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

[Snaggletooth]

I put as much weight in UNI being an affiliate in the MAC as I do UE being in the MAC for Swimming & Diving.

There is 0% chance of that, because NCAA requires all your sports to reside in the conference that your basketball program is. Only football can be in a different conference.

Not true at all. Belmont soccer plays in the Horizon. SIUE soccer plays in the Valley. Many other examples.

Only time that can happen is if a school conference affiliation does not have that sport. MVC has swmimming and diving.

[municup14]

To Aarg,the one thing I won't miss about Wichita leaving conference
Is the arrogance of there prickly fans.

[UEACES80]

Hey Snaglepuss - explain me this (I left off DBC since they are D2 in all sports but MVC Baseball).

And yes UE participates in the MAC in Men's Swimming.

MVC sports (non MVC but D1 Universities)

University of Central Arkansas Southland (Primary) men's soccer

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Sun Belt (Primary) women's swimming

University of Maryland Baltimore County America East (Primary) men's tennis

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville OVC (Primary) men's soccer

Stony Brook University America East (Primary) men's tennis

Just for the record in the last 15 years in MVC Soccer maybe you have heard of a few of these schools - SMU, TCU, Vanderbilt and WKU. They all and numerous others schools have been in the MVC for Soccer.

[pafan]

The MVC offers only women's swimming & diving, and that is where UE's women compete. UE's men's swimming & diving team is in the MAC, as the MVC does not have enough members (3) in that sport.

@UEACES80: The OVC and SEC do not offer men's soccer. The America East does not offer men's tennis.The Sun Belt does not offer women's swimming & diving. That is the only reason all these schools are "affiliate members" of a secondary conference.

Doesn't change the fact that UNI's FCS football will not be moving to the MAC, an FBS conference.

[squirrel]

Just for the record in the last 15 years in MVC Soccer maybe you have heard of a few of these schools - SMU, TCU, Vanderbilt and WKU. They all and numerous others schools have been in the MVC for Soccer.

St. Louis was also a member. South Carolina at one point was slated to join when all those other top programs were in the league. But, also, at the time, the SEC did not have soccer.

[musiccitybulldog]

It will be interesting to watch over time if WSU doesn't go to the NCAA tourney for a few years(say they get 3-4-5th in the AAC) if Marshall will stay?

My guess is the Valley replaces WSU with Belmont.

[uniftw]

This talk about football driving the bus is hilarious. We are talking about FCS football here, FCS. The MVC plays D1 basketball. These are two different levels. FCS football should not even be allowed in the bus.

+1. FCS Football is something that automatically sets you apart from the major conferences. There are certain schools that have figured that out. they are mostly in the big East, but there are a few others. UNI fans seem to live under the delusion that they are going to become an FBS team or that FCS matters. both seem unlikely. they drain money from what should be the focus of the Valley. UNI has paid to keep their coach, bur the fact that they had a coach of that caliber to keep is mostly just luck. I don't think any other team in the conference has intentionally hired bad coaches. SIU paid a fortune to keep their winning coach, but they were not as lucky as UNI. Bradley has made multiple attempts to hire a winning coach and have paid considerable sums of money, but without much luck lately. If any of the football powerhouses want to leave the Valley the would be fine with me. I would much rather try to rebuild the conference around schools that put basketball first and don't have the financial drain of running a scholarship football team.

What UNI fan has any of the delusions you are talking about?

Football drains money from the Valley? Football is waht is keeping the Valley back?

Really?

Basketball funding levels - sans WSU since they are gone - in order
Bradley - 3.12m
UNI - 2.99
Evansville - 2.98m
Loyola - 2.74m
Illinois State - 2.45m
Drake - 2.41m
Missouri State - 2.27m
Southern Illinois - 2.24m
Indiana State - 1.82m

Pretty tough to say football is keeping the conference back when a football school is second, and privates like Drake are bottom half and less than 200K higher than football schools

Sure, I guess UNI could take the 3.7m it spends on football and put it into basketball. Same with Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and we'll just forget Indiana State because they don't fund anything. The reality is, if those schools dumped every penny of football into basketball Drake, Evansville and Bradley would be even further behind than they already are.

Contrary to your "UNI fans have football delusions of FBS and blah blah blah", there is a large number of UNI fans that would rather drop football and dump it into BB than pay for football


Also, you want to know why UNI fans are worried like we are? Once Wichita St. leaves, MVC men's basketball teams will have played just 9 combined NCAA tournament games since 2009. 8 of those are by UNI. It's legitimately UNI and no one else, in terms of "national relevance" once WSU is gone.

[UEACES80]

@ PAFAN - my point is that UNI seems mighty proud of their Wrestling or Rasslin relationship with the MAC and implies it is a foot in the door to the MAC. I think it carries no more weight than the UE Men's Swimming & Diving MAC membership. They both are just landing spots for sports that the MVC doesn't sponsor. In UNI's support I think they have 50X the desire to win in Wrestling than UE does in Men's Swimming & Diving (it is simply a small sport to meet D1 requirements)

Current MAC
MAC East - Akron, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Kent State, MIami, Ohio
MAC West - Ball State, CMU, EMU, NIU, Toledo, WMU

If they were looking to poach I would think the MVC candidates in order of attractiveness would be
#1 IL State
#2 then a toss up between SIU and UNI
#3 finally least attractive IN State (football doesn't seem to be that important to IN State) and MO State (distance the reason but who knows maybe that Beach Volleyball could interest the MAC)

[Drakey]

This talk about football driving the bus is hilarious. We are talking about FCS football here, FCS. The MVC plays D1 basketball. These are two different levels. FCS football should not even be allowed in the bus.

+1. FCS Football is something that automatically sets you apart from the major conferences. There are certain schools that have figured that out. they are mostly in the big East, but there are a few others. UNI fans seem to live under the delusion that they are going to become an FBS team or that FCS matters. both seem unlikely. they drain money from what should be the focus of the Valley. UNI has paid to keep their coach, bur the fact that they had a coach of that caliber to keep is mostly just luck. I don't think any other team in the conference has intentionally hired bad coaches. SIU paid a fortune to keep their winning coach, but they were not as lucky as UNI. Bradley has made multiple attempts to hire a winning coach and have paid considerable sums of money, but without much luck lately. If any of the football powerhouses want to leave the Valley the would be fine with me. I would much rather try to rebuild the conference around schools that put basketball first and don't have the financial drain of running a scholarship football team.

What UNI fan has any of the delusions you are talking about?

Football drains money from the Valley? Football is waht is keeping the Valley back?

Really?

Basketball funding levels - sans WSU since they are gone - in order
Bradley - 3.12m
UNI - 2.99
Evansville - 2.98m
Loyola - 2.74m
Illinois State - 2.45m
Drake - 2.41m
Missouri State - 2.27m
Southern Illinois - 2.24m
Indiana State - 1.82m

Pretty tough to say football is keeping the conference back when a football school is second, and privates like Drake are bottom half and less than 200K higher than football schools

Sure, I guess UNI could take the 3.7m it spends on football and put it into basketball. Same with Illinois State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and we'll just forget Indiana State because they don't fund anything. The reality is, if those schools dumped every penny of football into basketball Drake, Evansville and Bradley would be even further behind than they already are.

Contrary to your "UNI fans have football delusions of FBS and blah blah blah", there is a large number of UNI fans that would rather drop football and dump it into BB than pay for football


Also, you want to know why UNI fans are worried like we are? Once Wichita St. leaves, MVC men's basketball teams will have played just 9 combined NCAA tournament games since 2009. 8 of those are by UNI. It's legitimately UNI and no one else, in terms of "national relevance" once WSU is gone.

Obviously I can only base my observations on the UNI fans who post on this board. May not be representative. The majority of really good non power 5 basketball programs are at schools that don't fund football. Take a look at the top 100 RPI teams. Other than Power 5 conferences, a large percentage of the teams are non-football. I know there are exceptions year to year, but those who focus on basketball seem to have had more success.

[havoc]

UNI is going to go FBS because it wants FBS football. It will only do it if it means a better future for basketball. There are very few FCS programs that have that mentality.

The extreme majority of FCS programs that move FBS do so because they want to move football to the FBS OR they will stay FCS because it's the best fit for their football program. They don't give a damn about their basketball program competition level. It's all about finding the best fit for their football program and overall travel budget.

Even basketball only leagues, outside of the Big East are made up of FCS programs coming together to keep their entire athletic department safe, even if it means separating their football program into a one sport league. The A10 is a lesser example of that but the A10 still has Davidson, Dayton, Duquesne, Fordham, UMASS, Rhode Island and Richmond with football. The Big East has Butler and Villanova that play FCS football, and is rumored to want UCONN - who like UMASS is FBS football

Football is the primary decision making reason at those schools, thus making it that football drives the bus. UNI is one of the few FCS programs that will think of basketball before a football move.

FCS programs that will protect basketball before football (ignoring places like the SWAC/MEAC/Ivy/Patriot that have their own agendas unrelated to sports)

Butler
Dayton
Drake
Duquesne
Illinois State - maybe?
Indiana State
Missouri State - maybe?
Northern Iowa
Robert Morris
Southern Illinois - maybe?
Valparaiso
Villanova

Even having said that, football averages more people per game than basketball at all of those schools sans Butler, Dayton, Indiana State, Valpo and Nova.

Butler, Dayton, and Valpo may all technically have FCS programs, but they are non-scholarship. That is quite a distinction, especially for private schools as they are as the scholarship costs would be significantly higher.