ESPN says Creighton to C7 in 2014

[DoubleJayAlum]

How long before one of the new C7 schools leave for greener pastures like the Big 10, ACC, SEC, or Big 12, when they look to expand?

I give it 5 years.

Lemme guess -- UNI fan?

[siudawgs]

Very sad to see Creighton about to jump. Obviously a major loss for the MVC.
Creighton fans, I understand the allure, but you do realize you'll lose a little bit of your soul by going over to the dark side of BCS programs, right? The Missouri Valley Conference is pretty awesome in a lot of ways.

Here's the way I see it:

The move is a way of securing our future. We don't have football and never will. Being a member of a conference in which nobody plays top tier football or has aspirations of doing so, provides a great deal of security for CU. I have been saying for years on this very forum that we have a mini-Big East problem developing here in the MVC. At some point, some or all of the football schools are going to want to break away to try and cash in on the money that top tier football can generate. We can't sit around and wait for that to happen, because there may be no where to go if/when that happens. I can tell you for a fact that this has been a concern for CU administrators (and I'd bet the administrators at the other non FB schools) way before the Big East option existed.

On top of that, with this particular move we get the chance to play in a conference made up of schools that are just like us. That would have had tremendous appeal to our alums and supporters even without all of the additional revenue that is offered. In fact, I think Creighton would have tried to make it happen in that situation as well. It has always been a dream for most CU fans to play in a conference made up primarily of our catholic school brethren. The additional revenue offered in this particular situation makes it an easy decision if the offer is made.

I never thought that Creighton would be the first school among the current MVC members to leave, if in fact they do so. I always assumed it would be Illinois St or one of the other football schools. Frankly, if there weren't so many financial issues across so many of the football schools (MSU, UNI, SIU, InSU) they would have probably broken away already. I also think this is why the remaining MVC schools have to be very, very wary about associating themselves with the Dakotas. The Dakota schools are football schools first and foremost (I am not convinced they are really all that concerned about basketball at all), and they don't have the same financial issues of some of the Valley football schools. I liken them to goldiggers who are just looking for someone to be with that improves their situation now, but they will always be looking for someone even better once they get into the MVC.

I appreciate the response and get the logic, although I think you're overstating the likelihood of football dictating maneuvering for current MVC members for the foreseeable future. I also don't quite get this intense desire to be with all Catholic schools, but whatever.
I'll proudly romanticize the Valley til the cows come home. It's one of the last conferences in college athletics that makes sense, and it's a shame to see TV $ threaten its future.

[Deanthonybowdenfan]

I appreciate the response and get the logic, although I think you're overstating the likelihood of football dictating maneuvering for current MVC members for the foreseeable future. I also don't quite get this intense desire to be with all Catholic schools, but whatever.
I'll proudly romanticize the Valley til the cows come home. It's one of the last conferences in college athletics that makes sense, and it's a shame to see TV $ threaten its future.

I don't think there's an intense desire to be with all Catholic schools, at least for most Creighton fans. Then again, I think the Creighton fans that are catholic may very well have this desire. I'm not Catholic and many Creighton fans aren't catholic , to me, the whole Catholic part means nothing. The fact that the schools are basketball-only, and simply better at basketball I think are the important things to the basketball program. But to the President and administration I'm sure the Catholic thing is HUGE, although not all of the schools in the new league will be Catholic anyways. I think its always good when your with schools that are similar to you, as Doublejay mentioned.

I agree with DoubleJay on the main concepts, but your right, the Valley still makes it's money on Basketball, so I don't see football tearing the league apart anytime soon. I think it would be crazy not to go to the new league, at the same time the Valley is a special league in it's own rite. Most Jays fans know this and DoubleJay has even said it's nothing against the Valley. I've always thought it was more fun to root for the underdog, and being a mid-major is like being the underdog. I mean how much fun would it be to be a UNC fan? Even if your team wins the championship it's like well we do this all the time anyways. If Creighton or any Valley school made the final 4, let alone won a championship, it would be such a high! But Creighton will still be an underdog in my opinion. We still are just a small school in Omaha, who just a short time ago couldn't get 3,000 fans to a home game. In the new league, people will still doubt us, we will still be looked at as an underdog so to say.

It's really incredible for Creighton fans, just remember less than 20 years ago we couldn't get one front page article in the Omaha newspaper, we couldn't get 3,000 fans to a game. Now we get a front page article on our off-days, and 17,000 fans to every game. The new league would be a lot of fun.

[isumvc1]

looks like today is your day CU fans, congrats, this fan is really going to miss the competitions against your teams.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... ources-say

[MVCfans]

looks like today is your day CU fans, congrats, this fan is really going to miss the competitions against your teams.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... ources-say

I do not believe any announcement on schools will happen today.

[TheAsianSensation]

(assuming Creighton is gone next year) The bad thing about this is no matter what the expansion plans are, Creighton is going to leave so late in the academic year that the MVC will have to play at 9 for a season. It's just so impossible to go through the expansion process so quickly.

[BCPanther]

(assuming Creighton is gone next year) The bad thing about this is no matter what the expansion plans are, Creighton is going to leave so late in the academic year that the MVC will have to play at 9 for a season. It's just so impossible to go through the expansion process so quickly.

I would think that Elgin and the remaining presidents have already made their decision. I can't imagine there won't be a 10th member for next year...

[FreddyMac]

(assuming Creighton is gone next year) The bad thing about this is no matter what the expansion plans are, Creighton is going to leave so late in the academic year that the MVC will have to play at 9 for a season. It's just so impossible to go through the expansion process so quickly.

I wouldn't say that would be such a terrible thing. I'm sure many are thinking that you'll just have to go to 10 and that could lead to rushing it and taking a team that isn't that great of a choice long term. If you play with 9 this next season then maybe you find out that it works fairly well and you don't water down the conference. If it doesn't work well then it's just a year of doing it then.

[TheAsianSensation]

(assuming Creighton is gone next year) The bad thing about this is no matter what the expansion plans are, Creighton is going to leave so late in the academic year that the MVC will have to play at 9 for a season. It's just so impossible to go through the expansion process so quickly.

I would think that Elgin and the remaining presidents have already made their decision. I can't imagine there won't be a 10th member for next year...

Even if it's true, it would still require the new member to leave their previous conference on very short notice. Could be done, but there are complications.

[BCPanther]

(assuming Creighton is gone next year) The bad thing about this is no matter what the expansion plans are, Creighton is going to leave so late in the academic year that the MVC will have to play at 9 for a season. It's just so impossible to go through the expansion process so quickly.

I wouldn't say that would be such a terrible thing. I'm sure many are thinking that you'll just have to go to 10 and that could lead to rushing it and taking a team that isn't that great of a choice long term. If you play with 9 this next season then maybe you find out that it works fairly well and you don't water down the conference. If it doesn't work well then it's just a year of doing it then.

9 doesn't work. We struggle to find decent non-con games as it is and to have to find two more on top of the 3 extra we already have to find (BracketBuster, Mountain West Challenge) is just way too much to ask. We'll end up with a bunch of 300+ RPI teams...