Academic hierarchy of MVFC Universities

Athletics Department, Facilities, etc.
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Western_101
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I was wondering what people thought the academic hiearchy of the member universities of the MVFC are.

Here is my stab at it:

1)University of South Dakota
2)Southern Illinois University
3)Illlinois State University
4)North Dakota State University
4)South Dakota State University
6)Indiana State University
6)University of Northern Iowa
6)Western Illinois University
9)Missouri State University
10)Youngstown State University.

Criteria that went into Ranking included:

U.S. News and World Report Rankings (although one can see I didn't ascribe to all of their their rankings choices)....Endowment, Enrollment, Level of Selectivity, Law school, Medical School, Doctoral Programs, Perceived prestige, D-I profile in sports, and Longevity of University.

I would be interested to hear other peoples opinions and feedback.
Last edited by Western_101 on Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Western_101
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I Honestly don't know why Indiana State is categorized as a National University. To my knowledge they offer no Doctorates. They trace their History back to a Normal Shool Origin. The same as UNI WIU and MSU. Yes ISU(r) was a normal school, but they are the oldest Public University in the State, have grown, and are making strides....with academics, facilities and athletics.


Also ISU has the highest Enrollment in all of the MVFC. (Used to be Southern)

For clarification....ISU has been receiving great marks latley, however, SIU has a Medical School and a School of Law. That carries weight.
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leatherface
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I would reverse Indiana State and Missouri State. Missouri State is very well thought of in Missouri, and gets a good quality of student from St Louis and Kansas City. I'm so disgusted with the faculty at Western I might put them last. All about them, and apparently not student centrist.
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For reference, here's the links to their pages on the US News & World Report website, in order of how they have them ranked:

National Universities:
#149 - Illinois State
#153 - Southern Illinois - Carbondale
#180 - University of South Dakota
#185 - North Dakota State
#187 - South Dakota State
Rank Not Published - Indiana State

Indiana State does offer Doctoral degrees in 13 different programs: http://www.indstate.edu/academics#quick ... ccordion=1
with many in health sciences/athletic training or biology

Regional Universities:
#18 - Northern Iowa
#46 - Western Illinois
#64 - Missouri State
Rank Not Published - Youngstown State

Regional Universities, by their criteria, "...offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master's programs but few doctoral programs."
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Western_101
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Lawson, first off, you do an amazing job on this board. Secondly feel free to move my ill started thread to a proper home.

I didn't Know Indiana State offered all those Doctorates... their website could use your help. Anyhow MSU is lame.....they are geniuses on marketing ....Southwest Missouri State Normal School is now MSU...fine but yee don't have the pedigree.....or the Football. My point with this ridiculous thread is that Western is actually in a better position than they were 10 years ago... Horizon League is not great...Big East poached Butler.....we are in a conference now with 3 flagship schools.....Summit League> MVC....?

Any football followers have perspective that can be offered for WIUs position?
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Western_101
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I am of the opinion that former WAC Members might want a home with the premier FCS football league.

University of Idaho wants a home (they are Big Sky in everything else) if they drop scholies to FCS almost certainly will go to Big Sky.


New Mexico State University.....is really in a bad positon. Once upon a time they were members of the MVC....but that was back when Wichita State still had football. I don't hate the Idea of getting a big time program like NMSU in the deal.... Hell...our boys don't go to Bowl games let them at least get a game every couple years where it is November and it is 75 degrees.
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Tere North
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RedNeck wrote:I Honestly don't know why Indiana State is categorized as a National University. To my knowledge they offer no Doctorates. They trace their History back to a Normal Shool Origin. The same as UNI WIU and MSU. Yes ISU(r) was a normal school, but they are the oldest Public University in the State, have grown, and are making strides....with academics, facilities and athletics.


Also ISU has the highest Enrollment in all of the MVFC. (Used to be Southern)

For clarification....ISU has been receiving great marks latley, however, SIU has a Medical School and a School of Law. That carries weight.
SIU also has a Dental School.
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sealhall74
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Tere North wrote:
RedNeck wrote:I Honestly don't know why Indiana State is categorized as a National University. To my knowledge they offer no Doctorates. They trace their History back to a Normal Shool Origin. The same as UNI WIU and MSU. Yes ISU(r) was a normal school, but they are the oldest Public University in the State, have grown, and are making strides....with academics, facilities and athletics.


Also ISU has the highest Enrollment in all of the MVFC. (Used to be Southern)

For clarification....ISU has been receiving great marks latley, however, SIU has a Medical School and a School of Law. That carries weight.
SIU also has a Dental School.
SIU offers the joint MD/JD degree. Just what the world needs. More people who can represent themselves during their own malpractice lawsuits.
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ST_Lawson
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RedNeck wrote:Lawson, first off, you do an amazing job on this board. Secondly feel free to move my ill started thread to a proper home.

I didn't Know Indiana State offered all those Doctorates... their website could use your help. Anyhow MSU is lame.....they are geniuses on marketing ....Southwest Missouri State Normal School is now MSU...fine but yee don't have the pedigree.....or the Football. My point with this ridiculous thread is that Western is actually in a better position than they were 10 years ago... Horizon League is not great...Big East poached Butler.....we are in a conference now with 3 flagship schools.....Summit League> MVC....?

Any football followers have perspective that can be offered for WIUs position?
Moved it to the more general "Leatherneck Athletics" since it seems more like a general "schools of the MVFC and/or Summit" topic.

I also wanted to mention that I think this is the first season (that I can remember) where the Summit League finished with a higher RPI than some of the better mid-major conferences. RealtimeRPI.com has the Summit League as the 11th best men's BBall conference: http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_conf_Men.html
Ahead of some other mid-major conferences that are generally thought of as being pretty good at basketball: Missouri Valley, Mountain West, and West Coast, among others.

I think the biggest difference is that although the MVC had two teams in the tournament (at-large Wichita State and conference tournament winner UNI) and have 3 teams in the top 100 in RPI (WSU, UNI, and Evansville), they have 4 teams ranked lower than 200, with two lower than 300: Missouri State (235), Loyola Chicago (239), Bradley (306) and Drake (325).
As compared to the Summit who only has one in the tournament (conference tournament champ SDSU) and only one other in the top 100 (IPFW at #71), but has much better "bottom" with only one team ranked lower than 200....us at 262. That means that theoretically, if we were in the MVC, we would have finished 9th out of 11, rather than 9th out of 9 that we finished in the Summit. Still not great, but not last.

It's also not a secret that Wichita State is looking at ways to get out of the MVC into a somewhat better basketball conference (primarily the reason they're even considering starting up football). If they leave, then the MVC would really have no case for saying they're any better than the Summit, because they would essentially drop to a 1-bid league just like us.
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Western_101
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Lawson, I enjoy reading your perspective and analysis of what is really going on. You really don't spin things and report what you perceive to be accurate.
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