Press conference on Monday 1/11

[ST_Lawson]

It has been rumored that Wichita State has "higher" aspirations.

If Wichita State were to leave the Missouri Valley, a possible non-football replacement would be SIU-Edwardsville.

Yea. The problem is that the MVC is a basketball conference, so they want teams that are at least decent at basketball. Unfortunately, there aren't many in the region that aren't already at that level or higher. The teams that are left are teams like SIUE, Western, Eastern, etc...and outside of our quickly-fading early-season win streak, there hasn't been a lot of basketball success for any of us lately. Conferences lately have been looking to ways to expand their footprint in large media markets, which would help SIUE's cause (St. Louis area). Also not having football would give them another "leg up", at least as far as the non-football schools are concerned.

Another possible "target" might be a school like Arkansas-Little Rock. They don't play football, currently in the Sun Belt (so for them, MVC would be a step up), and are one of the best basketball teams in the Sun Belt (currently in the top 75 of most RPI rankings). Also, the Little Rock area, while not huge, has about 3/4 of a million people in it (~200k in Little Rock itself), so it's a decent sized market and while it's out of the current conference footprint, it's not really that far from Springfield, MO or Carbondale, IL (both are 5 hours or less of a drive).

Compared to those kinds of numbers, Western at this point, is not a very attractive option, despite the history between us and some of the members of the conference and our proximity to many of them.

[wiu712]

Story about the A.D. position from the "Western Courier":
http://westerncourier.com/34412/news/ta ... -director/

[W1U]

A new arena would probably help overcome part of that lack of success with the MVC. But... That isn't happening any time soon.

[ST_Lawson]

A new arena would probably help overcome part of that lack of success with the MVC. But... That isn't happening any time soon.

Part of it, yea, but it doesn't really get around the whole "media market" issue. As in....we aren't one.

[wiu712]

It doesn't really get around the whole "media market" issue. As in....we aren't one.

The Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk TV market is #170 with 99,050 tv homes.

The closest TV market in size in the Missouri Valley Conference is #155 Terre Haute, IN (Indiana State) with 132,140 tv homes.

[W1U]

A new arena would probably help overcome part of that lack of success with the MVC. But... That isn't happening any time soon.

Part of it, yea, but it doesn't really get around the whole "media market" issue. As in....we aren't one.

Yep, that's the bigger issue. We could, at least in theory, get a new arena. But we can't exactly grow Macomb. That will pretty much decide our fate.

[ST_Lawson]

It doesn't really get around the whole "media market" issue. As in....we aren't one.

The Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk TV market is #170.

The closest TV market in size in the Missouri Valley Conference is #155 Terre Haute, IN (Indiana State).

Right, but if you look at when most of the current members of the MVC joined the conference (or founded, in the case of Drake), TV contracts weren't a factor. In the last 20 years, we've seen huge increases in the amount of money being shelled out for TV contracts for the top conferences. The more (and larger) TV markets that you can get your "SEC Network" or your "PAC 12 Network" included on, the more money the companies will shell out for the conference TV contract. When conferences are looking at add members, lately, media market has mattered more than actual on-field or on-court success.

When the MVC wanted to add a team to "replace" Creighton, they looked for a team that:
1. was within or fairly close to within their existing footprint
2. was situated within a large media market
3. wasn't completely horrible in basketball

So who'd they go with...Loyola Chicago and their #3 ranked media market. Doesn't even matter that the VAST majority of people within that market don't care at all about Loyola sports, just the ability to get a broadcasting option on Chicago-area cable networks is worth huge amounts of money.

Same thing with the Big 10. They were looking to add teams. They obviously have slightly different priorities than the MVC...existing footprint (and travel costs) don't really matter as much, since they'd be a smaller % of their athletics budget than it is for the MVC schools (a charter flight carrying a basketball team doesn't really cost any more if you're Ohio State than if you're Indiana State)...but they were still looking at media markets as one of their primary criteria. The other likely being academic standing (the Big 10 is also comprised of, for the most part, very high-quality academic schools, and they are unlikely to compromise that standing if at all possible). So, in come Rutgers and the #1 New York area TV market, along with Maryland and the #7 Washington DC market (and possibly some or all of the #26 Baltimore market). Doesn't matter that they've sucked at football lately, what matters is getting the BTN on NY, DC, and Baltimore area cable markets....a move which, when the new contract is bid on and negotiated, will likely increase the amount that each school gets from media contracts alone from the current ~$21M to an estimated ~$45M (http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... ew-tv-deal).

How many potential households would adding even the entire Quincy/Hannibal/Keokuk + Macomb market? Maybe 100k total. Little Rock would get them over 5 times that (547k households), and St. Louis...1.2M households.

Plus, UALR and SIUE are both currently or have been in the past, affiliate members for a sport or two in the MVC. We might occasionally get a mention from the schools we're in the MVFC with when the prospect of expansion comes up in conference meetings, but I'd bet it's a very brief mention if at all.

[ibleedpurpleandgold]

It doesn't really get around the whole "media market" issue. As in....we aren't one.

The Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk TV market is #170.

The closest TV market in size in the Missouri Valley Conference is #155 Terre Haute, IN (Indiana State).

Right, but if you look at when most of the current members of the MVC joined the conference (or founded, in the case of Drake), TV contracts weren't a factor. In the last 20 years, we've seen huge increases in the amount of money being shelled out for TV contracts for the top conferences. The more (and larger) TV markets that you can get your "SEC Network" or your "PAC 12 Network" included on, the more money the companies will shell out for the conference TV contract. When conferences are looking at add members, lately, media market has mattered more than actual on-field or on-court success.

When the MVC wanted to add a team to "replace" Creighton, they looked for a team that:
1. was within or fairly close to within their existing footprint
2. was situated within a large media market
3. wasn't completely horrible in basketball

So who'd they go with...Loyola Chicago and their #3 ranked media market. Doesn't even matter that the VAST majority of people within that market don't care at all about Loyola sports, just the ability to get a broadcasting option on Chicago-area cable networks is worth huge amounts of money.

Same thing with the Big 10. They were looking to add teams. They obviously have slightly different priorities than the MVC...existing footprint (and travel costs) don't really matter as much, since they'd be a smaller % of their athletics budget than it is for the MVC schools (a charter flight carrying a basketball team doesn't really cost any more if you're Ohio State than if you're Indiana State)...but they were still looking at media markets as one of their primary criteria. The other likely being academic standing (the Big 10 is also comprised of, for the most part, very high-quality academic schools, and they are unlikely to compromise that standing if at all possible). So, in come Rutgers and the #1 New York area TV market, along with Maryland and the #7 Washington DC market (and possibly some or all of the #26 Baltimore market). Doesn't matter that they've sucked at football lately, what matters is getting the BTN on NY, DC, and Baltimore area cable markets....a move which, when the new contract is bid on and negotiated, will likely increase the amount that each school gets from media contracts alone from the current ~$21M to an estimated ~$45M (http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... ew-tv-deal).

How many potential households would adding even the entire Quincy/Hannibal/Keokuk + Macomb market? Maybe 100k total. Little Rock would get them over 5 times that (547k households), and St. Louis...1.2M households.

Plus, UALR and SIUE are both currently or have been in the past, affiliate members for a sport or two in the MVC. We might occasionally get a mention from the schools we're in the MVFC with when the prospect of expansion comes up in conference meetings, but I'd bet it's a very brief mention if at all.

If they where ever going to add to the mvc a shool like milwaukee or valpo would make more sense though i don't Know valpo market size.

[ST_Lawson]

If they where ever going to add to the mvc a shool like milwaukee or valpo would make more sense though i don't Know valpo market size.

Likely not Valpo. Valparaiso itself is only about 30k people (roughly Galesburg sized). I think they're a bit too far out to be considered in the Chicago market...about 25 miles southeast of Gary, IN.

Milwaukee is a possibility though, good media market size, not very far outside the footprint, decent sports teams and no football.

[Tere North]

But WIU gets to count the QC market, too. Look at the MVC's successful effort to land the iWireless Center in QC for the Women's BB tourney as a Mississippi counterpoint to the Men's tourney in St. Louis. Add QC into the mix, and I imagine with 400+K folks, the "Western" market increases considerably to #99/100.