MVC 12 teams East/West divisions

[Lakesbison]

FSN? never seen a mvc game on there.

RPI update Final:

62 sdsu
72 NDSU

Heck Denver is 74, maybe they are the 3rd team for the west division?

Im trying to be logical in this thread, (insert your joke here____)

[unipanther99]

You're both right. FSN = Fox Sports Net, FSN also = Fox Sports North. We're already on Fox Sports Net, Lakes is seeming to promise to expand our coverage area to include Fox Sports North.

If that could be guaranteed, I'd be interested considering how UNI recruits the state of Minnesota. However, I think it's unlikely and our games would likely be bumped by Minnesota Wild and T-Wolves games anyway.

[bleach]

Is Miss St in the league?
Let's get Southern Miss, and Ole Miss too then.

[Lakesbison]

Miss state isn't Missouri state?

[Redbird Ray]

I think a lot of this kind of depends on what Wichita does. If WSU bolts for some other conference, then I think the MVC should just end this belief that it is on the same plane as the A-10 or MWC and just merge the MVFC and MVC and invite the Dakota States (both of whom I believe have a strong upside).

If WSU has no place to go for the forseeable future, then adding the best regional private school we can to replace Creighton is the more logical option (Belmont, ORU, Denver, Valpo, Detroit, Loyola, etc).

Of course I would like to see the league expand to 12 members as a preemptive attempt to avoid harm from future detractions, in addition to growing the market capture of the conference. That said, I certainly understand the revenue sharing and travel issues that arise from having a 12 team conference over a 10 team league.

[Shocktop42]

I agree with Redbird.... Also, one of my biggest pet peeves are those who play the "travel expense" angle when talking about expansion. As a conference we have always strived to improve our brand and the quality of our basketball as much as possible. Part of being a big time conference is not worrying about where schools are located if they can make the conference better in the long term.

The fact that we have schools in our conference who struggle for money (then put ALL of their money into basketball) and then bitch when we start talking about expanding our footprint drives me up the wall. I can name 5 schools that should NOT be in our conference if they are not fully committed to moving the MVC up in prestige.

Nationally no one really gives a rip about the MVC. If they did they wouldn't have swtiched away from our conference championship game to the start of the IU/Mich game.

Let's decide who we want to be. If we want to play the "big time" card then lets do it. Pony up the money and let's get better.
If we want to coddle some schools because they don't have enough money then lets not pretend that we are "big time".

[Athens and Akron]

West
Northern Iowa
Drake
Missouri State
Wichita St
Bradley
Illinois State

East
Evansville
Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Ohio
Akron
Dayton

Sorry if I broke the rivalries.

[isumvc1]

West
Northern Iowa
Drake
Missouri State
Wichita St
Bradley
Illinois State

East
Evansville
Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Ohio
Akron
Dayton

Sorry if I broke the rivalries.

while this looks nice, realistically I don't see Akron and Ohio leaving the MAC, unless the MAC allows them to keep football there and transfer all other sports to the MVC. Dayton fans will be livid 1. if they're not invited to the new Big East, and 2. if they would switch from the A-10 to the MVC

[indymoon]

No way EU stays with that insane travel...

Why pass up like schools 3-8 hrs away for 12-18 hrs in a bus?

UIC & WIU would make more sense than NDSU/SDSU... And WIU/UIC doesn't begin to compare to Belmont/Murray St.

I say all this based on budgets, rivalries, and most importantly since this is COLLEGIATE competition travel... Nobody can afford to travel 16 programs to the Dakotas and have sound budgets. WIU can attest to that and we like the SL. Imagine if I had an axe to grind, it'd be very easy to portray the Dakotas as a dead end addition.

North/South Divisions work best FYI... That's with the best MVC choices like Belmont, Murray State and Loyola in there.

North; UNI, Drake, BU, ISU, Loyola, In State. South; SIU, EU, WSU, Belmont, Murray St, Mo State.

See I fixed it! I feel like the gas station clerk in Tommy Boy trying to get Richard to read the right map.

That first line is obviously your opinion but I question your perspective on what Evansville might do when you don't know how to abbreviate the school (it's UE not EU).

[Athens and Akron]

West
Northern Iowa
Drake
Missouri State
Wichita St
Bradley
Illinois State

East
Evansville
Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Ohio
Akron
Dayton

Sorry if I broke the rivalries.

while this looks nice, realistically I don't see Akron and Ohio leaving the MAC, unless the MAC allows them to keep football there and transfer all other sports to the MVC. Dayton fans will be livid 1. if they're not invited to the new Big East, and 2. if they would switch from the A-10 to the MVC

I think the MAC will let them keep football there. As much as the MAC would hate to lose Ohio and Akron in hoops and other sports, they are football 1st and need these two programs. The fact that the MAC is football 1st is why I think Akron and Ohio might look to make this move.. Both have made serious financial commitments to basketball. They don't spend on the MVC level yet, but they would be a much nicer fit than a lot of the other programs being talked about as long as they can get out of the MAC in sports other than football.
As for Dayton, I agree on them and their fans. I just couldn't leave them out with as nicely as they fit into this setup. If Akron and Ohio made the move, I think the MVC should go for either Dayton 1st, then Denver, Loyola, Toledo or Detroit.