MVC Expansion

[Yogi]

SIU is having major problems UNI had their lowest enrollment in 2019 since 1975 Indiana State is down 3000 undergrad since 2017 this is typical of a lot of universities I know that ISUb came very close to dropping football a few years ago

 

[MadBird]

Seriously, no miracle is coming like Wichita state or Dayton. That died with Loyola. We're also not moving up. The best thing to do would be to create this one conference for all sports with like minded public + St. Thomas who is just a good program in the same area with similar goals. Basically, the MAC of FCS.St

St. Thomas is a DIII school with DIII facilities. Please let them accomplish something in DI before we embrace them.

 

[Birgs]

Keeping the public/private balance & convenience of travel partners within the footprint. And maybe augment for football with the Dakotas:

ILSU-Bradley
UNI-Drake
UIC-Valpo
Mo. St.-SLU
UMKC-ORU
INSU-Evansville
NKU-Belmont
N.Dakota-NDSU
S.Dakota-SDSU

 

[Yogi]

SLU will not be coming back to the mvc

 

[Birgs]

SLU will not be coming back to the mvc

Then keep some gross version of SIU/Murray St/SEMO/SIU-E/WKU/ ... I was just attempting what has always seemed the public/private ratio.

 

[Bird Friend]

South Division

Illinois State
Indiana State
Missouri State
Murray State
Southeast Missouri State (facilities getting big improvements)
Southern Illinois

North Division

North Dakota
North Dakota State
Northern Iowa
South Dakota
South Dakota State
St. Thomas

Geographically, I guess we could call ourselves the Big Midwest or just go back to the Gateway. The nothing to see in these states conference.

The Flyover Conference

 

[ISU86]

Big roadbump for UMKC

Kansas City's Swinney Recreation Center makes Valparaiso's Athletic-Recreation Center look absolutely palatial by comparison. The closest venue I can think of to compare it to is Chicago State's former one (Jacoby Dickens Center) and I think SRC is even smaller.

Not sure why the Kangaroos would not return to Municipal Auditorium.

 

[ISU86]

Then keep some gross version of SIU/Murray St/SEMO/SIU-E/WKU/ ... I was just attempting what has always seemed the public/private ratio.

How many D-I privates are even left in the MVC footprint to grab? Oral Roberts, St. Thomas? Maybe it is time to worry less about the privates as there are few remaining to poach.

 

[ISUBird]

How many D-I privates are even left in the MVC footprint to grab? Oral Roberts, St. Thomas? Maybe it is time to worry less about the privates as there are few remaining to poach.

Depending on what you mean by footprint there's St. Thomas, Bellarmine, Lipscomb, Detroit, and Oral Roberts.

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

Not sure how this isn't brought up on the 19th.

 

[Redbird222]

How many D-I privates are even left in the MVC footprint to grab? Oral Roberts, St. Thomas? Maybe it is time to worry less about the privates as there are few remaining to poach.

I don't think it's just private vs public it's also schools with football programs vs ones that don't have one

 

[ISU86]

Depending on what you mean by footprint there's St. Thomas, Bellarmine, Lipscomb, Detroit, and Oral Roberts.

Forgot about Bellarmine. Doubt they would double-dip into Nashville for both Belmont AND Lipscomb. Detroit Mercy seemed too far, but guess if Arlington and Little Rock is on the table ...

 

[StLRedbird]

Having the MVC as your "all sports" conference makes it a mismatch for ISU. They are not allowed to consider football when evaluating new members, because they don't sponsor it.

If ISU alone were picking four teams to add, I think they might settle on Murray, UIC, SDSU, NDSU. They would certainly not ignore football when choosing. They wouldn't give a rip about public/private. And they would probably have some level of interest in getting MFVC teams into the Valley. A preference, maybe.

The MVC is only a good home if you want to continue neglecting your football program.

 

[DaveBird10]

If I had to say what is going to happen I will put it like this. If it was strictly a sports deal I would say Murray State makes the most logical sense from strictly a sports standpoint. But with presidents and everything being involved I have a feeling it's going to be UIC and UTA because they want to the Chicago and even the Dallas markets and that will fit in well with the university presidents and AD's.

 

[jwa123]

If I had to say what is going to happen I will put it like this. If it was strictly a sports deal I would say Murray State makes the most logical sense from strictly a sports standpoint. But with presidents and everything being involved I have a feeling it's going to be UIC and UTA because they want to the Chicago and even the Dallas markets and that will fit in well with the university presidents and AD's.

and that would surely suck.

 

[TBS_20]

I'm okay with UT-A due to Dallas but why UMKC or Omaha? Why not NKU if we're adding 4 more? They're better, have facilities already, and get the MVC into Cincy.

 

[Seven]

and that would surely suck.

Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. I’m fine with UIC and can stomach UTA as long as Murray St is included.

But if the one good BB school is left out, my interest in the Valley will pretty much evaporate.

 

[Bird Friend]

I'm okay with UT-A due to Dallas but why UMKC or Omaha? Why not NKU if we're adding 4 more? They're better, have facilities already, and get the MVC into Cincy.

Perhaps NKU doesn't want the Valley?

 

[Commit2theBird]

I’d vote to expand to 14 teams and have the Valley run deeper. Add Murray State (solid basketball program, traveling fan base, rivalry with Belmont), UIC (recapture Chicago market), NKU (nice facilities, enter Cincy market), and UW-M (large enrollment, enter MKE market). Not the most exciting adds, but to me they make the most sense.

 

[TBS_20]

I am proposing a 24-team super-conference. You get most every Midwest major population market or at least close to it. The Valley would have itself a self contained 10-team scholarship football conference with no satellite members and some of the best football in FCS. In basketball they could split into 2 divisions and play each team from their division once (11 games), play 7 games against the other division on a rotating bases (7 games), and finally play the final two games (20 games total) against your like pairings for that season. 1 plays 2. 3 plays 4, and so on. It's heading in that direction anyway. Lets get all the markets now and not sit on our hands like in the mid 00's.

Missouri Valley Conference (football and basketball under one conference. *10 scholarship football teams)


East Division

Belmont
Bradley
Detroit Mercy
Illinois-Chicago
Evansville
Illinois State*
Indiana State*
Milwaukee
Murray State*
Northern Kentucky
Valparaiso
Wright State

West Division

Drake
Oral Roberts
Omaha
Missouri State*
North Dakota*
North Dakota State*
Northern Iowa*
South Dakota*
South Dakota State*
Southern Illinois*
St. Thomas
Texas-Arlington