Wichita State to the American Athletic Conference?

[wow]

Honestly, the MVC should have taken a hard look at adding Omaha instead of Loyola when Creighton left.

Fits their non-football obsession well, is likely to rise to a competitive level without ever being a threat since they are the 3rd tier program in their state, easy travel, located in a town that is very receptive to MVC hoops. There are probably a decent number of Creighton fans who would take in 1-5 Omaha games per year to watch old rivals and schools they are familiar with (there are quite a few SDSU fans who attend a few Augie or USF games, I assume the same is true for NDSU/Morehead).

[NDSUstudent]

They should have added Valpo when Creighton left.

Omaha has never been good at basketball, an occasional above average season here and there. They are a hockey school and I doubt Creighton fans care much about the MVC now that they are bigtime. Milwaukee is a much better add for the conference if they want to roll the dice on a program. They've actually been good, are a basketball school and Wisconsin is a good state for recruiting purposes.

[Yote 53]

My desire to join the MVC is dwindled because they are clearly a small time thinking conference who just wants to be stable and could care less about putting he best product on the field. In their delusional world, Omaha is the same as Creighton because they are in Omaha or they just want someone they view as an easy win. I'm actually getting less and less excited about all of our conferences in general. I want to be associated with a conference that wants to build something huge, not add blah programs like Murray, Omaha, and UMKC. And the football conference is thinking the same way. While these chumps would love to add Murray, I want to be in a conference that has teams that IMPROVE the conference. You know, teams that could actually win the whole thing.

I'm actually liking the idea of going west.

Bison, Jacks, and Yotes all agreeing on something. I have no doubt the FHawks would feel the same way.

The MVC is looking smaller and more petty every day. I too like the idea of going west and building a relationship with common, like minded, peer institutions. It would make a heck of a conference.

[NDSUstudent]

Creating a new western league is easy to do on a bar napkin but in reality there are a lot of moving parts.

First the Summit would need to shed its entire eastern flank because schools like Montana have no interest in going to Indiana or Illinois, that could actually happen with all the realignment madness swirling. Then you need to get Montana on board, a school that seems to be very much committed to a conference that has become their half-ton girlfriend. If you could get Montana to wake up, it would work but they've had offers before and turned them down.

[Bison bison]

And the Big Sky is an actual brand.

[goyotes]

Survival...

Horizon could also be in survival mode. If Milwaukee & Valpo head to the Valley, it kind of leaves Green Bay & Chicago on an island. Why not try to recruit both to the Summit?

[jacksfan29]

Creating a new western league is easy to do on a bar napkin but in reality there are a lot of moving parts.

First the Summit would need to shed its entire eastern flank because schools like Montana have no interest in going to Indiana or Illinois, that could actually happen with all the realignment madness swirling. Then you need to get Montana on board, a school that seems to be very much committed to a conference that has become their half-ton girlfriend. If you could get Montana to wake up, it would work but they've had offers before and turned them down.

Just bribe the southern BSC schools to vote in Grand Canyon or Dixie State and Montana will be gone. I'm not totally sure the BSC is as stable as many think. One more bad invite by the smaller schools (it is a majority rules league) and the two Montana's will begin looking at a way out. I have a lot of friends in Missoula. They are not happy with what the BSC has become.

[1998braves64]

If that is the route MVC is taking it's obvious they're not considering their history which makes me even less want to join than I previously had. Summit/MVFC needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat which hopefully would combine a good footprint of 4-6 schools in the same conference for all sports (minus wrestling for NDSU/SDSU) and then somehow convince a few more to join up to round out the numbers.

I'm guessing MT is iffy they've been debating it on egrizz and many seem content to hang on with Big Sky. But if they did leave that probably automatically includes MtSU

[ndsubison1]

This.

I can't fault the MVC with looking towards Murray or Valpo. Those are both above average basketball programs. What Yote said however is still true. If it is true that Omaha is seen as a better candidate that any of the Dakota schools it is simply due to geography and market. Omaha has both of those over any of our schools.

The MVFC is truly not important in the grand scheme of things to the MVC and we should take notice of that and start exploring (as least internally) other options. Whether that we Summit Football or something else remains to be seen. The last thing that we want is to be in a football conference where we are ultimately considered second class citizens because of our location.

To continue off your comment, I don't understand the fascination with "markets". Omaha, UMKC, Denver dont really appeal to people in those areas. Maybe if they became a Gonzaga or Wichita type, but fat chance. There are power conference teams in small cities. Location and success do not go hand in hand.

[ndsubison1]

Honestly, the MVC should have taken a hard look at adding Omaha instead of Loyola when Creighton left.

Fits their non-football obsession well, is likely to rise to a competitive level without ever being a threat since they are the 3rd tier program in their state, easy travel, located in a town that is very receptive to MVC hoops. There are probably a decent number of Creighton fans who would take in 1-5 Omaha games per year to watch old rivals and schools they are familiar with (there are quite a few SDSU fans who attend a few Augie or USF games, I assume the same is true for NDSU/Morehead).

Omaha is close by and an underlooked recruting area IMO. They have more potential than some Horizon schools IMO