are starting to band together to push back.

The Birds want D1 Football, simple as that. ISU fairs pretty well across all sports, men and women, so that would be nice for the MAC. Basketball would be a bit of a downgrade, but if you added ISU and UNI to the MAC, you would think that would maybe force those schools to upgrade their programs to keep up with ISU and UNI.

[Redhawk]

Many warned of this happening to the MVC when the Big East issue was happening. The worry then was football MVC schools would care more about football than basketball and cause a split there.

Turns out, the MVFC schools care more about basketball than the non-football schools (sans WSU) and are the ones being held back and negatively affected by the small minded thinking of the privates. It's not football causing the issue, it's basketball and the football schools may start looking to use football as leverage to get out to protect basketball from the path the MVC is taking.

Problem is the Privates can't see the forest for the trees!

The Trees don't bring much to the table either....

[BCPanther]

Pure and simple for UNI--

The economics of paying a basketball coach $1M per year don't work if you're more or less in the Horizon League. It's doable in the MAC where you can offset some of the basketball financial losses with greatly increased football revenue. Our new AD has made it clear that Jake is going to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and every move we make is going to be to keep basketball at the level its been for the past 15 years.

If this league becomes a low major league, it blows a hole in everything UNI does. The Valley is going to lose Creighton, WSU, UNI and Illinois State and has no one to blame but themselves for not being proactive 10 years ago and going out and getting Dayton, SLU, etc when they had the league to attract them.