MVC Schedules

[VUGrad1314]

Solid game for SIU. Sad that it's a buy game but I guess that's the world we live in...

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status ... 8363435009

[Salukimadness86]

Solid game for SIU. Sad that it's a buy game but I guess that's the world we live in...

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status ... 8363435009

Tulsa is a good get, but don't put them on the same pedestal as Kansas, Kentucky, Duke or NC and call this a big game. SIU also just got a home game with Eastern Washington. Solid get as their NET was 123 last year. A lot of solid mid majors on the non-conference schedule. Mullins scheduling in year two is better than the previous staff in year six.

[mvfcfan]

The Tulsa fans should enjoy that one as it might take quite a few of them back to the 90's when they were still in the MVC. I was driving back to Indiana from Mexico and stopped there on the way back to go to a basketball game. I wore an Indiana State shirt and had several of their fans complimented me and thought it was cool that I was a Sycamore fan. I have nothing but good things to say about Tulsa.

[bcg]

Bradley has a home & home with Tulsa starting Dec 2nd in Tulsa.

[MVC Phil]

Looks like Tulsa wants back in the Valley!

[VUGrad1314]

Would be surprised to see them ultimately drop to FCS unless their financial issues are really really serious but getting a program like that back would be huge. As it stands I'm just glad AAC teams are willing to give home and homes to Valley teams but that's probably only reserved for the teams with whom they have old longstanding rivalries with like Bradley and SIU among others. Loyola might be able to get one too on the strength of their brand and recent performance as well.

[Dean Wormer]

Looks like there is some serious concerns on the financial front there. From the AAC board:

Tulsa's not long for the conference.

Quote:
"Unfortunately, as you know, we had long-standing budgetary challenges before, which have been exacerbated. We now need to stand together and support TU, just as we have stood together and prioritized the protection of our community's well-being and health."

In January, the TU Board of Trustees acknowledged that the school has operated in the red each of the past seven years and recently received a significant downgrade in its credit rating. They established a goal to close a $14 million to $20 million budget gap over the next three years.

I hate to speculate as it will probably just add another 100 pages of repeated fantasies over conference expansion, but...could Tulsa be adding MVC schools as some sort of test? The facts remain they are a small private school, on par with the privates in the MVC, trying to play FBS football with some huge schools like Cinci, USF, ECU, etc. You can do that in basketball, but FBS is an entirely different animal. Consider most of their peers have no football..and others such as Valpo, Drake, Butler, etc are playing Pioneer League rec football. I am not knocking Tulsa, but when schools their size are scrapping football altogether, or playing a much cheaper version, it makes it hard for them to justify the FBS route.

Dropping football to a FCS level would still be an over-achievement for a school that size. Dropping it to the Pioneer League or altogether could give them a path to being a basketball powerhouse. Seems like they would have the resources to follow the Creighton, Butler and Xavier path. Aiming for the Big East seems more rewarding than pouring millions into FBS to be nothing more than a practice squad for the AAC football programs.

Tulsa and Murray and lock the expansion thread...lol

[BCPanther]

Looks like there is some serious concerns on the financial front there. From the AAC board:

Tulsa's not long for the conference.

Quote:
"Unfortunately, as you know, we had long-standing budgetary challenges before, which have been exacerbated. We now need to stand together and support TU, just as we have stood together and prioritized the protection of our community's well-being and health."

In January, the TU Board of Trustees acknowledged that the school has operated in the red each of the past seven years and recently received a significant downgrade in its credit rating. They established a goal to close a $14 million to $20 million budget gap over the next three years.

I hate to speculate as it will probably just add another 100 pages of repeated fantasies over conference expansion, but...could Tulsa be adding MVC schools as some sort of test? The facts remain they are a small private school, on par with the privates in the MVC, trying to play FBS football with some huge schools like Cinci, USF, ECU, etc. You can do that in basketball, but FBS is an entirely different animal. Consider most of their peers have no football..and others such as Valpo, Drake, Butler, etc are playing Pioneer League rec football. I am not knocking Tulsa, but when schools their size are scrapping football altogether, or playing a much cheaper version, it makes it hard for them to justify the FBS route.

Dropping football to a FCS level would still be an over-achievement for a school that size. Dropping it to the Pioneer League or altogether could give them a path to being a basketball powerhouse. Seems like they would have the resources to follow the Creighton, Butler and Xavier path. Aiming for the Big East seems more rewarding than pouring millions into FBS to be nothing more than a practice squad for the AAC football programs.

Tulsa and Murray and lock the expansion thread...lol

Wouldn't surprise me if the A10 also decided they didn't need to be sending teams to St Louis anymore. Just a massive outlier.

Tulsa and St Louis. Done.

[BEARZ77]

Makes too much sense, but it'd be nice. This is why I've been against just willy-nilly going out and adding teams just to be adding. Even before covid issues, there just seems to be a lot of Universities that aren't in smart conference situations and also ones struggling to make FBS football work financially outside the P-5 . Tulsa was a really solid basketball school before they chased the football rainbow, and haven't been close to previous levels since. SLU has always made sense to the MVC if they could get over themselves. There are other schools in similar situations who would be solid adds to the Valley in coming years if they find they are in bad marriages conference wise.

[VUGrad1314]

Or go big to stave off potential defections to the BE and go Tulsa SLU Belmont and Murray State if all four are available. Then if and when SLU and Tulsa defect to the BE we still have a strong likely multibid 12 team conference and don't have to make a reactionary move if we don't want to.