UIC a good fit for Valley?

[IllinoisState]

I'd bet most would agree with your "it can't be a football first school". However, I do wonder what the opinion of Murray State would be then.

They have football...but they aren't a football first school. The could move all sports to MVC but leave football where it is in the OVC.

Murray State is Podunck. That is my opinion. Murray is not in a major or semi-major population base. From their standpoint, they would no longer be the big fish in the little pond. Please look at their long-term record in the Dance and tell me why you would want them.

They haven't had a losing season since 1986-1987. They average more than 6,000 people per game. Both of those are better than any other team that has been mentioned.

[unipanther99]

In all of UNI's recent NCAA trips, Murray St. had some of the best fans I've ever met. I stayed at their team hotel in Dayton 2006. Good people, very knowledgeable about the game, and passionate. Their program is a consistent winner, they have good support, and they are in the geographic footprint.

They aren't going to light the world on fire, but they definitely wouldn't be a RPI boat anchor.

[cpacmel]

I'd bet most would agree with your "it can't be a football first school". However, I do wonder what the opinion of Murray State would be then.

They have football...but they aren't a football first school. The could move all sports to MVC but leave football where it is in the OVC.

Murray State is Podunck. That is my opinion. Murray is not in a major or semi-major population base. From their standpoint, they would no longer be the big fish in the little pond. Please look at their long-term record in the Dance and tell me why you would want them.

They haven't had a losing season since 1986-1987. They average more than 6,000 people per game. Both of those are better than any other team that has been mentioned.

This past year they only averaged 5,436. Last year when they were 31-2 and won an NCAA game they averaged 6,144.

I do wonder how stable their attendance is, especially now that Isaiah Canaan is gone. They have had some good teams over the years, no doubt about that.

Here is their recent past in attendance:

2011 (4,062)
2010 (3,682)
2009 (3,543)
2008 (3,185)
2007 (3,210)
2006 (3,589)

[IllinoisState]

Murray State is Podunck. That is my opinion. Murray is not in a major or semi-major population base. From their standpoint, they would no longer be the big fish in the little pond. Please look at their long-term record in the Dance and tell me why you would want them.

They haven't had a losing season since 1986-1987. They average more than 6,000 people per game. Both of those are better than any other team that has been mentioned.

This past year they only averaged 5,436. Last year when they were 31-2 and won an NCAA game they averaged 6,144.

I do wonder how stable their attendance is, especially now that Isaiah Canaan is gone. They have had some good teams over the years, no doubt about that.

Here is their recent past in attendance:

2011 (4,062)
2010 (3,682)
2009 (3,543)
2008 (3,185)
2007 (3,210)
2006 (3,589)

I used the data from the NCAA, I don't think that they have released the data for this past year.

Those don't look too good, but they aren't horrible. The thing is, they haven't had a high attendance for an extended period of time so it's hard to tell if this is a fluke or something hat will be continual.

[laxrx]

I live in Chicago this is a Pro Sports town...UIC is a commuter campus with little student or community support so this wouldn't help much with a tv contract.. Northwestern or DePaul could capture this market if either team was able to put a decent product on the floor...Murray Sate may have good fan attendance but
is in the middle of a rural state which doesn't help much with TV revenues. As a program I do like Murray State and from a competition standpoint it would be a good fit.

[m-v-c]

Went to Murray State for a game last year during their huge season. It's a smaller town, somewhat like Carbondale, but the town bleeds Murray State hoops. Great atmosphere when they're doing well. They did sell out I think 8 or 9 straight games late last year, otherwise yeah 5,000-6,000 is a more typical attendence. Good basketball school and not a terrible fit for the eastern part of the league, but probably not the media market the Valley is looking for.

[IllinoisState]

I know that people want a private school, but it should be more important to get a good fit. Belmont has been talked about because of it being a private school with a good record in a big market. They don't have the attendance that fits our conference. Middle Tennessee State University is in the Nashville metropolitan area (the same as Belmont), has a good record, yet has better attendance. I would not mind them.

[rlh04d]

I knew that. Was just mentioning the actuality of it. That's all. Relax.

I really dislike when people say things like "Relax" to someone being perfectly calm in their reply, especially when the person saying it says things like "I'm scrambling for more information."

[cpacmel]

I used the data from the NCAA, I don't think that they have released the data for this past year.

Most schools list their attendance in their stats.

http://www.goracers.com/custompages/Stats/MBB/2012-13/teamcume.htm

Those don't look too good, but they aren't horrible. The thing is, they haven't had a high attendance for an extended period of time so it's hard to tell if this is a fluke or something hat will be continual.

They numbers aren't horrible when compared to a school lik UM-KC, but compared to the MVC, they are pretty bad.

[Dawgbit]

I'd bet most would agree with your "it can't be a football first school". However, I do wonder what the opinion of Murray State would be then.

They have football...but they aren't a football first school. The could move all sports to MVC but leave football where it is in the OVC.

Murray State is Podunck. That is my opinion. Murray is not in a major or semi-major population base. From their standpoint, they would no longer be the big fish in the little pond. Please look at their long-term record in the Dance and tell me why you would want them.

They haven't had a losing season since 1986-1987. They average more than 6,000 people per game. Both of those are better than any other team that has been mentioned.

They play in one of the weakest conferences in the country, their OOC schedules have several lollipops every year, I would venture to say that every MVC team would have a winning record against the same teams Murray plays. Their attendance over last 10 years averaged 4,143, season before last was the only time they averaged more than 6,000.