Updated 1/6/18: MVC Expansion Poll

[IllinoisState]

Exactly. What is the reasoning that doesn't scream that the MVC university presidents don't care enough about the health and viability of the league as a serious national player in its flagship sport? Why can the Horizon League add Purdue Fort Wayne as a definite one bid league with the Mastadons not being a program that can help them elevate to possible at large status while the MVC can look at a program like Murray State that can elevate the MVC to potential multibid status and say "Nah we're good." Are Murray State's academics seriously that bad? Bear in mind that unless there is another addition to the Horizon League (which is possible but I haven't seen any indication of that) they have the SAME scheduling issues for other sports but went ahead with it anyway. Are MVC schools that strapped for cash? It's not like Murray State isn't in the footprint either. As I recall it's within 5 hours of virtually every MVC member just like PFW is in relation to the Horizon League. There is literally no sound argument that can be made for why the Racers are not in as an 11th team while we wait on a twelfth when the freaking Horizon just did it. Are we less responsive to the athletic needs of this conference than the Horizon League? Are we less proactive? The only thing this does for the MVC is elevate it and make it better. Add a home and home with Murray State to everyone's schedule and SOS goes up and the need for non D1s becomes non existent. The MVC hates non D1s It also hates buy games. Name me a better way to get two games than a home and home with Murray State that doesn't involve a buy game and one of the games must be a home game for your team? If you want to talk about travel, the opponent must also be close to equidistant from your school as Murray State is. I'll wait while you come up with your answers.

Northern Iowa and Drake are over 8 hours away from Murray State. Loyola and Valpo are over 6 hours away from Murray State. Missouri State, Illinois State, and Bradley are over five hours away from Murray State.

I do like Murray State as an addition though.

[BEARZ77]

If this is a unilateral expansion move on the part of the Horizon League and not a response to a loss of a member then this ought to be upsetting for every MVC fan. The Horizon League is a definite one bid league and they are expanding to include a school that doesn't really help them that much unless they want more conference games. They're not worried about their tournament share or any of this other BS that is holding the MVC back. Yet we refuse to add a school in Murray State that could meaningfully help us and actually give us a legitimate shot at multibid status.

Unless you have privy to those thoughts and discussions , to act like you have more insight about what they should or shouldn't do is rather grandiose.

Appeal to authority is a bulletproof argument. Disagree with a politician, church leader, business? Nope — sit down! If you don’t have a chair in those boardroom meetings, know your place and zip it!

When someone states their opinion is one that every MVC fan should have when in the course of 100 page thread a significant # of posters have already voiced their disagreement, that's about grandiose thinking, not "keeping your place". The evidence has been laid out multiple times that adding a school , even one with a history of winning like Murray State, does little to improve the number of bids for a conference, so repeating that tired litany as one's chief mantra is weak. But like i said, to each their own, but don't cry when you get challenged about it.

[VUGrad1314]

Nobody's crying. It's just such an obvious solution to make the league better. Even if it doesn't result in more bids the amount of money lost is negligible and easily made up by the fact that Murray State is a quality recognized opponent that draws fans. When they came to Valpo they had like 4200-4400 in a gym that seats 5000. It also pretty much eliminates non D1s from MVC schedules. More quality home games. More quality games. Less non conference headaches. No more non D1s and all for the cost of making the job of scheduling for non revenue sports a little harder doesn't seem like a bad tradeoff to me but again what do I know? The P5 are doing it anyway so unless we want to continue watering down our schedules we should do likewise with a program that fits and makes sense as an addition.In addition playing a program like Murray State will prepare whatever team does come from the MVC better for March increasing our chance to get credits. They will also improve our schedule most years which improves seeding which increases our chances to get credits. Oh and let's not forget the fact that their fanbase travels like few in college basketball which is a massive boon to Arch Madness attendance. They would in some ways (at least in fan support) become the new Shockers. There, is that a convincing enough argument that doesn't use at large bids? It is ridiculous that we are letting schedules for things like soccer volleyball and the like drive the bus in a basketball centric league. Surely you can see why that doesn't make sense.

[EddieC]

1314 is correct about Murray State fans travelling well. The OVC final last spring out drew the MVC final by about 2,000 fans.

[BEARZ77]

Nobody's crying. It's just such an obvious solution to make the league better. Even if it doesn't result in more bids the amount of money lost is negligible and easily made up by the fact that Murray State is a quality recognized opponent that draws fans. When they came to Valpo they had like 4200-4400 in a gym that seats 5000. It also pretty much eliminates non D1s from MVC schedules. More quality home games. More quality games. Less non conference headaches. No more non D1s and all for the cost of making the job of scheduling for non revenue sports a little harder doesn't seem like a bad tradeoff to me but again what do I know? The P5 are doing it anyway so unless we want to continue watering down our schedules we should do likewise with a program that fits and makes sense as an addition.In addition playing a program like Murray State will prepare whatever team does come from the MVC better for March increasing our chance to get credits. They will also improve our schedule most years which improves seeding which increases our chances to get credits. Oh and let's not forget the fact that their fanbase travels like few in college basketball which is a massive boon to Arch Madness attendance. They would in some ways (at least in fan support) become the new Shockers. There, is that a convincing enough argument that doesn't use at large bids? It is ridiculous that we are letting schedules for things like soccer volleyball and the like drive the bus in a basketball centric league. Surely you can see why that doesn't make sense.

Could you show me an official statement from the league office where they state schedules for soccer, volleyball, etc are the reasons we haven't pursued additional schools. Again, I think you're taking statements off a chat board as the official stance of the league office. Probably not the same. Again I've always been supportive of the addition of Murray State; my point is we[ fans]don't have access to the reasons why we are or aren't more aggressive at expansion and throwing fits over non-validated reasons is rather silly.

[Mikovio]

I hate to play devil's advocate here because I think Murray would be a good addition but the fact is before Ja Morant they only averaged about 3k which would put them near the bottom of the MVC. Maybe they can sustain their bigger crowds though, who knows.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Most Murray alums don’t live in Murray.

That’s why 10k Murray fans were at the OVC tournament. It was physically closer to where more alums are located.

Think NIU football. Most NIU fans don’t live in DeKalb and attendance reflects that. But give NIU a game at Northwestern (2014) and there’s 25k NIU fans.

[BCPanther]

Wow. Murray got their fans to drive 2 hours to watch their best team in decades and a lottery pick.

I'm impressed. Most schools having great seasons struggle to get people excited enough to watch them.

[SycamoreMaze]

Wow. Murray got their fans to drive 2 hours to watch their best team in decades and a lottery pick.

I'm impressed. Most schools having great seasons struggle to get people excited enough to watch them.

They brought more peeps to the OVC championship than the MVC brought to its championship and led the MVC in home attendance.

Considering what the crowd for our final looked like, we have no room to throw shade.

It certainly wasn't their best team in decades either.

[E-Villan]

Wow. Murray got their fans to drive 2 hours to watch their best team in decades and a lottery pick.

I'm impressed. Most schools having great seasons struggle to get people excited enough to watch them.

They brought more peeps to the OVC championship than the MVC brought to its championship and led the MVC in home attendance.

Considering what the crowd for our final looked like, we have no room to throw shade.

It certainly wasn't their best team in decades either.

Agreed. A UNI fan should be the last person throwing shade on attendance. Even the year they cracked the Top 20, their attendance was mid-pack in the league. What would the arenas in Springfield, Evansville, Peoria, Normal, and Terre Haute look like with the home team ranked in the Top 20?

Back to Murray, although it has been said for 100+ pages, most of us like them. As an Evansville fan, it would be great for us..they have a lot of alumni in our metro, they travel here well and they have a quality program. But I see reasons not to at this time. Odd number of teams, Murray, KY would be the smallest town in the conference, and their media market, which isn't huge, already has a MVC team it it.

What I really don't see is why the addition of IPFUFW to the Horizon should be the cause of immediate concern for every member of the MVC? People in Ft. Wayne don't care, why the heck should we? There is no gigantic ripple that will be the result of this.

I am sure it has been said many times in these 100 pages, but adding Murray doesn't equate to more bids. Raising the profile of the league is up to the current 10 members of this conference. Without that, we are just adding another mouth at the table. If we want to be a perennial top 10 conference, then we need to act like it. I am far more concerned when 2 of our schools take buy games from an A-10 team. The A-10 doesn't allow their coaches to participate in the mid-major poll, yet we wear it like a badge of honor. I like to think top to bottom our programs bring more to the table than the A-10 ones, yet the perception is otherwise. If we are going to take buy games from them, then we shouldn't be upset when they take the MWC challenge from us, or get multiple bids while we get a single 14 seed.