ESPN: Butler chatting it up with Atlantic Ten

[BirdmanBB]

no one is trying to get rid of E-Ville, but they might be more comfortable in another conference and choose to move themselves. An opening in the Horizon might interest them.

[Jet915]

no one is trying to get rid of E-Ville, but they might be more comfortable in another conference and choose to move themselves. An opening in the Horizon might interest them.

Haha, that's a nice way of saying get out (not that I don't disagree with what you are saying ).

[Wufan]

No reason for you to disparage what would be the best fit for programs like CU, WSU and Bradley. Ill St and MSU would love to move up to an FBS football conference. We all want what is best for our school, and right now that's the Valley. We should strive to make this the best conference we can because if we fail to do so the alternative is that the MVC will be the best Division II basketball conference in the country in 2020.

[Coogles]

Hey all, resident Butler fan here.

I realize most believe Butler would be a good fit in the MVC (and I agree), but if this does come to pass and Butler finds itself a new home in the A10, I think it still benefits the Valley.

How, you ask? Horizon coaches have made it no secret that they sell the Horizon on Butler's presence in the league, what that program has been able to accomplish out of the Horizon and the chance to host the Dawgs every year in your home gym. The rise of the Horizon League from a conference that was a 16-20 RPI level conference into one that now more often than not is in the 11-14 range happened in lockstep with the relative decline of especially the MAC, but also the Valley to some degree. It's going to be much harder to sell recruits on a league that becomes the old Mid-Con plus Loyola and Detroit, which puts the MVC in a position of strength relative to the Horizon, which was more and more coming closer to being a peer league.

Creighton up 1 at the moment over Bama. Go Jays!

[TylerDurden]

Hey all, resident Butler fan here.

I realize most believe Butler would be a good fit in the MVC (and I agree), but if this does come to pass and Butler finds itself a new home in the A10, I think it still benefits the Valley.

How, you ask? Horizon coaches have made it no secret that they sell the Horizon on Butler's presence in the league, what that program has been able to accomplish out of the Horizon and the chance to host the Dawgs every year in your home gym. The rise of the Horizon League from a conference that was a 16-20 RPI level conference into one that now more often than not is in the 11-14 range happened in lockstep with the relative decline of especially the MAC, but also the Valley to some degree. It's going to be much harder to sell recruits on a league that becomes the old Mid-Con plus Loyola and Detroit, which puts the MVC in a position of strength relative to the Horizon, which was more and more coming closer to being a peer league.

Creighton up 1 at the moment over Bama. Go Jays!

For reference, here are the league RPI rankings from RealTimeRPI.com. I'm not sure I'd come to exactly the same conclusions you did or place the same emphasis on the Butler impact, but I do think Butler would be a nice addition.

11-12 MVC: 8; HL: 14
10-11 HL: 11; MVC: 12
09-10 MVC: 9; HL: 14
08-09 MVC: 9; HL: 12
07-08 MVC: 8; HL: 11
06-07 MVC: 7; HL: 12
05-06 MVC: 6; HL: 15
04-05 MVC: 8; HL: 20
03-04 MVC: 11; HL: 15

[unipanther99]

Are we regularly competing for recruits with non-Butler Horizon league members and losing them?

[title]

Butler was nev going to go to the valley but it's possible that it's move to the A10 could start another chain of events to could effect it.

[Aces44]

News out of Indy today, saying this is a done deal.

[Jet915]

Interesting to see if the A-10 continues to expand, especially toward the midwest....their last 4 additions have now been Xavier, Dayton, SLU and now Butler. There is some talk that they may add some CAA teams as well like VCU and George Mason.

[pafan]

Will be interesting to see what happens next in the Horizon. Do they raid the Summit League for an IPFW or Western Illinois? Do they try to continue with nine schools?

Here's a theory that leads to this still helping the MVC (and its pretty lame):
If Butler leaves the Horizon and they don't add another baseball-playing team, the conference will lose its bid into the NCAA tournament (dropping to 5 baseball-playing members). Some of their schools might look to become associate members of the Valley for baseball, finally giving the MVC ten baseball teams

EDITED to add:

This story led to a top funny of the night. Someone suggested that the Horizon should add Chicago State to replace Butler. Talk about