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Post by Big D on Sept 29, 2021 10:19:24 GMT -5
The AAC is picking schools from the MWC, Sun Belt and C-USA. You’re telling me they’re also looking at mid-level OVC programs? Sure. What I’m telling you is Murray State has been talking to MVC, AAC, ASUN, A-10 for the last several months. Those are the conferences they desire to join. The HL has spoken to them but we aren’t getting much more consideration than them just staying in the OVC. If you don’t want to believe that the A-10 or AAC have any interest in them you can believe what you want. I’m going to trust the guy I know in Murray State’s athletic department that I talked to last weekend.
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Post by Big D on Sept 28, 2021 20:58:13 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 28, 2021 20:27:09 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 28, 2021 20:10:40 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 28, 2021 20:04:06 GMT -5
Why would the AAC be interested? Their expansion is football driven and MSU’s football program is definitely not a selling point. The A10 is already at 14 teams and idk if MSU is a big enough draw to proactively expand to 15. You apparently haven't read Murray State's facility's master plan they released in August. They are planning to upgrade everything including putting money into their football and sports performance facilities. You don't invest that type of money to get into the HL. You do that to move up a level like the AAC or even to upgrade to get into the MVC. The A-10 has never been concerned about their numbers. They care about improving their conference. I don't think they would have a problem going to 15 or 16 if they thought it would help them pick up another at large bid. They have been all about adding quality, whereas, the HL has been all about adding any university that will say yes.
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Post by Big D on Sept 27, 2021 18:42:38 GMT -5
Blue Ribbon predictions:
1. Cleveland State 2. Wright State 3. Northern Kentucky 4. Oakland 5. Detroit Mercy 6. Milwaukee 7. Purdue Fort Wayne 8. Youngstown State 9. Robert Morris 10. UIC 11. Green Bay 12. IUPUI
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Post by Big D on Sept 26, 2021 9:25:22 GMT -5
We're not going to go to the MVC unless our basketball team becomes too good to pass on. We've been passed over a few times now and our financial situation isn't helping. That conference is trying to balance Public/Private which means we're only going to get looked at half of the time. The MVC also just doesn't excite me, they're borderline when it comes to getting a 2nd team into the NCAA. I feel like if we end up in that conference we'll be stuck there as it slowly gets torn apart by other conferences in the area and will slowly become a Horizon League 2.0. I have bigger aspirations but it requires a lot of domino's falling the right places and for now I'll be happy if we can dominate the Horizon League for a few years while the school improves its financial situation. Nagy is doing a great job at slowly putting us in the spotlight. Our basketball success has very to do with why we aren't in the MVC. It almost all comes down to our financial problems. If we had the same financial footing and enrollment we had 10 years ago, I think we would be a member already. The MVC should excite you. They have shown the ability to get more than 1 team into the tournament on a fairly regular basis and if they add Belmont/Murray State that should only become more frequent. Conferences aren't driven by their top teams. They are driven by the middle of the pack teams. They are very solid at the top and middle. It isn't a coincidence that at the HL's peek as a conference we had 1/2 our conference rated in the top 125 in the RPI. Now we are lucky to get 2 teams in the top 125. It isn't just about the number of teams you get into the dance either. It's their seeding and number of games they win when they get there. The MVC gets much higher seeds than us every year and they have had the ability to make runs in the tournament once they get there. The HL hasn't won a game in the dance since Butler was a member. More teams in the dance and more wins in the tournament = much higher NCAA tournament money year after year after year compared to us. The other major advantage to being in the MVC is they have a real TV contract where they get on TV much more often and get paid for it. The HL gives ESPN it's TV rights just to get a handful of games on TV each year. There are only a handful of basketball driven conferences. There are only 2 better than the MVC, the Big East and the A-10 so I highly doubt we are going to see much more movement from MVC schools to other conferences because there really isn't much room for them to improve. In our circumstances, we have NO WHERE else to go besides the MVC or staying in the HL. The Big East is all private schools with one exception. If they ever decide to add another public institution, there are probably 20-30 schools they would pick before us. The A-10 has been moving back towards an east coast conference with all of their recent additions AND even if there was the slightest chance they would be willing to add another mid-west team the school across town still has the ability to veto that. I think we all know that there isn't a chance in hell they are going to let us in the same conference as them when they won't even schedule us.
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Post by Big D on Sept 25, 2021 22:20:03 GMT -5
Gerb, honestly I think their rankings is a combination of 2 things. Most importantly, most of these preseason magazines do next to no real research into lower rated conferences like the HL. We are picked high, because we have finished high several years in a row. Detroit hasn’t so they are ranked lower. The magazines that actually look at what each team returns and what they are bringing in probably aren’t that impressed with the additions Detroit made. There were several HL teams that put together much better recruiting classes than Detroit. That would be my guess. That all being said, I have no idea how good Detroit is going to be. UIC used to consistently bring in much higher rated recruits than us and we have consistently finished higher than them. Cleveland State won the conference tournament last year. I don’t think any team in the HL would have traded their roster for CSU’s roster going into last season. These preseason predictions are fun for fans but ultimately don’t mean anything once the boys lace em up and take the court.
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Post by Big D on Sept 25, 2021 17:49:01 GMT -5
I’m frankly very surprised Detroit isn’t getting more consideration in these polls and predictions. They were the team I was most scared of going into the league tourney last year and I know I wasn’t alone. Davis was doing everything alone to start the season and they went 1-7. Then they took their sabbatical and came back with a healthy Waterman on the roster. He made them a completely different team by stretching the floor and they rattled off an 11-3 record including a one-point loss to NKU in the tourney. All their key players are back. I’ve got the tied with us as preseason favorite. They lost their second leading scorer and leading rebounder in Bul Kuol.
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Post by Big D on Sept 25, 2021 11:19:31 GMT -5
The other NKU game on Monday, Jan. 10 is the same night as the College Football Championship game. I didn't notice this the first time I looked at our schedule. Another Epic fail by the HL. Just another reason we need to hire a real commissioner and not a PR puppet that is way over her head.
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Post by Big D on Sept 25, 2021 11:17:13 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 24, 2021 13:35:49 GMT -5
You can count me in on the group of people that have no faith in our conference commissioner to get this right. If Murray State is left out of the MVC loop we would be completely stupid to not try to get them into the HL and try to find another team to pair with them. I really don't think Morehead State is a good candidate for the HL except as a last resort to add to pair with Murray State if nothing else arises. Murray State is a big outlier in the HL geographic map but they add a quality program with name recognition. Morehead State does not. They are 5 hours away from Murray State. They are 3 hours away from Wright State. They just don't make a lot of sense to me. I've been against adding D1 transitioning programs in the past but I'd rather see us add Murray State with Southern Indiana or Bellarmine than Morehead State. Murray State to Southern Indiana is just over 2 hours so they would be good travel partners. Murray State to Bellarmine is just under 3.5 hours and makes more sense than Morehead. Southern Indiana and Bellarmine both have much better facilities than Morehead State and athletic departments that are putting in the effort to get to the next level. I don't see the same drive or potential coming from Morehead State's athletic department. Knowing the HL, we will probably whiff on Murray State and add Morehead State with no plans on how to find a suitable travel partner for them.
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Post by Big D on Sept 22, 2021 20:15:28 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 21, 2021 19:42:42 GMT -5
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Post by Big D on Sept 19, 2021 15:00:19 GMT -5
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