What's the holdup?

[glm38]

Valpo hasn't done anything petty or dishonest. To suggest that is ridiculous.

[TOPSTRAIGHT]

Many conferences do not have that by-law except when it comes to hosting conference tournaments.Blame the Horizon.

[Pathfinder]

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...

Maybe Valpo shouldn't have agreed to that rule. That rule, like the exit fee, is intended to discourage teams from leaving, especially on short notice. Absent that rule, the exit fee would probably be higher.

[BEARZ77]

Seems like a lot of "Holier than thou" BS by some. Facts are Valpo has done nothing wrong, broken any rules, and clearly has acted in the best interests of their student athletes and University which is what any Administration should do in such a situation. I try to respect the right of each person[institution] to make the decisions they deem best for them even if I disagree personally, because frankly I'm not in their spot or have access to all the factors being considered; to me the most dangerous people in the world are those who think what's best for them equates to knowing what's right for everyone else to do.

[PurpleAcesFootball]

If you criticize another conference's by laws, I hope you have a clue about the MVC's.

Creighton didn't have to pay an exit fee to leave, but they had to forfeit a portion of NCAA payouts from the five years prior. Additionally, they played in the NCAA tourney in 2013 knowing they would get $0 money from the appearance.

Without knowing the Horizon League's rules and payout processes, I can't comment on Valpo. I am confident though the current presidents are aware of what is going on and satisfied with the process.

[ValpoTX]

The exit fee would not be higher if the postseason ban rule wasn't in play. The conference already upped their exit fee from $100k to $500k when Butler left the conference on short notice. It is normal to take this approach. I can think of one school that left their conference with a 1-2 year notice during this realignment period, and their athletes played what amounted to lame duck seasons because of it. Anyone that tries to make the argument that it is unethical not to tell your conference that you are leaving as soon as you know about it, has no clue regarding college athletics.

The exit fee just amounts to a 'bitter ex's revenge' type of requirement by a conference, and is not used to compensate anything that damages the league. The league compensates with scheduling gaps just fine without any financial issues.

[Pathfinder]

The exit fee would not be higher if the postseason ban rule wasn't in play. The conference already upped their exit fee from $100k to $500k when Butler left the conference on short notice. It is normal to take this approach. I can think of one school that left their conference with a 1-2 year notice during this realignment period, and their athletes played what amounted to lame duck seasons because of it. Anyone that tries to make the argument that it is unethical not to tell your conference that you are leaving as soon as you know about it, has no clue regarding college athletics.

The exit fee just amounts to a 'bitter ex's revenge' type of requirement by a conference, and is not used to compensate anything that damages the league. The league compensates with scheduling gaps just fine without any financial issues.

Of course the exit fee would be higher without the postseason ban. Why do you think conferences impose an exit fee? It's to discourage schools from leaving. Why do you think they impose a post-season ban on schools that are leaving? It's to discourage schools from leaving. You might say "no, it's because they don't want to send teams that are leaving on to represent the conference." Same thing. It raises the cost of leaving. The cost of changing leagues is the total cost of changing leagues. Don't want to cheat your athletes? Offer to pay an additional $30,000 or $50,000 or whatever is needed in exit fees for the right to participate in the conference tournament and represent the conference in the NCAAs. The Horizon's cheap and easily bought.

I think of conference exit fees less a bitter ex's revenge than as a pre-nup. You agreed to it, live with it. I don't know that Valpo's behavior is unethical, but someone use the phrase that others (meaning me) are being "holier than thou." No, it's the Valpo fans who started saying, "well, of course we're leaving, we just have to be duplicitous about it because the Horizon League has this "petty" rule. Yeah, rules always seem "petty" when you no longer want to live by them.

Valpo's making the move up. Good for Valpo. But at least own up to it. You're like the guy who's planning to break up with his mate for a better looking woman, but first wants one more night of great sex, then he'll tell her.

[Stickboy46]

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.

Does the MVC? WSU just accepted a move with baseball still playing ...

[uniftw]

Does the MVC? WSU just accepted a move with baseball still playing ...

Does the MVC have a spine?

[ValpoTX]

I really don't think that the HL would allow our teams to play in the conference tournament, in spite of giving them $30k-$50k to do so, as you suggest. For them, it is more of an issue to have an officially departing team representing your conference on their way out. We can agree to disagree here, but I support the approach that we are taking.