If we go to 12 who do you want (choose 2) poll?

[BEARZ77]

Hopefully that's 1 voice not invited to the decision making meeting.

[mvfcfan]

I've been talking to some of the Dakota fans and the NDSU ones in particular have brought up some good points. I am halfway convinced that Murray State would never be approved to the MVFC. The Summit League is in a little bit of trouble. Everyone and their brother thinks that IPFW is going to be going to the Horizon League pretty soon. (Robert Morris from the NEC is probably coming with them from the NEC.)

Here's the potential consequences of us inviting Murray State (from the Summit League POV)
1) They lose Western Illinois to the Ohio Valley Conference.
2) We invite Oral Roberts to keep the public-private split even.

With just option #1 happening they would be down to 7 teams if IPFW leaves too. With option #2 also happening they are down to 6 teams. I doubt UMKC would come back to the Summit League if that happens. If they just lose IPFW then UMKC will most likely come back and the Summit League will be at 9 teams.

With that being said I don't see anymore expansion happening unless......
1) We get rid of the MVFC and just have football under control by the MVC. Then we can invite the Dakotas as associate members where they no longer have a vote or we can just play with 7 teams (YSU as FB only).
2) Murray State goes non-scholarship or drops football.
3) Murray State talks the OVC in allowing them to be a football only member.
4) We invite UWM and UWGB (which I'd almost rather stay at 10 than do that).

Point is there is more going on behind the scenes than we know about at this point. The only thing we can really do is speculate.

[MSUDuo]

To eliminate all the repetitive Blah Blah Blah in this thread the three middle USA/mid major conferences (MVC, Summit, Horizon) need to sit down and agree to a plan that benefits, insures the survival, and maintains the competitiveness of all three conferences.

Missouri Valley Conference: Need to recognize that MVC public schools need/want to reduce travel costs--become a localized, regional school bus conference. Also, schools east of the Mississippi have a bias against MVC schools west of the Mississippi---travel costs plus the Mississippi is a psychological barrier (age old east VS west bias).
Reduce its footprint. Eliminate some schools and add some schools.
Eliminate schools west of the Mississippi and add schools east of the Mississippi.
Schools to eliminate: Northern Iowa, Drake, Missouri State.
Schools to add: Northern Kentucky, Wisconsin Milwaukee, Wisconsin Green Bay, Oakland, Fort Wayne, Wright State (maybe-out of geo footprint).

Summit League: will be a maxed out NINE (9) school conference, plus have to overcome UNI and MO State vocal bias against the Dakota and Nebraska schools.
Keep NDSU, NDU, SDU, SDSU. Nebraska Omaha, Oral Roberts (maybe).
Eliminate: IPFW, Denver, IUPUI, Western Ill.
Add: UNI, Missouri State, UMKC, Drake (maybe).
Possible adds: None--no other quality BB/FB schools west of Mississippi-east of the Rockies.
Comment: A better BB conference than current MVC, the very top FCS FB conference.

Horizon League. Going to lose some teams--will struggle to add quality replacements.
Lose: NKentucky, Wisconsin Mil, Wisconsin GBay, Oakland, Wright State (maybe)
Retain: Ill. Chicago, Youngstown St, Cleveland St. Detroit Mercy.
Add: IPFW, IUPUI, Western Ill.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Hopefully that's 1 voice not invited to the decision making meeting.

LOL. +1.

[MOST]

Boring! Boring! Boring!

MVC die hards want to expand the foot print/and travel expenses: west and SW to Grand Canyon (Phoenix) and NMSU, east to Dayton OH (Wright State), south to Nashville. Who knows where else. At least a consolidation of the premier BB and FSC FB schools west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies has a possibility of success.

All the other blah, blah, blah on this thread is status quo deja vu (heard it all before), or vu daju (same thing only different).

Same people live on hearing or reading what they or someone else has said or written numerous time.

Get a new line of thinking!

[ACECARD]

Hopefully that's 1 voice not invited to the decision making meeting.

You got that right. Gave me a headache just reading it.

[MOST]

Hopefully that's 1 voice not invited to the decision making meeting.

You got that right. Gave me a headache just reading it.

Another blah, blah, blah

Appears that a Bear and an Ace have a worn out opinion. Bear fans (a few have a deep dislike, fear, hatred of travel to the frozen North (Dakotas). Don't know what drives Ace fans--i think they are afraid of getting left behind!

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Ah, your first paragraph on this board talks about how you've been living and working in the Dakotas for many, many years.

Now we know what the motivation is.

[BEARZ77]

Hopefully that's 1 voice not invited to the decision making meeting.

You got that right. Gave me a headache just reading it.

Another blah, blah, blah

Appears that a Bear and an Ace have a worn out opinion. Bear fans (a few have a deep dislike, fear, hatred of travel to the frozen North (Dakotas). Don't know what drives Ace fans--i think they are afraid of getting left behind!

Travis; you're the same as you were on the MSU board. You talk about diverse thinking, but to you that means agreeing with you when you throw out your ideas. The minute you get disapproval you start labeling everyone who thinks differently than you, which as best I can tell, is most of the world. No one limits you're ability to post your thoughts, but no one is gonna tolerate your trying to bully your opinion down their throat and then getting all pissy when they disagree.

[uniftw]

I've been talking to some of the Dakota fans and the NDSU ones in particular have brought up some good points. I am halfway convinced that Murray State would never be approved to the MVFC. The Summit League is in a little bit of trouble. Everyone and their brother thinks that IPFW is going to be going to the Horizon League pretty soon. (Robert Morris from the NEC is probably coming with them from the NEC.)

Here's the potential consequences of us inviting Murray State (from the Summit League POV)
1) They lose Western Illinois to the Ohio Valley Conference.
2) We invite Oral Roberts to keep the public-private split even.

With just option #1 happening they would be down to 7 teams if IPFW leaves too. With option #2 also happening they are down to 6 teams. I doubt UMKC would come back to the Summit League if that happens. If they just lose IPFW then UMKC will most likely come back and the Summit League will be at 9 teams.

With that being said I don't see anymore expansion happening unless......
1) We get rid of the MVFC and just have football under control by the MVC. Then we can invite the Dakotas as associate members where they no longer have a vote or we can just play with 7 teams (YSU as FB only).
2) Murray State goes non-scholarship or drops football.
3) Murray State talks the OVC in allowing them to be a football only member.
4) We invite UWM and UWGB (which I'd almost rather stay at 10 than do that).

Point is there is more going on behind the scenes than we know about at this point. The only thing we can really do is speculate.

Don't let the Dakota fans sway you on Murray State and the MVFC.

The only - no matter what line they give you - reason they don't want Murray State in the MVFC is because it keeps Summit schools in the minority and makes them leveraing another school into the Summit and MVFC harder. They want to do that to leverage their own Summit League football.

Think about it the MVFC will be at 11 in 2020 with the addition of UND - 5 MVC, 5 Summit, 1 Horizon. The ideal number - and the MVFC commish has come out and said this recently - is 12 with a divisional scheduling set up. The logical 12th is Murray State if they join the MVC. Summit school don't want that. They don't want a 6th MVC school in there. They don't want the MVC to have "more votes/sway" than them.

What they want is for a school like Northern Colorado, Weber State or Southern Utah (all of whom they have history with either from the D2 NCC days or early D1 days in the Great West) to leave the Big Sky and join the Summit/MVFC and then eventually form Summit League football.

They realize the Summit is on it's death bed, but have too much bravado to say it. They are thinking in a way to protect the Summit, because they view the Summit as better, more stable, and healthier long term than the MVC.

I've laid this out many times, but this is why Murray State and a school like SFA would be the smart choice. It forces the Dakota's, and let's be real when we say Summit we mean them, hands. Move the MVFC into the MVC. Allow the Summit, and YSU, to remain as affiliate members if they want. Doing this protects UNI, ISUR, MSU (the school that really matter at this point, TBF) SIU and ISUB from the Summit League pulling their crap. We'd have enough members for a football conference no matter what the Summit did. The league is protected all around.

The only other way to prevent what the Dakota's would love to do is to invite the XDSUs, and cut the head off of the monster that could "kill us all" before it decides to do anything.

I don't want 14, but going 14 with the DSUs, Murray State and even ORU I guess, is something I'd listen too if it involved the MVC swallowing the MVFC.

14 schools - 8 football
Bradley
Drake
Evansville
Illinois State - FB
Indiana State - FB
Loyola
Missouri State - FB
Murray State - FB
North Dakota State - FB
Northern Iowa - FB
Oral Roberts - or literally almost anyone else
South Dakota State - FB
Southern Illinois - FB
Valparaiso

Could keep YSU as an affiliate to stay at 9 FB teams, which is the best FB number.