Impact of Wichita's Final Four Run

[isuredbirds92]

I apologize if this has been already discussed, I haven't been reading much on here lately since I've just been mourning my bracket. Anyways, I was hoping to get some other opinions on WSU's run. It seems to me that this is the perfect storm for WSU to dominate the league for the forseeable future. Obviously with CU leaving, that leaves them alone as the dominant program in recent years. In addition to that, I think a deep NCAA run was the thing that may push them over the edge into finding a new conference home. Although, I am not sure if their is really a conference that they would fit with at this point. Will they stick around? Will it be good for the rest of the conference? If the MVC doesn't make a significant splash with creighton's replacement, is there any motivation for them to stick around?

[rlh04d]

WSU has four options as far as conferences go:

MWC -- They would need to accept a non-football program. Possible in order to balance Hawaii's place as a football-only program.
A-10 -- The most likely. Probably depends on how the Saint Louis/Dayton issue works out. Might take other MVC teams with them.
Big Priest -- Unlikely since not private or Catholic.
Big East -- Possible. If they want to take basketball only schools, VCU and WSU would be the best bet.

I don't see any other options.

I don't know how likely any of those are. Most likely they're just going to be set up to dominate the MVC for the next few years. Hopefully that will push the MVC teams to improve. WSU will only stay if they have no other options.

[Deanthonybowdenfan]

As long as Marshall is there, my opinion is that WSU will always be at or near the top (top 3 or 4 always) top 1 or 2 usually. Now that CU is gone, WSU really has no current competition as far as program strength, in the Valley. UNI is pretty solid, but not comparable to WSU as a program. I think there may be years where UNI wins the league (as long as Jakobsen is coaching), but i think he is going to be gone sooner or later. And the tradition and fan base in Cedar Falls/Waterloo is nothing like it is in Wichita. I think SIU is in the same position as UNI. Hopefully will return to greatness for a few years, but it is hard to sustain greatness at a place like that unless the athletic department starts to put a lot of resources into paying a coach big-time money like at WSU. Come to think of it the same could be said for most Valley schools. In a league like this it all comes down to hiring a GREAT coach, gaining program momentum, and paying the coach enough to keep him and hoping he will stay. WSU and CU, though historically towards the upper end of the League even before the recent success of both programs, were at the bottom of the League not that long ago. WSU just a decade ago was one of the worst in the league, CU before Altman was one of the worst in the League. Many of the schools in the Valley could emerge as great programs with a little luck. Although WSU and CU both had big cities to help with the fan base potential.

[Deanthonybowdenfan]

Big Priest -- Unlikely since not private or Catholic.
Big East -- Possible. If they want to take basketball only schools, VCU and WSU would be the best bet.

Whats the difference between the Big East and the Big Priest? lol

[laxrx]

Well Minnesota is gone and both LA schools have been taken...Rutgers just opened up today but I doubt Marshall would see that as a major step up. Unfortunately we are going to see continued instability in this league as any coach that has success is going to be gone to a more high profile job in short order. The Valley
has a long and proud history with many programs passing through on the way to greatness....Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and many more and along the way some great coaches as well. Without a profitable
TV contract things are going to be difficult. The problem is most of our schools are in small markets and
we just lost our biggest market Omaha. I can only hope that the fact WSU has made the Final Four will
assure some programs that you can still climb the mountain from a Valley!

Good luck WSU.....I was a Sophomore at Drake the last time a Valley team made it this far and that was Larry the Birdman and his Indiana State team. Yeah they were pretty good as I recall. Most people believe the
1979 Final was the snowball that really brought the NCAA tournament into the mainstream and everyones living room.

[IllinoisState]

Big Priest -- Unlikely since not private or Catholic.
Big East -- Possible. If they want to take basketball only schools, VCU and WSU would be the best bet.

Whats the difference between the Big East and the Big Priest? lol

The Big East is what's left of the Big East after the Catholic 7 left. The Big Priest is not an actual name, but rather a nod to the fact that all of the schools that left the Big East are Christian.

[rlh04d]

Big Priest -- Unlikely since not private or Catholic.
Big East -- Possible. If they want to take basketball only schools, VCU and WSU would be the best bet.

Whats the difference between the Big East and the Big Priest? lol

They hadn't announced the new name for the former-Big East yet when I wrote that. They just released it today ... the American Athletic Conference if I remember right.

I guess you could call it Conference USA + UConn and Cinci more than the Big East anyway.

Nevertheless, the Big Priest label is sticking.

[UNIFanSince1983]

They are actually now Big East and American Athletic Conference.

[rlh04d]

Well Minnesota is gone and both LA schools have been taken...Rutgers just opened up today but I doubt Marshall would see that as a major step up. Unfortunately we are going to see continued instability in this league as any coach that has success is going to be gone to a more high profile job in short order. The Valley
has a long and proud history with many programs passing through on the way to greatness....Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and many more and along the way some great coaches as well. Without a profitable
TV contract things are going to be difficult. The problem is most of our schools are in small markets and
we just lost our biggest market Omaha. I can only hope that the fact WSU has made the Final Four will
assure some programs that you can still climb the mountain from a Valley!

Good luck WSU.....I was a Sophomore at Drake the last time a Valley team made it this far and that was Larry the Birdman and his Indiana State team. Yeah they were pretty good as I recall. Most people believe the
1979 Final was the snowball that really brought the NCAA tournament into the mainstream and everyones living room.

As a major step up? I'm fairly certain Coach Marshall has already made $1.98 million this year and gotten to the Final Four with Wichita State. Rutgers is a massive step down.

You know where Mark Turgeon is right now? Sitting at home, because he couldn't even make the finals of the NIT, watching Marshall do more with WSU than he ever could AND getting paid more than he is at a "major" program at the same time. Excellent cautionary tale right there.

Marshall isn't going anywhere. He's about to get a large payraise at WSU that will probably put him into the top 20 salaries nationally for a college basketball coach. Not only does he have no reason to leave, but there is no job that opens up anytime soon that's going to offer him more than we're paying him.

He'd leave for UNC or Duke, but he's not leaving for RUTGERS.

You're going to see continued instability in this league as long as teams refuse to pay coaches well enough to keep them. Of course an MVC coach is going to make a break for it if he's looking at a $500k paycheck here, and can double or triple it at the first decent BCS job that comes calling (and if someone comes calling that will double or triple what we're paying HCGM next season, God bless him, he should probably take it). And most MVC teams can't afford to pay much more than that, because they dedicate too much cash to mediocre football and lack the audience and booster support of WSU and Creighton.

[Aargh]

Marshall's payday exceeds the basketball budgets of a couple of MVC schools this year.

WSU has taken some heat for over-paying a coach. The fact that several MVC schools are getting much better "bang for the bucks" has been accurately reported. That no longer applies.

A GMU study put a figure of $667 Million of advertising value on VCU's run to the F4. It seems that every "mid major" that's made a run to the F4 has had increased enrollment, increased donations to athletics, increased donations to academic programs, increased $$ from licensing, and national respect and recognition.

Marshall has been at WSU for 6 years. Let's say he's averaged $1.5 mill a year - which is high. That means we've paid Marshall $9 mill. He's delivered $600+ mill of national recognition to WSU.

WSU may not have the best Wins/$$ coach in the Valley, but easily has the best value among MVC coaches.