DoubleJayAlum wrote:Red wrote:Don't be surprised in 5-10 years if schools like Illinois State and Northern Iowa are gone.
With all due respect, Illinois St fans have been telling us that for about 10 years....
I do believe that if anybody leaves for football, IlSU will be the first. The question has been and will be the same one - do you screw over hoops, in order to improve your FB situation, and join the MAC or Sunbelt?
The one good thing about the MAC and ISUr has nothing to do with athletics but it would match ISUr with similar institutions wiht similar goals.
However, Double Jay, you are so right about the talk for 10 years and you will probably have to listen to it another 10 years. Any talk of ISUr leaving The Valley is merely pure speculation and I would believe I too am entitled to some speculation. I don't think ISUr is leaving The Valley nor does it have any plans to do so. I was fortunate enough to talk about conference affiliation with some well positioned people in the ISU athletic admininstration department and they don't want to change a thing. Going to the MAC, in their opinion would kill the basketball program and I would agree with that. Much more interesting to head off to RBA to see WSU or Creighton instead of Western Michigan or Kent State.
As for football, the ISUr program is getting better but so is ISUb. SIU is doing good things in football and do I need to say anymore about UNI and the Dakotas in football? Now I know this paragraph means nothing to the bball fans other than to say that ISUr wants to make a mark in FCS by challenging for the league conference and going deep into the football playoffs. If you believe Sagarin rankings are close to accurate, he has the MAC and MVFC almost in a dead heat in his ranking of conferences and it has been this way for several years. Go to the MAC for football when ISUr hasn't even acheived it's FCS goals?
In summary, I don't think anyone should expect ISUr to be leaving The Valley anytime soon.
Mo Valley John, my apologies to you. I have enjoyed your most recent posts.