(non-MVC) Realignment News

[VUGrad1314]

I agree on the notion of not adding schools that are second tier in their own city but at least Wright State draws well has great facilities and a solid all around athletic profile. They're my "If we have to get someone to even up the numbers" add behind SLU Murray State Belmont and NKU. I'd like to see them in the MVC one day but they have some growing to do on the hardwood. Would be a grand slam addition for baseball though.

[mvfcfan]

MWC announces they are going to 20 conference games.

I saw where they are not going to allow non-D1 games either, excluding exhibition games which is something we need to do as well. MVFC also needs that rule.

As for baseball that is a negative for NKU. They are awful at baseball, even worse than Valpo (lol). They were 0-17 before the season was cancelled. I didn't realize Wright State was so good at baseball. That does make me like them better, but I'm still not sold on adding a little brother in Dayton.

MVC Baseball has always been good. Last season we were 6th in RPI ahead of the Big Ten. DBU, MSU, and both ISU's really take baseball pretty serious. Even Bradley, UE, and SIU are tough most years. Valpo is at a disadvantage because of the cold weather that lingers on due to the lake. I went to a game up there when INSU was on the road and it was still cold even in May. When I left Terre Haute it was hot so I wore shorts and a T-shirt and froze for 3 and a half hours.

[PantherU]

As for baseball that is a negative for NKU. They are awful at baseball, even worse than Valpo (lol). They were 0-17 before the season was cancelled. I didn't realize Wright State was so good at baseball. That does make me like them better, but I'm still not sold on adding a little brother in Dayton.

I'll go to bat for Wright State some too. Their athletics program is top notch. Scott Nagy would instantly be one of the best coaches in the conference. Their baseball program has had players make it to the majors. They average over 5,000 per game playing in our conference, if they jump to the MVC and they market it correctly, it's not a totally crazy idea to think they could start filling the Nutter Center on a regular basis.

I think if you get a better coach at NKU, their baseball program will thrive. They have the facilities for it.

Actually, talking about college baseball kind of irks me right now because we have an actual home stadium for the first time in our history and we can't even play our first game in it.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

In the category of “We don’t know what the f*** we’re doing”, Chicago St held a wild BOT meeting last night with cutting baseball on the agenda.

The problem? Baseball would put CSU under 2 Men’s team sports, which not only would’ve disqualified the school from Division 1, but also Division 2, Division 3, and the entire NCAA. Yes, a rule known by every AD across 1100+ NCAA schools apparently was not known by Chicago St’s AD or compliance AD to the point this made its way all the way up the food chain so the school could drop the sport at the BOT meeting and unknowingly disqualify itself from the NCAA.

Oh, it gets better. CSU hosted this BOT meeting on a public Zoom-like app, but didn’t know how to use the moderator controls. Therefore no one was muted, and the baseball parents kept chiming in whenever. Finally, when the NCAA-rules point in the above paragraph was made in the chatroom, someone from CSU disabled the chat, and the parents kept requesting to reenable the chatroom to no avail.

Then the BOT meeting turned into Jerry Springer Hour. Because there were no moderator controls, the meeting was swarmed with a tsunami of trolls yelling expletives and inappropriate remarks anytime a trustee tried to speak. The meeting had to be canceled and rescheduled for June. Theories are the scorned baseball players themselves created the trolls to stall the decision and save their program.

There’s bits and pieces of it on twitter, a 34-post thread on the WAC board, & an 85-post thread on CSNbbs that better captures the play-by-play than I can write.

[VUGrad1314]

MWC announces they are going to 20 conference games.

San Diego State is reportedly not pleased with this development. So if you're scoring at home that's:

Boise State still pissed at the MWC

SDSU newly pissed at the MWC

Air Force's coach questioning whether his school would be better off elsewhere in terms of exposure.

The AAC might fulfill their western expansion dream after all and they (or the WCC if they don't want to do full membership) will be the beneficiaries. If they don't do full membership and this comes to pass look for the AAC to gut the A10. Now is a great time for the MVC to make a move and get Murray State (and one of Belmont NKU or Wright State) if they can because such a move would place them comfortably ahead of the new A10 and MWC configurations if this were to happen. There'd still be a pretty sizable gap between the other 8 leagues and us and our road to multibid status would not be easy but we'd be in the best position of any league outside of the P5 BE AAC WCC to get more than one team in.

[BCPanther]

It feels like the Mountain West has put all their eggs in the 'let's hope Gonzaga joins' basket.

As a football league they're really in trouble as the new TV deal gives them all less money and alienates Boise.

[VUGrad1314]

That basket will not work for them if they keep pissing off their members (with SDSU also unhappy with the direction of the conference and Gonzaga likely now less likely to entertain the MWC with 20 conference games) they're really in trouble. Once Boise bolts goodbye NY6 Access Bowl and once SDSU bolts (and you have to think Gonzaga would strong-arm the WCC again to take SDSU or they would do it on their own because it's in their best interests) it's good bye multibid chances in all likelihood. The MWC will become a one bid basketball league with no shot at the access bowl in football not appreciably better than CUSA the Sun Belt or the MAC. At that point Air Force also considers its options and either joins the AAC or goes indy in football (as an academy they can handle being indy). I'd expect the AAC is chomping at the bit because they may soon have their pick of the ideal candidates. if Boise SDSU (and possibly AFA) are in BYU likely is as well. The saddest thing for the MWC is that they could have prevented all of this by being more aggressive when courting Gonzaga. I firmly believe that if they had courted St Mary's and\or Wichita State alongside Gonzaga then the Zags would have joined up and nobody would be grousing about the MWC because they'd be making great money on a huge new media deal and they would be a power basketball league akin to a western Big East. They have only themsleves to blame for the place that they're in it would seem.

[BCPanther]

That basket will not work for them if they keep pissing off their members (with SDSU also unhappy with the direction of the conference and Gonzaga likely now less likely to entertain the MWC with 20 conference games) they're really in trouble. Once Boise bolts goodbye NY6 Access Bowl and once SDSU bolts (and you have to think Gonzaga would strong-arm the WCC again to take SDSU or they would do it on their own because it's in their best interests) it's good bye multibid chances in all likelihood. The MWC will become a one bid basketball league with no shot at the access bowl in football not appreciably better than CUSA the Sun Belt or the MAC. At that point Air Force also considers its options and either joins the AAC or goes indy in football (as an academy they can handle being indy). I'd expect the AAC is chomping at the bit because they may soon have their pick of the ideal candidates. if Boise SDSU (and possibly AFA) are in BYU likely is as well. The saddest thing for the MWC is that they could have prevented all of this by being more aggressive when courting Gonzaga. I firmly believe that if they had courted St Mary's and\or Wichita State alongside Gonzaga then the Zags would have joined up and nobody would be grousing about the MWC because they'd be making great money on a huge new media deal and they would be a power basketball league akin to a western Big East. They have only themsleves to blame for the place that they're in it would seem.

They just fell apart. They went from talking about being a 14 team football/16 team basketball league to a league that may not end up better than the WCC within a decade.

Hell, they did site visits at NDSU, SDSU, UNI, Wichita and Gonzaga in 2015 and now there's no way anybody except NDSU would consider it and that's only because they've sacrificed every other sport at the altar of FCS Football.

[VUGrad1314]

I almost wish NDSU would go FBS already. It would open up the possibility of adding SDSU (and possibly USD if we believe that they can be a good fit over time) which I believe would strengthen the conference. SDSU is really really good at basketball and pretty good at some other sports if I recall correctly and they have a good academic profile. Adding for example SDSU and Murray State as full MVC\MVFC members would allow the MVC to take over direct ownership of the MVFC if they so desired, though I don't know how beneficial such a move would necessarily be.

[mvfcfan]

I almost wish NDSU would go FBS already. It would open up the possibility of adding SDSU (and possibly USD if we believe that they can be a good fit over time) which I believe would strengthen the conference. SDSU is really really good at basketball and pretty good at some other sports if I recall correctly and they have a good academic profile. Adding for example SDSU and Murray State as full MVC\MVFC members would allow the MVC to take over direct ownership of the MVFC if they so desired, though I don't know how beneficial such a move would necessarily be.

The problem with NDSU is that no one wants to take a chance on them because they are an outlier in any conference they would join. The MAC makes the most sense, but with them cutting back tournaments and schools cutting sports that is extremely unlikely. Someone might take a chance on them someday, maybe the MWC if they get desperate. Hopefully someone in the MVFC just steps up and beats them. That would be the best thing.

As for NDSU basketball they have made the tournament 5 times (I'm including their AQ this year) since they were eligible in 2009. They've also won 2 games although one of those was a First 4 game. Still they have won more games in the tournament this past decade than anyone in the MVC outside of UNI and Loyola. I still think long term NDSU and SDSU would be the best two adds. NDSU is the school that would pull SDSU away from the Summit League.

I really don't understand the football fear on this board. UNI and ILST have strong programs and it hasn't held back their basketball. Even SIU had strong teams back when they were also strong at basketball. During the Odum years at Indiana State when we were good at basketball, we even had strong football at the same time. NDSU and SDSU have won the AQ every season since 2012. Both schools have quality programs.

I don't want to trash Murray State because they are a great program, but they are 4-17 all time in the NCAA tournament. They've never been to a Sweet 16 either.