Drakey wrote:Why do people talk about Butler joining the Valley? Butler is one of a handful of schools that have figured out the one way to national prominence for a non BCS school, which is to play in a weak conference, dominate that conference, get into the NCAA tournament every year, and improve recruiting every year as a result. If the Valley had taken Butler instead of Evansville when they both applied, Evansville might have been in the final four last year. I can assure you that Butler would not have been, as they probably would have been in the NCAA tournament 2-3 times at the most over the past 15 years.
Agreed. Gonzaga and Butler have proven that your league doesn't matter. Beat the big boys, win in March....repeat. Everyone loves you.
The only schools with any incentive to join the Valley would not really "help" they Valley anymore than UE.
Maybe WSU
should actually move to the Summit League? Then they could really dominate and become who they always imagined that they could have been. (I kid I kid)
baller wrote:The Valley is a completely different animal
Baller.....yes we are a different animal from BCS conference. If you think we are going to get a huge jump in TV money, national exposure, or NCAA bids by trading small private school in Ohio for one in Indiana....I think you are wrong. TV money drives conferences and college athletics. IMO, Butler might as well be UE for that purpose. It would take one or two bad years and Butler is out of national spotlight. They don't cement anything for the MVC. example: How many people are taking about George Mason anymore?
Overall, I think your league image thing is bogus. The Valley will be judged by the top programs and who they beat like every other conference. If we have more than one team beating people, we will get more attention. UE has their own issues to fix but they aren't holding anyone back.
Our problem is
1.)our best programs have trouble schedule good teams to prove how good they are.
2.) we usually have a few good teams that beat up on each other so no one stands out as clearly the best.
When it comes time for bids we are praying that our regular season champ doesn't win in St Louis or that the 2nd/3rd place teams won some really big games early in the year.