Re: What's the next realignment domino to fall?
Posted: June 29th, 2017, 10:20 am
There is no way to effectively prove a negative in most situations. What my points have been is that there is a strange belief that somehow for every conference in the Midwest, the two best teams to try to get are GCU and NMSU. What I've been looking to get is a reason besides "they spend money" as for to why. I didn't disagree with your post, but what it did do is further prove my point. (Why interrupt when someone is making your point for you?)
The biggest issue facing mid major conferences is travel cost. That is a major negative for most conferences and should be as would you rather spend money on increased travel or on facilities, coaches, etc?
The assumption is that those schools will increase competition in a conference, but as you do eloquently stated, GCU has no track record to point to and NMSU has no real recent success.
Nothing about NMSU (and to a far lesser extent GCU) screams stability. NMSU has bounced from conference to conference for decades and is looking to bounce again. Perhaps GCU can join with Abilene Christian in the Southland. Maybe NMSU should try for the MWC. Either way, a horrible add for a conference like the Horizon or even the MVC IMO.
I disagree with football being the major driver for realignment. That may be true for the Big 12, but for the Horizon? But that doesn't really matter to the conversation at hand.
If the two teams can't be the reason why the WAC gets better, why would they be the reason the Horizon gets better? Or the MVC for that matter? Especially when one takes into account all the resasons you listed.
Now to answer your question as to why Murray State wants to leave the OVC.
1. It's not a bad conference, but it's not a good conference. The conference leadership (and the associated school's leadership) doesn't seem to have any desire to get better.
2. Academically, we do not fit. Way too many APR infractions in the OVC.
3. We are a basketball school looking for a basketball conference.
4. We are geographically nearby, meaning we can keep our money going into our programs instead of into travel.
The biggest issue facing mid major conferences is travel cost. That is a major negative for most conferences and should be as would you rather spend money on increased travel or on facilities, coaches, etc?
The assumption is that those schools will increase competition in a conference, but as you do eloquently stated, GCU has no track record to point to and NMSU has no real recent success.
Nothing about NMSU (and to a far lesser extent GCU) screams stability. NMSU has bounced from conference to conference for decades and is looking to bounce again. Perhaps GCU can join with Abilene Christian in the Southland. Maybe NMSU should try for the MWC. Either way, a horrible add for a conference like the Horizon or even the MVC IMO.
I disagree with football being the major driver for realignment. That may be true for the Big 12, but for the Horizon? But that doesn't really matter to the conversation at hand.
If the two teams can't be the reason why the WAC gets better, why would they be the reason the Horizon gets better? Or the MVC for that matter? Especially when one takes into account all the resasons you listed.
Now to answer your question as to why Murray State wants to leave the OVC.
1. It's not a bad conference, but it's not a good conference. The conference leadership (and the associated school's leadership) doesn't seem to have any desire to get better.
2. Academically, we do not fit. Way too many APR infractions in the OVC.
3. We are a basketball school looking for a basketball conference.
4. We are geographically nearby, meaning we can keep our money going into our programs instead of into travel.