Belmont to Missouri Valley

[VUGrad1314]

I've been an Indiana State fan my entire life and I really do enjoy MVC basketball. What I don't enjoy is the political BS when it comes to expansion. This whole debate between private vs public, FB vs no football, academics aren't good enough, market isn't good enough, etc is getting really old. The conference should be adding strong basketball schools that are in the region regardless of if they are private, public, or whether or not they have football.

Last I checked the MVC is an athletic conference. Obviously if their academics completely suck and their teams are getting put on probation for low APU scores (see SWAC and MEAC) then yeah that's an issue. Murray State is far from being in any of those categories. Based on what I've read their academics are actually very similar to most of the league's. The presidents, most of whom probably won't even be at their current job 5-10 years from now, need to quit with their BS for the good of the league and for the fans that want to see quality basketball. Enough is enough. If anything the nonsense is holding the MVC back.

Everyone keeps pointing to Loyola as some experiment that went well. Loyola was a good add who had a ton of potential and they also had a lot of basketball history, including a national title.

Valpo and Belmont are both good adds who bring a lot to the table for the sport. And Murray State would also be a great add. We as a conference would be extremely lucky to have all 4 of those schools in the league, along with the 8 that have been here for quite a while to start the 2022 season.

This. All of this. The University Presidents really need to get over themselves.

[mvfcfan]

Guys, it’s pretty damned hard to argue that Murray wouldn’t be a great add to the MVC. So take a step back and realize it would be a good thing. Murray has the recent success, and has shown they can sustain the success through coaching changes, administration changes, anything the NCAA can throw at a mid-major. They’ve been chugging along for 30+ years. We should demand the university presidents invite them, not sit at our keyboards debating whether they’re worthy. They’re most certainly worthy.

Well said and I agree 100%

[Khan4Cats]

I have a few thoughts that I'm sure you would all love to hear. I would like to preface my comments by saying I think going to 12 teams and adding Murray State would be a good thing, but:

3) The goals the Valley hopes to achieve in adding UTA are more effectively accomplished by adding St. Thomas. The first article to discuss UTA noted that the school is in a big market and has flights to every city in the Valley. The hope was that DFW kids would start to go to Valley schools. I'm skeptical that goal would ever be realized.  Athletic performance was not part of the equation.  St. Thomas checks those boxes. Moreover, I can actually see kids from the cities look to move south for school. I'm sure Coach Jake would love a yearly conference game up north.  (To clarify, I'm not advocating for adding UST, I just think they make way more sense than UTA)

I really think this is an under the radar candidate in the next 5-6 years. St. Thomas has been planning and positioning itself for a move to D-I for quite a while and getting kicked out of their conference just pushed the timeline up a little bit. They need to get their feet under them at D-I and I think they will do that fairly quickly. At that point, a St. Thomas addition would probably be very attractive to the Valley as long as it (the Valley) finds a matching public for Belmont first and then one for UST.

[squirrel]

I've been an Indiana State fan my entire life and I really do enjoy MVC basketball. What I don't enjoy is the political BS when it comes to expansion. This whole debate between private vs public, FB vs no football, academics aren't good enough, market isn't good enough, etc is getting really old. The conference should be adding strong basketball schools that are in the region regardless of if they are private, public, or whether or not they have football.

Last I checked the MVC is an athletic conference. Obviously if their academics completely suck and their teams are getting put on probation for low APU scores (see SWAC and MEAC) then yeah that's an issue. Murray State is far from being in any of those categories. Based on what I've read their academics are actually very similar to most of the league's. The presidents, most of whom probably won't even be at their current job 5-10 years from now, need to quit with their BS for the good of the league and for the fans that want to see quality basketball. Enough is enough. If anything the nonsense is holding the MVC back.

Everyone keeps pointing to Loyola as some experiment that went well. Loyola was a good add who had a ton of potential and they also had a lot of basketball history, including a national title.

Valpo and Belmont are both good adds who bring a lot to the table for the sport. And Murray State would also be a great add. We as a conference would be extremely lucky to have all 4 of those schools in the league, along with the 8 that have been here for quite a while to start the 2022 season.

This. All of this. The University Presidents really need to get over themselves.

While I don't disagree, it's not just the Presidents. The Presidents are also likely consulting BOTs who don't always have a clue, or the appropriate priorities, either.

[TBS_20]

I'd be 100% okay with st Thomas. I agree they're going to be good.

[BEARZ77]

I've been an Indiana State fan my entire life and I really do enjoy MVC basketball. What I don't enjoy is the political BS when it comes to expansion. This whole debate between private vs public, FB vs no football, academics aren't good enough, market isn't good enough, etc is getting really old. The conference should be adding strong basketball schools that are in the region regardless of if they are private, public, or whether or not they have football.

Last I checked the MVC is an athletic conference. Obviously if their academics completely suck and their teams are getting put on probation for low APU scores (see SWAC and MEAC) then yeah that's an issue. Murray State is far from being in any of those categories. Based on what I've read their academics are actually very similar to most of the league's. The presidents, most of whom probably won't even be at their current job 5-10 years from now, need to quit with their BS for the good of the league and for the fans that want to see quality basketball. Enough is enough. If anything the nonsense is holding the MVC back.

Everyone keeps pointing to Loyola as some experiment that went well. Loyola was a good add who had a ton of potential and they also had a lot of basketball history, including a national title.

Valpo and Belmont are both good adds who bring a lot to the table for the sport. And Murray State would also be a great add. We as a conference would be extremely lucky to have all 4 of those schools in the league, along with the 8 that have been here for quite a while to start the 2022 season.

This. All of this. The University Presidents really need to get over themselves.

I think it's kinda the opposite; if you think Valpo and Loyola and now Belmont were all good moves, then obviously the league and it's leadership know what they're doing. Perhaps instead of taking them to task, you should be praising them for allowing those schools the opportunity to join this great league and having the foresight to chose them over many others. Perhaps you should be investing a little trust in their judgement instead of acting like they only make good decisions when devinely inspired by message board gurus. Just a thought.

[BCPanther]

I was impressed with how many St Thomas fans came to Cedar Falls for the football game here. Special circumstances with it being their first DI game but still they traveled well and were a super nice bunch of people.

[racernation]

Back to Murray at the MVC... some thoughts.

1. I don't understand how SIU, if that's the case, could unilaterally block Murray into the MVC. I know there is some envy going on. But really?
2. Everything just makes to much sense for the MVC and Murray to join together. The reasons have been digested here and elsewhere ad nauseum. What is the REAL issue?
3. Academics? Really? Murray has the highest admission standards of any public regional in Kentucky and has been ranked in US News & World Report consistently.

The only thing I can think of is the excuse "Murray is hard to get to" and the market is already represented by SIU. Watching the Belmont press conference yesterday and hearing about how great Nashville is, well, apparently that was a big deal to the MVC.

Our television market is decentralized, spread out across four states with no one metropolitan area. If this matters, and for the life of me I don't understand why it does in this day and age, we are #84 in market size out of 210. The NBC affiliate out of Paducah covers MSU religiously. The CBS affiliate out of Cape Girardeau does a great job covering the Racers, too.

With no professional teams in this market, Murray/SEMO/SIU dominates the sports news. Top billing on sports newscasts. You CANNOT say the same for Belmont. They are an AFTERTHOUGHT with the sports media in Nashville.

So the only REAL excuse I can think of, and it's really poor, is you can't fly to Murray. You gotta fly to Paducah and drive an hour or just bus it.

What say you all?

[smidge34]

Anybody who has ever lived near or in a major metro area knows that an hour trip to or from an airport is an average commute. The travel excuse is like the rest, BS.

[MolineRacer]

Anybody who has ever lived near or in a major metro area knows that an hour trip to or from an airport is an average commute. The travel excuse is like the rest, BS.

That is 100% true. I live in nashville and I would trade my drive to BNA for a drive from Paducah to Murray every day of the week and twice on Sunday.