Welcome Loyola

[ahunte1]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Haha. Hope to meet many of you in Chicago next season.

[MVCfans]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Haha. Hope to meet many of you in Chicago next season.

We were never going to find a school that the fans agreed on. Fortunately, the presidents are the ones making these decisions. Welcome to the Valley.

[rlh04d]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Haha. Hope to meet many of you in Chicago next season.

Like I've said elsewhere, I've got nothing against your university, and I think in ten years time you're going to be an excellent addition to the Valley, with a much higher ceiling than 80% of this conference.

Wichita fans are just frustrated that you're going to be an immediate hit to the basketball conference and our NCAA tournament resume.

We're not looking at this as a long-term investment in the Valley's future ... for you and theoretically the Valley as a whole, this is probably a good move ... eventually

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Haha. Hope to meet many of you in Chicago next season.

Hey welcome to the conference. I think that being a part of our conference will help the Loyola brand immensely. In time you will grow into a rival perhaps and that is cool. I look forward to learning more about your school and all of your athletic programs.

[LMS]

I'm glad to see a Jesuit school take our spot. A message to the Loyola fans- you will find there are a few blowhards and difficult posters here just like any other board. Take those with a grain of salt and I think you'll find the vast majority of MVC fans will treat you very well here.

[ahunte1]

Thanks guys. As you can see from Ramblermania, we are all excited about the move and to see our athletic department continue its awakening from a long slumber.

rih - Just beat us twice by 25 and win the tourney and you've got nothing to worry about

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

Thanks guys. As you can see from Ramblermania, we are all excited about the move and to see our athletic department continue its awakening from a long slumber.

rih - Just beat us twice by 25 and win the tourney and you've got nothing to worry about

Again let me start by welcoming you personally.

As an outsider how do you view the Missouri Valley in relation to the Horizon? In terms of competitiveness, etc.? Also do you feel like there was a better institutional fit in the Horizon than with the member institutions of the Valley? My recollection is that there are more private schools there that are located in major metro areas. With the Valley we have a bigger mix public/private and aren't quite as big city so to speak.

What are your most successful programs? I vaguely remember your women's soccer program being successful but I saw that they were something like 8-9-3 or something this past year.

Last night I had quite a bit of angst in regard to your admission. It isn't personal, I just wanted Oral Roberts to be in this conference so badly. And for mostly personal reasons. I hope you don't take any of it as an insult. I just don't know a ton about you all yet.

[Fraydog]

Coming from a Saluki perspective... Wichita is not the only fan base with lots of problems with this. Lots of folks in Saluki Country have issues with this pick as well.

The reasoning to pick a school based on past success, with potential in the future, and based on metro location, is not looking at this from the right perspective. Focus, guys.

The main focus should be the revenue sports. Take the best school available in the revenue sports. Belmont has a very solid program. Murray and Valpo are better choices than Lolola is.

[BradleyBrave]

Coming from a Saluki perspective... Wichita is not the only fan base with lots of problems with this. Lots of folks in Saluki Country have issues with this pick as well.

The reasoning to pick a school based on past success, with potential in the future, and based on metro location, is not looking at this from the right perspective. Focus, guys.

The main focus should be the revenue sports. Take the best school available in the revenue sports. Belmont has a very solid program. Murray and Valpo are better choices than Lolola is.

Kinda like Evansville was a better pick than Butler in '96? How'd that one work out for us? No offense to Aces fans, but you can't really argue who's had a better 15 years. Prior to that though, Evansville was clearly the better program. So you have to think big picture here, you have to look at growth potential, financial resources, TV market, etc. I'm confident that Loyola met all of our criteria better than any other schools under consideration. If they finally re-commit their amazing financial resources to athletics, we may look very smart for this acquisition in a few years.

[ahunte1]

As an outsider how do you view the Missouri Valley in relation to the Horizon? In terms of competitiveness, etc.? Also do you feel like there was a better institutional fit in the Horizon than with the member institutions of the Valley? My recollection is that there are more private schools there that are located in major metro areas. With the Valley we have a bigger mix public/private and aren't quite as big city so to speak.

What are your most successful programs? I vaguely remember your women's soccer program being successful but I saw that they were something like 8-9-3 or something this past year.

Just my opinion, but the MVC is a moderately stronger basketball conference that is MUCH better-run. The Horizon invested a lot in promoting Butler, even to the point of structuring the conference tournament in a way that benefitted them. There were other good teams in the league that didnt get their due(evidenced by the fact that Butler won the league three times in their last ten years-7 overall championships).

Still, losing Butler hurt, and there is no program on the level of WSU or Creighton, obviously, but the level of play in the Horizon is higher than most here probably give credit for. None of that matters though. The MVC is clearly a step up.

Horizon League cities are Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, Valpo, Dayton, Youngstown, Cleveland, and Detroit. Do with that what you will. Bigger cities, I guess, but generally not the top programs in them. I think it was 6 public and 3 private schools.

Recently, men's volleyball has been the most successful program. I think someone here noted we swept the HL track championships. The women's basketball team was the HL runner up and just hired Sheryl Swoopes as the new head coach.

Men's basketball has to be our flagship though, and we are heading into year three of a MASSIVE rebuilding project. The program had a D3 mentality for most of the past 20 years following some academic issues. Year one of the project was a disaster. Last year showed remarkable improvement. In some ways, the record is misleading because of all the close/late losses in conference. I think it was six losses by 12 points or something. On the other hand, we were very young and .500 was a reasonable expectation heading into the year.