Missouri Valley - Mountain West Challenge to end?

[MVCfans]

With Boise State and San Diego state leaving the MWC after this season, does anyone know how that will affect the Challenge?

[BirdmanBB]

Basketball in the MWC will be taking a hit. The only remaining teams are Fresno St., Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, Air Force, Colorado St. and Wyoming. That would be our 10 to their 7.

Would it still be to our advantage to continue a series with them or see if we can do something instead with CUSA who will be left with 9 teams?

Right now, the mountain west is probably more concerned about what they are going to do with their conference. I can't imagine them not wanting to continue this series since they will likely be the weaker of the two after realignment. Will they bring Utah St. in the fold? Will they end up grabbing Hawaii for all sports instead of just football?

Personally, I would like to see it continue, but I also think we should be exploring other options as well (mainly a deal with CUSA). Wishful thinking would be doing a challenge with both.

[SubGod22]

It will be interesting to see what the MWC does. Getting Utah State would be pretty big for them right now. But what other schools after that? You'd think they'd like to get to 10 if possible. Does Denver play football? Maybe a New Mexico State? If Montana ever changed their mind about staying FCS they may listen. Is there anybody else left in the WAC that would be worth raiding? They're adding a bunch of schools transitioning.

[Jet915]

MWC is looking less attractive, no more SDSU now. So it's down to UNLV and New Mexico as perennial powers. Utah State would help though.

[unipanther99]

http://www.weeklyseven.com/blogs/rebel- ... -challenge

Seems like an odd time for this to be announced, but I like the match-up.

[PantherSigEp]

UNI's out of conference schedule for next season is shaping up pretty nicely. Should be a great resume builder if they can get a couple of wins against some of those big names like UNLV

[MVCfans]

Indiana State will host New Mexico in next year's Mountain West - Missouri Valley Challenge.

[pafan]

http://www.weeklyseven.com/blogs/rebel-rumblings/2011/12/12/unlv-face-northern-iowa-fourth-year-mwc-mvc-challenge

Seems like an odd time for this to be announced

I suspect that the matchups aren't "announced". Rather, there is a process of elimination going on, given the rules of the challenge:

Can't play the same team twice in the 4 year contract
Some teams are due a home game and others a road game
Has to be a MWC team who will actually be in the conference in 2012-13.

Some questions are unanswered, though:
Which Valley teams will sit out in the 2012 challenge?
Should the MWC add teams in 2012, would they participate in the challenge?

[BirdmanBB]

Redbirds are guaranteed a home game next year since we sat out and went to Fresno St. this year as a favor. Not sure who it is yet. SIU sat out this year too, so they are in for sure next year (not sure if it is home or away). On the valley side of things, it is usually a team that finishes towards the bottom the year prior who gets left out.

Who has been left out of the challenge so far besides SIU and ISU? Basically at this point 2 or 3 (depending on how many teams the MWC has) will be sitting out next year and there are probably about 4 valley teams who haven't sat out yet. Anyone know who they are?


If they are coming up with these matchups already, you have to imagine there was talk about renewing it (or not) right?

[pafan]

Evansville sat out the first year of the contract. As far as I know, only one team has sat out per year, meaning there are 7 teams who have played 3/3 years.