Another Expansion/Realignment Thread

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

WSU agreed to a $5 million exit fee with the AAC when they signed their membership agreement. No one's paying a league $5 million to exit unless they're departing for a league with enough tv money to make up that $5 million. Moving forward, there’s only 6 conferences with tv revenue exceeding $5 million/school -- P4, the Pac/MWC survivor, and the Big East after they negotiate a new contract in a year. (Plus the legacy schools of the AAC, but the new members are making sub-$3 M.)

All that to say, WSU doesn’t have one conference move on the board where they don’t come out losing money.

Whether they lose money or not, they will have to make a
hellacious decision when realignment hits the AAC again. I believe that decision will be to reluctantly return to the Valley. Of all the conferences mentioned, the MVC is their best option/fit. With their inclusion and hopefully a bump in conference power standing with the help of Belmont and Murray State, the Valley could probably get a boost from the mentioned $200,000 payout.

I’m not sure there is much left to raid though. The power conferences probably don’t want Memphis or any other program there (other than SMU which is being discussed). Unless the MWC raids them, I can’t picture anything else happening soon.

[IllinoisState]

WSU agreed to a $5 million exit fee with the AAC when they signed their membership agreement. No one's paying a league $5 million to exit unless they're departing for a league with enough tv money to make up that $5 million. Moving forward, there’s only 6 conferences with tv revenue exceeding $5 million/school -- P4, the Pac/MWC survivor, and the Big East after they negotiate a new contract in a year. (Plus the legacy schools of the AAC, but the new members are making sub-$3 M.)

All that to say, WSU doesn’t have one conference move on the board where they don’t come out losing money.

Whether they lose money or not, they will have to make a
hellacious decision when realignment hits the AAC again. I believe that decision will be to reluctantly return to the Valley. Of all the conferences mentioned, the MVC is their best option/fit. With their inclusion and hopefully a bump in conference power standing with the help of Belmont and Murray State, the Valley could probably get a boost from the mentioned $200,000 payout.

I’m not sure there is much left to raid though. The power conferences probably don’t want Memphis or any other program there (other than SMU which is being discussed). Unless the MWC raids them, I can’t picture anything else happening soon.

I'd be willing to cut off my nose to spite my face in regards to letting Wichita State back in the MVC. I don't see them asking to come back anyway.

[Chuck A]

Wichita State's oneNEIGHBOR posted a chart with the Valley getting a payout of $200,000 vs the AAC's $2,170,000 distribution. This is the last year of the Valley's 10-year deal with ESPN and the end of their agreement with CBS. In negotiating a new deal, I felt the league was going to get a "raise" in distribution money because of the excitement and tournament runs of Loyola. Although the Ramblers have gone, perennial 20-game winners Murray State and Belmont have entered with their tradition and rep. Winning in the '23-'24 season will go a long way in helping the MVC garner a really nice payout for its member schools. Having a top 8-10 conference ranking along with putting 2-3 teams in the Dance could give the Valley a nice bargaining chip to wrangle some more money from its broadcast partners.

Who's to say the Valley can't come away with a $1,000,000-$2,000,000 distribution for its teams?! I know, it might be a pipe dream to some, but I dream big (UIC is in the Valley!)

While that payout amount would still lag behind other mid-major leagues like the MWC, AAC and A-10, it could put the MVC in a position to continue to climb the NET rankings to make the conference appealing to other mid-majors. Certain mid-majors will be left behind in the upcoming wave of realignment/expansion and the Missouri Valley could be a landing spot or at the least, an option. That still means some teams that were previously mentioned, including Tulsa, Wichita State and St. Louis.

[IllinoisState]

Wichita State's oneNEIGHBOR posted a chart with the Valley getting a payout of $200,000 vs the AAC's $2,170,000 distribution. This is the last year of the Valley's 10-year deal with ESPN and the end of their agreement with CBS. In negotiating a new deal, I felt the league was going to get a "raise" in distribution money because of the excitement and tournament runs of Loyola. Although the Ramblers have gone, perennial 20-game winners Murray State and Belmont have entered with their tradition and rep. Winning in the '23-'24 season will go a long way in helping the MVC garner a really nice payout for its member schools. Having a top 8-10 conference ranking along with putting 2-3 teams in the Dance could give the Valley a nice bargaining chip to wrangle some more money from its broadcast partners.

Who's to say the Valley can't come away with a $1,000,000-$2,000,000 distribution for its teams?! I know, it might be a pipe dream to some, but I dream big (UIC is in the Valley!)

While that payout amount would still lag behind other mid-major leagues like the MWC, AAC and A-10, it could put the MVC in a position to continue to climb the NET rankings to make the conference appealing to other mid-majors. Certain mid-majors will be left behind in the upcoming wave of realignment/expansion and the Missouri Valley could be a landing spot or at the least, an option. That still means some teams that were previously mentioned, including Tulsa, Wichita State and St. Louis.

The MVC doesn't sponsor football which is where the money is and all the schools either are FCS or don't have football anyway. Maybe we can get $250k-$350k.

[TylerDurden]

Can we make an MVC Fans message board rule that no one is allowed to bring up a school playing FBS football as an option for the MVC in realignment threads?

If people want to pretend that schools like SLU or Dayton are an option, fine. They aren't, but at least you could come up with a semi-plausible mental gymnastics exercise where A10 and the MVC schools merge because of some sort of NCAA end-of-days.

[Dawgbit]

Does SMU leaving the AAC (if it happens they are in ACC Expansion rumors no doubt about trying to get the conference into Texas for network $$) put Wichita State in play? (My guess is probably not as long as Memphis is still there especially if the current media deal remains untouched by this movement.) And if so where do they go?

There is a family with the surname of Koch that determines were and when Wichita State goes.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Wichita State's oneNEIGHBOR posted a chart with the Valley getting a payout of $200,000 vs the AAC's $2,170,000 distribution. This is the last year of the Valley's 10-year deal with ESPN and the end of their agreement with CBS. In negotiating a new deal, I felt the league was going to get a "raise" in distribution money because of the excitement and tournament runs of Loyola. Although the Ramblers have gone, perennial 20-game winners Murray State and Belmont have entered with their tradition and rep. Winning in the '23-'24 season will go a long way in helping the MVC garner a really nice payout for its member schools. Having a top 8-10 conference ranking along with putting 2-3 teams in the Dance could give the Valley a nice bargaining chip to wrangle some more money from its broadcast partners.

Who's to say the Valley can't come away with a $1,000,000-$2,000,000 distribution for its teams?! I know, it might be a pipe dream to some, but I dream big (UIC is in the Valley!)

While that payout amount would still lag behind other mid-major leagues like the MWC, AAC and A-10, it could put the MVC in a position to continue to climb the NET rankings to make the conference appealing to other mid-majors. Certain mid-majors will be left behind in the upcoming wave of realignment/expansion and the Missouri Valley could be a landing spot or at the least, an option. That still means some teams that were previously mentioned, including Tulsa, Wichita State and St. Louis.

There's no scenario where the Valley comes up with $1 million+ tv distribution/team. Networks are tightening the strings.

The only leagues making $1 million+/team in media rights are FBS conferences and the Big East. Even the A-10 made only $5,295,254 per their Form 990 -- that's $353k per school.

There just isn't enough of a market for mid-major hoops that advertisers want to spend money on.

[Bulldog4life24]

If the Valley gets a new TV deal over $500k, Jeff needs a job for life and a statue.

As others have said, without football we maybe get $350k. Maybe.

[unipanther99]

The best we can hope for in any media rights deal is exposure. The more we can appear on regular cable channels, the better. The money is never going to amount to much for us anyway.

[Chuck A]

Does CBS still include the Championship game in the deal?