Wichita St leaving MVC?

meganeck · Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:27 pm

There are rumors Wichita St will leave the MVC for the AAC. Wichita St is tried of not getting any respect in basketball so are supposedly looking to get into a better conference. If they do leave it will be interesting to see who MVC targets to replace them. One sportswriter I saw thinks the MVC should go after all the Dakota schools. In away I wouldn't mind that but that would be be the death of the Summit League and I don't know where that would leave WIU. Anyway it will be an interesting situation to follow.

Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:13 am

meganeck wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2017 11:27 pm There are rumors Wichita St will leave the MVC for the AAC. Wichita St is tried of not getting any respect in basketball so are supposedly looking to get into a better conference. If they do leave it will be interesting to see who MVC targets to replace them. One sportswriter I saw thinks the MVC should go after all the Dakota schools. In away I wouldn't mind that but that would be be the death of the Summit League and I don't know where that would leave WIU. Anyway it will be an interesting situation to follow.

I've been lurk-following a thread about this over at ISU's forum (Redbirdfan.net): http://www.redbirdfan.net/forum/viewtop ... f=6&t=9764
There's a lot of different possibilities that ISU fans are tossing out there, of varying degrees of likelihood. They're going to have a really hard time getting a team that's anywhere near as good as Wichita State has been for the last handful of years though.

vatusay · Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:11 am

To me, the logical course of action is to have the MVC include all sports and schools in both the MVC and MVFC. Would provide some great stability for all involved. MVC schools absolutely don't want that to happen.

Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:48 am

vatusay wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2017 8:11 am To me, the logical course of action is to have the MVC include all sports and schools in both the MVC and MVFC. Would provide some great stability for all involved. MVC schools absolutely don't want that to happen.

Sounds like if the Shockers take their leave, then there's a decent number who aren't entirely opposed to something like this. The sticking points for a lot of them though are us (just not good enough...which, if your benchmark is men's basketball...fair enough, we haven't been great at that lately), and Youngstown State (waaaaaay outside the conference footprint).

Other ideas I've seen brought up is trying to poach Murray State and Belmont from the OVC, just the Dakota schools from the Summit, or some of the better Horizon League schools (Valpo, Oakland, maybe Green Bay, Northern Kentucky).

meganeck · Fri Mar 24, 2017 5:51 pm

Basketball wise, going after Valpo might make the most sense

meganeck · Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:10 am

Its official now Wichita St has joined the AAC... interesting who the Valley goes after.

sealhall74 · Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:34 am

With WSU gone, the MVC has a very nice geographical footprint. I would be willing to bet Macomb, IL is pretty damn close to the geo-center of it all. Wishful thinking I guess ... renewed rivalries with other Illinois schools ... oh well, that is enough dreaming for now.

And the answer is ... Tallula, IL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallula,_Illinois

http://www.geomidpoint.com/?ml=39.97894 ... =1&r=0&w=0

My money is on Saint Louis U at this point if they only want one school.

Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:48 am

meganeck wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:10 am Its official now Wichita St has joined the AAC... interesting who the Valley goes after.

Valley officials are supposed to have a meeting on Sunday to discuss their options.

In addition to the previously mentioned top Horizon League, Ohio Valley, or even Summit League teams (XDSU's mostly), I've also seen people mention trying to convince someone like DePaul or SLU to switch to the MVC, but without Creighton or Wichita State in the MVC, I think they're kinda "outkicking their coverage" on that. They'd have to make a REALLY attractive offer to SLU to get them to join.

Another option that seems like a strong one at this point is to just go with 9 teams through 2017/18, while working on finding the best option for an addition. The teams would have to work a little harder to find non-conference opponents, but not a lot of people are happy about the "rushed" addition of Loyola and REALLY don't want a repeat of that.

vatusay · Fri Apr 07, 2017 5:16 pm

I'm afraid to go check the bisonville page lol.

Fri Apr 07, 2017 6:14 pm

For any that are interested, here's a bit of "light reading" (thread started about 2 1/2 weeks ago and it's up to 39 pages as of right now). Lots of ideas out there for who they should (and shouldn't) bring in.
http://mvcfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4666