Once upon a time I would quietly suggest that Illinois State should have considered a number of options before the last domino of realignment just fell.
Those included: pursuing AAC membership to reunite with Tulsa and Wichita State in basketball, and becoming the 12th Football playing member. The AAC has since solved that problem.
Another option would have been Independent Football at FBS level and joining the A-10 for all other sports. Damned you Loyola! Seems as if the A-10 is no longer viable.
My current recommendations are:
Stay MVC in all other sports, go FBS Independent for Football. It’s the only TRUE path to finding an FBS conference. The remaining MVFC members who are successful (NDSU, SDSU) while financially set are geographic outliers. Nobody wants to fly to Fargo or Brookings in December - February/March. Staying in the MVFC/MVC is going to be a death blow for Illinois State. How long before Bradley, Valpo, and others leave to form their own Mid-Major private league?
Go to the MAC, if they will have us. NIU will block it at every turn, but those schools academically are more similar to Illinois State than the current mix of privates and regional Master Program schools.
Wildcard - find another peer school and try to get into the AAC. Talk to the Western KY AD and see if you can get the AAC to expand to 16.
Split into North/South Divisions, East/West to reduce travel. Whatever it takes. You would have former MVC members Tulsa, WSU in hoops, WKU in football.
You would have some great basketball games with Tulsa, Memphis (until they leave too), SMU, WSU. Warmer climates to travel for Football games and larger cities NOLA, Memphis, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, that could expand recruiting for all sports.
Yeah, yeah, yeah….travel would be a BEAR, but in today’s landscape no conference except the MAC is really landlocked anymore. And even the MAC has Buffalo, NY. If you wanna be mentioned with the big guys then you gotta start paying, and playing with the bigger schools, or those with a more visible national lens. The small school mentality has killed ISU for years. TV exposure and national media attention alone would help our academic profile.
This is the Way!
Those included: pursuing AAC membership to reunite with Tulsa and Wichita State in basketball, and becoming the 12th Football playing member. The AAC has since solved that problem.
Another option would have been Independent Football at FBS level and joining the A-10 for all other sports. Damned you Loyola! Seems as if the A-10 is no longer viable.
My current recommendations are:
Stay MVC in all other sports, go FBS Independent for Football. It’s the only TRUE path to finding an FBS conference. The remaining MVFC members who are successful (NDSU, SDSU) while financially set are geographic outliers. Nobody wants to fly to Fargo or Brookings in December - February/March. Staying in the MVFC/MVC is going to be a death blow for Illinois State. How long before Bradley, Valpo, and others leave to form their own Mid-Major private league?
Go to the MAC, if they will have us. NIU will block it at every turn, but those schools academically are more similar to Illinois State than the current mix of privates and regional Master Program schools.
Wildcard - find another peer school and try to get into the AAC. Talk to the Western KY AD and see if you can get the AAC to expand to 16.
Split into North/South Divisions, East/West to reduce travel. Whatever it takes. You would have former MVC members Tulsa, WSU in hoops, WKU in football.
You would have some great basketball games with Tulsa, Memphis (until they leave too), SMU, WSU. Warmer climates to travel for Football games and larger cities NOLA, Memphis, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, that could expand recruiting for all sports.
Yeah, yeah, yeah….travel would be a BEAR, but in today’s landscape no conference except the MAC is really landlocked anymore. And even the MAC has Buffalo, NY. If you wanna be mentioned with the big guys then you gotta start paying, and playing with the bigger schools, or those with a more visible national lens. The small school mentality has killed ISU for years. TV exposure and national media attention alone would help our academic profile.
This is the Way!
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