Post by wsuairstrike on May 15, 2024 17:23:18 GMT -5
I agree with this. WSU, NKU, + a football school. Also have been hearing from MVC members that they have been notified about a list of schools that have been contacted. WSU and NKU are included in that list given to MVC current member schools.
As far as joining the MVC, I used to be the guy beating the drum to take that move for Milwaukee. Later I was pushing more A-10. At this point, having a basic understanding of our financial situation, I think Milwaukee should stand pat. For better or worse this group of public urban universities that makes up the core group of the Horizon League - GB, MKE, WSU, CSU, and later YSU, Oakland, and NKU (I don't much care for the alphabet soup Indiana schools) - fit strongly together. I think UIC fit this group well too, and the early returns in the MVC aren't great for them in most of their sports.
I know we like to say the grass is always greener on the other side, but I'm peering over the fence and the Valley isn't the Valley I used to pine for. Wichita State, Creighton, MoState, even the temporary Loyola are all gone. The schools are somewhat mismatched - remember when the Horizon League had 6 public, 4 private schools? Now UDM is all that's left of that, with RMU thrown on the end. The Valley is 7 public and 5 private, with one of the publics leaving.
It's also probably a hard sell to our university to increase the budget to match the schools in the MVC. I think we all expected UIC to struggle there even though their budget is strong. But I didn't expect Belmont, Valpo and Murray State to all struggle as well.
How is the basketball after MoState leaves? It's better than the Horizon, to be sure, but we're going on what...15 or 16 years since they had an at-large bid? You're essentially running through a tougher conference to get 2 or 3 better spots on the seed line on Selection Sunday - and you're probably spending a few million more per year to just keep up with the Joneses.
The best conference possible for most of us is whichever conference is the best non-football conference below the one we'll never get in. Milwaukee's never getting in the Big East because of Marquette. Wright State's never getting in whichever conference Dayton is in, for now the A-10 but maybe the Big East if Hell freezes over and the Jesuits decide being Catholic should involve loving thy neighbor and allow Dayton into the group. LOL
I'm not even sure the A-10 is really worth the bump in spending for us. It would be nice to have our closest conference game back (Loyola is an hour closer to us than GB) but 14 schools is a lot, especially when damn near half the league sucks.
The best would be somehow getting a bunch of basketball-centric mid-major schools in a room and putting together a new conference. There's enough in the HL, MVC and A-10 where you could put together a conference that slides in just under the Big East in the pecking order, and you could do it while maintaining a solid geographic footprint.
You could probably put together a 12 or 14-team conference that's strong enough to get 3-5 bids every year.
Again, the problem there (besides the logistics and politics involved with putting the league together) for Milwaukee at least is I don't think we'd be able to put together the budget to compete in that conference. I don't think that's different for any HL school.
At the end of the day I think we're best off together. If WSU or NKU or both decide to leave for the MVC, I wish them well. At this rate someone's going to end up the next big fish in a small pond.
You make some good points but I would rather have a chance of Drake playing at the Nutter Center then IUPUI. I agree that the MVC is a shell of it's former self. It's still better then the HL and getting a higher seed is huge. WSU was projected to be a 12 seed before the historic lost at home to UWM. That was what, 2020? I don't think a HL school has been projected higher then a 14 seed since that year. MVC is the only realistic option.