Article: A10 should look at adding Wichita St

[PantherSigEp]

The Sun Belt's never sent a team to the Top-25 rankings, and only 2 of its 7 bowl-eligible teams received bowl invitations. Arkansas State & Louisiana are nice, but the remainder is a hell hole.

Basketball is a much more attainable vehicle for Missouri State to market itself, IMO. If the President diverted his focus on football to basketball, MSU would be damn close to a Top-10 non-BCS/BE/AAC program capable of a couple Sweet-16 runs per decade. Hell, they were within the vicinity of that 15 years ago, and were poorer then.

You'll only get similar marketing in football via a Top-25 program (never accomplished in Sun Belt history) or winning the Access bid (fighting 70 schools for 1 spot -- good luck).

I know where I'd place my odds, but that's just me. MSU is capable of so much more in Basketball, that's the program with history and Springfield's flavor, and it's an easier road than the Football one.

Here is a kicker though. We average about 9k for football. We haven't been good in 20 plus years now. Every year people come out for football.

Being a WSU fan, I'm a little out of the loop on what good football attendance is, but 9K doesn't seem like a good number.

Considering how terrible the Bears are in football though, if that number is accurate, I'm somewhat impressed.

[xsaluki]

Wsu better find a new conference this year. The team wants to compete at the highest level and more importantly Marshal wants to compete at that level .

If the team cant move then Marshal will be gone when the right chance comes his way. Turning down the kinds of offers he will be getting is going to be more and more difficult .

[rlh04d]

Being a WSU fan, I'm a little out of the loop on what good football attendance is, but 9K doesn't seem like a good number.

It's not bad for an FCS team ... it'd probably top 35. But it's not good for a prospective FBS program. I could only find one other FBS program last year that averaged less than 10k fans: Eastern Michigan at 4k.

IMO, Missouri State has things going for it if they want to make a move. But that attendance and their team both need to be better.

[pawball]

If Shocks move to ACC or A-10, I think they may be surprised at the toll that traveling to those East Coast schools will take on their other sports: volleyball, baseball, cross-country, in all kinds of ways. Level of competition certainly won't improve in those sports. The travel time itself, and changing time zones for about every away game that you play, seems crazy to go through to me. On the plus side, you get to take in other parts of the country from a hotel room. But I'm looking at it from a participant's viewfinder.

$$$$ wise, HEY-LOOK-AT-ME-WISE, yeah, that's extremely good for the shocks, and, of course, that seems to be what collegiate athletics emphasizes more and more. But the main and best, purest ,argument for a move for the shocks is that they get to play in a significantly higher grade conference in basketball, at this point in time. And it might assist their women's b-ball too.

[CBB_Fan]

If Shocks move to ACC or A-10, I think they may be surprised at the toll that traveling to those East Coast schools will take on their other sports: volleyball, baseball, cross-country, in all kinds of ways. Level of competition certainly won't improve in those sports. The travel time itself, and changing time zones for about every away game that you play, seems crazy to go through to me. On the plus side, you get to take in other parts of the country from a hotel room. But I'm looking at it from a participant's viewfinder.

$$$$ wise, HEY-LOOK-AT-ME-WISE, yeah, that's extremely good for the shocks, and, of course, that seems to be what collegiate athletics emphasizes more and more. But the main and best, purest ,argument for a move for the shocks is that they get to play in a significantly higher grade conference in basketball, at this point in time. And it might assist their women's b-ball too.

Creighton's costs for leaving the MVC were estimated at about $260,000. Wichita State's costs would be in the same ballpark, more or less. Wichita State doesn't have men's or women's soccer, which would save money, but also would probably have farther and more expensive travels in the A10, MWC, or AAC. Overall though the costs for travelling would at the very least be partially offset by the TV revenue, especially considering that the MVC actually pays to have its games on television.

I'm aware that you were speaking more in terms of general fatigue and the impact travel can have on students, but I wanted to point out that it isn't as big of a financial hurdle as some may think.

[Aargh]

As long as MVC schools continue to emphasize FB, WSU needs another conference.

MSU becomes an example again, even though I'm certain the same situation happens at other schools.

MSU gets 9K for FB and about the same number for BB. FB costs MSU 65 scholarships for FB and another 65 scholarships for women's athletics because of Title IX. BB costs 13 scholarships and another 13 for women's BB. Women's BB at MSU probably pys for itself.

MSU appears to be using BB funds to subsidize FB. MSU will never be able to retain a successful BB coach in that situation.

[Lakesbison]

[quote="isumvc1"][quote="BCPanther"][quote="uniftw"]The Dakota State schools are more or less linked together.[/quote]

Yep. If you take NDSU, you have to take SDSU.

If Wichita leaves this league blows up. Big Time.[/quote]

neither school will ever be in the MVC, biggest reason now (outside of geography) is the fact they'd lose their little league tournament in Sioux Falls. It's a home tournament for sdsu, no way, no how are they giving THAT up to come to the MVC.[/quote]


I agree, that's why NDSU has zero problem dropping sdsu and doing the mvc alone especially with the new bball arena and sdsu usd can fight over the summit.....if you need 2. NDSU & DENVER ( or oral Roberts makes more sense)

[m-v-c]

After all the destruction conference realignment has done to college sports, just don't understand why so many always want to talk about this topic. Especially in season when one can talk about, oh I dunno, maybe games and things actually happening on the court? Seems it's literally becoming more important to people how much their teams get from TV revenue and how much stuff they can brag about having, than whether their team is winning or not. Sorry.

Especially for Wichita State, makes no sense. Team is unbeaten, is ranked No. 2 in the country, will get a 1 seed in NCAAs with a prime chance at a second straight Final 4, and has been the source of as much publicity (all deserved) as can ever ask for. You cannot do better than that. And it is in a conference that has had multiple members make the national rankings, the NCAA Sweet 16, or both in recent years (yes, going back to the mid-2000s is still recent years). Without football, exactly how much more are you going to get out of another conference? Sorry, just complete fatigue over this topic, it's as if college sports fans take a morbid enjoyment out of watching their sports get torn apart by money.

[Rambler63]

Bump... Because this topic doesn't get enough discussion during Arch Madness.

[rlh04d]

After all the destruction conference realignment has done to college sports, just don't understand why so many always want to talk about this topic. Especially in season when one can talk about, oh I dunno, maybe games and things actually happening on the court? Seems it's literally becoming more important to people how much their teams get from TV revenue and how much stuff they can brag about having, than whether their team is winning or not. Sorry.

Especially for Wichita State, makes no sense. Team is unbeaten, is ranked No. 2 in the country, will get a 1 seed in NCAAs with a prime chance at a second straight Final 4, and has been the source of as much publicity (all deserved) as can ever ask for. You cannot do better than that. And it is in a conference that has had multiple members make the national rankings, the NCAA Sweet 16, or both in recent years (yes, going back to the mid-2000s is still recent years). Without football, exactly how much more are you going to get out of another conference? Sorry, just complete fatigue over this topic, it's as if college sports fans take a morbid enjoyment out of watching their sports get torn apart by money.

Not paying attention to the money side doesn't make it go away.

I could care less about how much money WSU has, except in terms of being able to keep Marshall.

And WSU probably getting a one seed for being undefeated isn't a reason to stay in the Valley. WSU probably won't be going undefeated every year, shocking as that may be.

And WSU is having one of the best seasons ever, yet you still can only catch a few of their games on TV. There are obvious detriments to remaining in the Valley for a team trying to compete at the highest level. WSU fans want the team to be in the best position to be successful long term. Good years are fleeting. Ask Bradley fans, Indiana State fans, WSU fans circa 1980s, etc. compare that to the Valley teams that moved on like Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati, etc.