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

[UEACES80]

Good stuff Ptown. I like the UNK and Wright State combo with Valpo. If needed go to Murray State and Belmont then my level three would be UALR and UTA. Just not feeling the NM State or Grand Canyon vibes unless they are basketball only members.

Valpo pairs up nicely with LUC for travel.

UNK and Wright are a pair as well plus get us more into the Cincy / Dayton area.

I know some scoff at the travel partner thing but it has to be a factor as most sports are nowhere near a profit so why throw endless dollars at travel.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Good stuff Ptown. I like the UNK and Wright State combo with Valpo. If needed go to Murray State and Belmont then my level three would be UALR and UTA. Just not feeling the NM State or Grand Canyon vibes unless they are basketball only members.

Valpo pairs up nicely with LUC for travel.

UNK and Wright are a pair as well plus get us more into the Cincy / Dayton area.

I know some scoff at the travel partner thing but it has to be a factor as most sports are nowhere near a profit so why throw endless dollars at travel.

Grand canyon and nmsu don't makes sense. If we're traveling 1,600 miles anyway we might as well travel 2-400 more to gonzaga, st. Mary's, and vcu (east). Hell at that point you could make it a 14 team league and add Dayton and St Louis until they go big east. That would easily be the 7th rated conference. Travel is an issue though. If it were that simple to add teams far away for the MVC it would already be done

[ptownbraves]

Good stuff Ptown. I like the UNK and Wright State combo with Valpo. If needed go to Murray State and Belmont then my level three would be UALR and UTA. Just not feeling the NM State or Grand Canyon vibes unless they are basketball only members.

Valpo pairs up nicely with LUC for travel.

UNK and Wright are a pair as well plus get us more into the Cincy / Dayton area.

I know some scoff at the travel partner thing but it has to be a factor as most sports are nowhere near a profit so why throw endless dollars at travel.

Grand canyon and nmsu don't makes sense. If we're traveling 1,600 miles anyway we might as well travel 2-400 more to gonzaga, st. Mary's, and vcu (east). Hell at that point you could make it a 14 team league and add Dayton and St Louis until they go big east. That would easily be the 7th rated conference. Travel is an issue though. If it were that simple to add teams far away for the MVC it would already be done

I would be surprised if Grand Canyon or NMSU were serious options on the table. All the other schools you mentioned would be stepping down from their current situations to join the MVC. SLU had some recent layoffs and the MVC would make a lot of sense in reducing travel expenses, but they're not going to leave the A10 to join the MVC.

[TheAsianSensation]

If we're serious about basketball product, New Mexico State has to at least be on the table. Grand Canyon is a bit of a stupid idea, though.

The attendance thing just confirms to me that UMKC would be the dumbest decision on the board. A big market where they don't matter, bad basketball product, bad fan support. And remember they left the Summit for the WAC, right when the WAC was about to implode. They downgraded conferences. DOWNGRADED. We can't afford small-mindness in this conference.

Other than that, attendance isn't as big a factor as I think it might've been. Everyone is kind of clustered. Murray 3.3k, Valpo 3k, Oakland 2.9k, NKU 2.8k, UTA 2.8k, Belmont 2.4k. A few hundred fans in either direction won't change much. Omaha is a bit concerning at 1.8k though. Given they dropped football when they moved to D1, I'd be hoping they could make basketball support a bit stronger.

[RacerJoeD]

The MVC would be best served by avoiding the issues that CUSA has encountered.

http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/o ... abcf2.html

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Good stuff Ptown. I like the UNK and Wright State combo with Valpo. If needed go to Murray State and Belmont then my level three would be UALR and UTA. Just not feeling the NM State or Grand Canyon vibes unless they are basketball only members.

Valpo pairs up nicely with LUC for travel.

UNK and Wright are a pair as well plus get us more into the Cincy / Dayton area.

I know some scoff at the travel partner thing but it has to be a factor as most sports are nowhere near a profit so why throw endless dollars at travel.

Grand canyon and nmsu don't makes sense. If we're traveling 1,600 miles anyway we might as well travel 2-400 more to gonzaga, st. Mary's, and vcu (east). Hell at that point you could make it a 14 team league and add Dayton and St Louis until they go big east. That would easily be the 7th rated conference. Travel is an issue though. If it were that simple to add teams far away for the MVC it would already be done

I would be surprised if Grand Canyon or NMSU were serious options on the table. All the other schools you mentioned would be stepping down from their current situations to join the MVC. SLU had some recent layoffs and the MVC would make a lot of sense in reducing travel expenses, but they're not going to leave the A10 to join the MVC.

I was being facetious. However, hypothetically, if you add all those school it would be better than any of their situations.

[ptownbraves]

If we're serious about basketball product, New Mexico State has to at least be on the table. Grand Canyon is a bit of a stupid idea, though.

The attendance thing just confirms to me that UMKC would be the dumbest decision on the board. A big market where they don't matter, bad basketball product, bad fan support. And remember they left the Summit for the WAC, right when the WAC was about to implode. They downgraded conferences. DOWNGRADED. We can't afford small-mindness in this conference.

Other than that, attendance isn't as big a factor as I think it might've been. Everyone is kind of clustered. Murray 3.3k, Valpo 3k, Oakland 2.9k, NKU 2.8k, UTA 2.8k, Belmont 2.4k. A few hundred fans in either direction won't change much. Omaha is a bit concerning at 1.8k though. Given they dropped football when they moved to D1, I'd be hoping they could make basketball support a bit stronger.

A New Mexico State addition would be a bold move. I think the added travel expenses would be a hard sell to the schools, but you're right that it would signal the MVC is serious about their commitment to basketball.

I'm also not crazy about UMKC. It seems like a small, vocal group is pushing hard for it to happen but I have concerns about the long-term direction of the conference when we start adding branch schools from bigger university systems.

[Svoboda]

I had earlier; would make sense and give MSU at least someone in the west to pair with in women's sports as a travel partner. Decent enough program and a new market to add.

I'm hearing they are in the 2nd tier. Was told Belmont was asked and declined again. Then focus moved on to Valpo and Murray State. Then UT-Arlington and a group of a couple other schools would be considered. Just what I'm hearing from a couple different sources.

[Drakey]

If we are only looking at one school. and it's not Valpo or Belmont, i would forget it and go with 9. To pick up some games, maybe we could have a preseason conference tournament like the Big 8 used to do.

[squirrel]

I'm sure travel distance will be a major factor.Remember,this is for
All sports,not just basketball.

This would be a valid argument if, with the lone exception of Evansville, the conference's non-profits didn't already routinely play national schedules, which typically include not just 1, but often times 2, 3 or more trips to either coast and really any point in between.

I get that a league should make some geographic sense, but it is incredibly foolish to sacrifice the best possible adds to placate one league member afraid to spend.