What's the holdup?

[Dean Wormer]

It has been over a week since the Valley publicly extended the invitation to Valpo, and so far, nothing but crickets from them. Is this normal? I was all for Valpo, but it seems a little odd, and the comparisons to how Murray was approaching this is concerning.

Murray put on a full court, public press to get invited. The AD was all over Twitter and the media, the board met pre-emptively to signal full support, and the fans were everywhere. My guess is if Murray had received the invitation, they would have called a presser almost immediately, and organized a parade through the streets of Murray...possibly renaming a street in honor of Doug Elgin. Within a week, the Valley logo would have been all over the court down there. Valpo is coming across as the hard to get chick, interested, but playing it cool.

It's like you have two choices for the prom, both girls are attractive and solid choices. One is constantly coming up to you, batting her eyes, dressed to the nines, and hanging onto every word you say, knowing she will jump up and down and hug you the minute you ask her...The other is just there, looks the other way when you pass her and plays it cool. You decide to ask the cool one, and she simply says she will get back to you.

I know the fans are excited, but why the silence from the University? Could there be issues with this?

[uniftw]

There are no hold ups.

Baseball is still going.
Softball just finished on Sunday.

The second Valpo publicly states their intent to move conferences the Horizon can/will pull their AQ eligibility.

Unless Murray didn't care about AQ status in those sports, they also would have delayed publicly accepting.

[VU2014]

As you uniftw said, Valpo can't officially accept an invitation officially till they are finished up with Baseball.

The Horizon League has petty By-Laws saying they can pull any schools teams from post-season play once they publicly state their intentions to leave the Conference.

Valpo is 100% moving to the MVC and leaving the HL. They just can't publicly accept yet or have a press conference or anything yet. There is pretty much a gag-order from Valpo's people from publicly addressing it.

[Dean Wormer]

There are no hold ups.

Baseball is still going.
Softball just finished on Sunday.

The second Valpo publicly states their intent to move conferences the Horizon can/will pull their AQ eligibility.

Unless Murray didn't care about AQ status in those sports, they also would have delayed publicly accepting.

Good point, and probably has a lot to do with it.

I am sure Murray would have faced the same issues, and may have delayed the formal acceptance, but it was no secret they wanted in, and wanted in badly. Maybe I have missed something, but I am not aware of anything close to the same from the admins at Valpo. Has their AD or other admins done anything publicly to signal they are 100% on board?

[VU2014]

There are no hold ups.

Baseball is still going.
Softball just finished on Sunday.

The second Valpo publicly states their intent to move conferences the Horizon can/will pull their AQ eligibility.

Unless Murray didn't care about AQ status in those sports, they also would have delayed publicly accepting.

Good point, and probably has a lot to do with it.

I am sure Murray would have faced the same issues, and may have delayed the formal acceptance, but it was no secret they wanted in, and wanted in badly. Maybe I have missed something, but I am not aware of anything close to the same from the admins at Valpo. Has their AD or other admins done anything publicly to signal they are 100% on board?

Murray State by law has to have Public Board Meetings, since they are a public university. Valpo is private so there is no need publicly address it.

Valpo's administration was dead-silent throughout the whole process. Pretty old school. Our AD/Pres didn't even acknowledge the MVC was on campus. Valpo's admin didn't publicly lobby (privately to the MVC yes) for the invite and rile up the fan-base about getting an invite. Fans/student/alumni were all talking/excited about potentially getting an invite but they've been through that rodeo before when Loyola got the invite over Valpo, so there were tempered expectations.

[ValpoTX]

You have to remember that it was common knowledge that we were considered in 2013, and when we weren't invited, there was probably an awkward period when our AD had to get in front of the rest of the conference ADs to explain our intent going forward. They were much more tight-lipped this time around, so that if we didn't get the invite, we would not have to go through that again. Considering that Valpo has already been assigned the Utah State game in the MVC/MWC, I have to believe that we have informally formally accepted

[ACECARD]

You have to remember that it was common knowledge that we were considered in 2013, and when we weren't invited, there was probably an awkward period when our AD had to get in front of the rest of the conference ADs to explain our intent going forward. They were much more tight-lipped this time around, so that if we didn't get the invite, we would not have to go through that again. Considering that Valpo has already been assigned the Utah State game in the MVC/MWC, I have to believe that we have informally formally accepted

One would have to assume that the MVC has been assured that Valpo has accepted the invitation.

[Pathfinder]

As you uniftw said, Valpo can't officially accept an invitation officially till they are finished up with Baseball.

The Horizon League has petty By-Laws saying they can pull any schools teams from post-season play once they publicly state their intentions to leave the Conference.

Valpo is 100% moving to the MVC and leaving the HL. They just can't publicly accept yet or have a press conference or anything yet. There is pretty much a gag-order from Valpo's people from publicly addressing it.

Seems to me less a "petty bylaw" of the Horizon League than petty, dishonest behavior by Valpo.

[uniftw]

As you uniftw said, Valpo can't officially accept an invitation officially till they are finished up with Baseball.

The Horizon League has petty By-Laws saying they can pull any schools teams from post-season play once they publicly state their intentions to leave the Conference.

Valpo is 100% moving to the MVC and leaving the HL. They just can't publicly accept yet or have a press conference or anything yet. There is pretty much a gag-order from Valpo's people from publicly addressing it.

Seems to me less a "petty bylaw" of the Horizon League than petty, dishonest behavior by Valpo.

Every single conference has that by law and every single school leaving a conference does the same thing.

[ValpoTX]

That is an uninformed comment to make. You are telling me that if you were an athlete, you would be ok with the conference pulling your potential of competing in an NCAA tournament, just because your school is switching conferences? It is extremely petty that conferences do such things to the schools that are only trying to better their situation, as it is really out of spite, more than anything. The Horizon League will get their exit fee, so why should the student-athletes suffer in not having an end goal to compete for, as well? As someone that played college sports, I completely support the approach we are taking...