Has there been a worse day in recent MVC history?

[TylerDurden]

Anyone can lay the blame anywhere they want, but the fact of the matter is this, the fanbases of each school need to look inward and not outward. Doug Elgin ended the 150 rule because of pressure from schools that complained that the bar was set too high. He didn't want to end it. Elgin has tried, he can only do what the member schools will allow. If you are upset with what has just happened, the writing has been on the wall for four or five years. UNI makes a S-16 last year and everyone discounted what was plainly visible, the Valley was spiraling downhill. So please, rather than casting blame elsewhere, look at your school, not just the W's and L's, look at your athletic budget, look at your local and state politics and see who is attacking your program; look at your AD's and look at your coaches and their scheduling policies. If you do a quick check and see that your coaching staff isn't paid in the top half of the Valley and your basketball budget isn't top half, the coaches need to be paid more, the budgets need to be increased and much more needs to be demanded. If you are paying your coaching staffs in the top half of the Valley and you have a well funded program that isn't garnering results, coaches need to be replaced. On the other hand, if you are paying entry level wages, underfunding the program and hoping for championships, you are dilusional.

As for today, I think a lot of the success, or lack thereof, can be traced back to the attitude of the Valley coaching staffs, players and fans. Everyone has badmouthed the event and complained about how it is a bad deal and that they really didn't want to play the damn game. We have a thread on this very board regarding the Valley coaches questioning the event. Well the event is scheduled and attitude has so much to do with success in athletics, so people need to quit biatching about the event, fans need to shut up and enjoy the games, coaches need to quit complaining and get their teams ready and the players need to lace up their shoes and play the damn game. The Valley isn't too good for the event as the results have proven.

On another note, the Valley is in a rebuilding year, we all knew that. Marshall has been at WSU for four years, Martin at MSU for three and McDermott is in his first year at Creighton. These three programs will be good for years to come and the Valley is looking to be much better next year. The Valley will be back, afterall, Jim Les is the Dean of the Valley coaches. For the first time in a long while, every program is somewhat of a state of flux. Next year promises to be better, but at the same time, like it or not, money drives success in college athletics, the Valley will bounce up and doown year to year unless schools pony up more cash to pay and keep coaches longer, recruit harder, play better schedules and demand, not hope for results.

+100000000000000000000000

[bleach]

While I agree with the problem and solution being scheduling, the economic realities make it necessary to get those home game paychecks. If schools are turning down home and away series with BCS schools that would be different. Turning down a home and away with OVC or Horizon schools in favor of 2 home games with high RPI teams means a lot in the checkbook but also means a lot strength of schedule wise.

[isumvc1]

here's my take on these bracketbuster games. These teams we play are (usually) from lower ranked conferences around the country, and to them, playing an MVC school is like MVC schools playing BCS schools. These smaller schools get fired up and want to beat the "big boys of the mid majors" and they came in and did it yesterday.

Most MVC schools have seemed to have taken a "bah humbug" attitude toward bracketbusters and don't really care one way or the other if they win or not. If you're not fighting for an NCAA berth then they mean nothing. It would almost be better off if just the top 3-4 MVC teams played in the bracketbuster series instead of all 10 schools.

and one other thing, the timing of this dumb series (as has been mentioned in other threads) is AWFUL. Bracketbusters needs to be played prior to conference play, it totally breaks up the rhythm of conference play (for all conferences).

and it'd be nice if better schools participated (as has also been mentioned in other threads)

[isumvc1]

INS reporter Todd Golden writes about the MVC's flop over the weekend and brings up the same point I'd mentioned previously.

http://blogs.tribstar.com/downinthevalley/?p=452

"Yes, peers, even though there’s many around the league who think the MVC is “too good” for its mid-major peers. Perhaps that general feeling inside the MVC motivates its fellow mid-majors in other conferences when they play against teams who think they’re too good to be associated with them."

I think this happens every year, these teams from "lesser" conferences are out to prove the big bad MVC ain't so tough & they did it this season

[Ace Dad]

The Trib star article should be mandatory reading. Great stuff.

[bigdawg]

Kind of similar to the idea during bowl season that the team who is happy to he there will perform better than a team who doesn't want to be. I'm not sure that hypothesis holds for WSU and MSU though because they had something to play for this weekend.

[PeKaph]

Yes, it's mandatory reading...for any school looking to get out of the Valley into a better conference. If you fix your own house, do you believe that there's enough will at the other nine schools to do so? Nope, and the schools that seem to want to really improve and win can be counted on one hand. The rest are hanging on the shirttails of those.

[MoValley John]

[quote="PeKaph"]Yes, it's mandatory reading...for any school looking to get out of the Valley into a better conference. If you fix your own house, do you believe that there's enough will at the other nine schools to do so? Nope, and the schools that seem to want to really improve and win can be counted on one hand. The rest are hanging on the shirttails of those.[/quote]

This can be said of any conference, big or small, BCS or not. There will always be bottom feeders in conferences, Iowa State in the Big XII, Northwestern in the Big 10, the list goes on. Some schools in the BCS have a sport they focus on, but mighty Duke is pretty much a bottomfeeder outside of basketball and maybe laccrosse, they are a one trick pony. Looking to move to a "better" conference is not the answer, the answer is that your "house" is never fixed. You must always maintain your house, if the roof isn't leaking, the house needs painting, and from time to time, you will need to replace the carpet. Your house is never completely in order. So continue to fix your house. Hopefully your neighbors, (E-ville, Creighton, UNI, ISU-B and R, Drake, etc.) will continue to fix their houses as best they can.

That said, if you sell your house and move to a new subdivision you will quickly find that many of those better houses in your neighborhood have termites, poor foundations and bad plumbing. But when you moved, all you saw was the fresh coats of paint, community playgrounds and Pella Windows. Now that you've moved, you get to pay for the exterminator for his monthly inspection, hire a plumber, figure out how to stabilize your foundation built on poor soil, pay taxes to maintain the playground you don't use and replace your fantastic windows that unexpectedly leak.

I suppose you could always get rid of the mayor (Elgin) but all a new mayor can do is as much as the residents are willing to allow.