Sounds like Wichita St to the AAC... Who gets an Invite?

[Redhawk]

Everybody keeps talking about adding Valpo,Belmont,NDSU,among others.
I believe the team or teams added will come out of nowhere.By that I
Mean teams that have not been mentioned yet.Just like Loyola.

Let's go with this. What do you guys think about Wright State?

I actually like Wright State! Larger on campus arena, good fan support, pretty decent basketball history, good coach and nice athletic facilities.

Problem is they would be an outlier out East. With MSU an outlier in the West if we add 3 teams it makes
sense to go one way or the other. If adding only one school they should be in conversation.

[JBoss8393]

Posted this on the NDSU/SDSU Forum but fits here too.

I've been a fan of the Valley since 1987 when I moved to Normal, married into a Redbird family and became one myself when I got my master's. I also attended USD when it was in the old North Central Conference. I always liked that because it was a pretty close knit group. You had USD, SDSU, UND, NDSU, Morningside, Augustana, UN-Omaha and Northern Colorado. It was an I-29 league with great rivalries.

It's stings that the valley has lost Tulsa, Creighton and Wichita State since I began following it. Evansville was a nice fit, Loyola is questionable decision and needs a little time. But for the next round, I absolutely do not think the Dakota schools are the answer. I've given this some thought and looked at the Midwestern Mid-Major Conferences and think five conferences could be impacted by what the Valley does.

I love the 10 team league but I think that is short sighted with all the moving going. I like the idea of expanding to 12 and adding Valparaiso, Belmont and Murray State. It creates an even 6-6 public to private. Murray State can move its football program to the MVFC and create a 12 team league there as well. You get a new media market in Nashville and travel partners. UMKC would be a nice fit, but there just isn't enough success there to grab it.

The conferences I see being affected besides the Valley are OVC, Horizon, Summit and WAC.

So here's my thoughts: (Bold=Scholarship FCS Schools/Italic= Non Scholarship FCS Schools)

New MVC
Illinois State
Bradley
Indiana State
Evansville
Northern Iowa
Drake
Southern Illinois
Missouri State
Loyola
Valparaiso (from the Horizon)
Murray State (From the OVC)
Belmont (from the OVC)

New OVC:
Morehead State
Jacksonville State
Tennessee State
Tennessee Tech
Eastern Kentucky
Tennessee-Martin
Southeast Missouri
Austin Peay
Eastern Illinois
SIU-Edwardsville

New Horizon
Oakland
Detroit
Green Bay
Milwaukee
Cleveland State
Youngstown State
Wright State
Northern Kentucky
UIC
PU Fort Wayne (from the Summit)
IUPU Indianapolis (from the Summit)

New Summit
NDSU
UND
SDSU
USD
Omaha
UM-Kansas City (from the WAC)
Denver
Utah Valley (from the WAC)
Chicago State (from the WAC)
Western Illinois
Oral Roberts
Texas-Rio Grande Valley (from the WAC)

MVFC
West Div
USD
SDSU
UND
NDSU
Northern Iowa
Missouri State

East Div
Illinois State
Southern Illinois
Murray State
Youngstown State
Indiana State
Western Illinois

I could also see Western Illinois moving to the OVC, being a travel partner for Eastern Illinois, creating a 9-team football league and 11-team basketball league.

The WAC would then need to add at least three schools from what's left over or dissolve. It's been on a long, slow death spiral since the super conference blew up back in the 90s.

With these groupings, you get some pretty compact conferences and bus rather than air travel, outside of the Summit having to fly to Salt Lake, Denver, and San Antonio/Brownsville.

Time will tell.

[Dean Wormer]

JBoss,

That makes perfect sense all the way around. How would you split the basketball divisions...north/south, east/west or even public/private?

[Rogers101]

JBoss,

That makes perfect sense all the way around. How would you split the basketball divisions...north/south, east/west or even public/private?

North/South would be the most geographically friendly format I think. That's assuming added 3 in Murray, Valpo, and Belmont.

[squirrel]

I've seen North/South with

North
Bradley
Drake
Illinois St
Loyola
Northern Iowa
Valparaiso

South
Belmont
Evansville
Indiana St
Missouri St
Murray St
Southern Illinois


And East/West:

East
Belmont
Evansville
Indiana St
Loyola
Murray St
Valparaiso

West
Bradley
Drake
Illinois St
Southern Illinois
Missouri St
Northern Iowa

I see a lot of people propping for the North/South, but I see East/West preserving more of the traditional league rivalries, and hopefully generating some new ones in Indiana. I also like how the E/W makeup keeps BU/ILSU/SIU in tact.

I really like the SIU/Murray St and Bradley/Loyola' series historically, but overall I like the E/W split a little better.

The distance difference from Nashville to Chicago vs. Springfield, MO is negligible (roughly 30 miles.)

[Rogers101]

I'm ok with either format. Just need to lock the team/s down first that we are adding.

[TheAsianSensation]

I know I keep saying this, but we should NOT create divisions if we go to 12 teams.

We need the top teams all playing each other twice every year. Divisions get in the way of that.

There can still be elements of geography in the schedule, we can always insure the least amount of travel for the bottom teams. But there's a reason there's only 2 conferences that currently employ divisions.

[unipanther99]

I know I keep saying this, but we should NOT create divisions if we go to 12 teams.

We need the top teams all playing each other twice every year. Divisions get in the way of that.

There can still be elements of geography in the schedule, we can always insure the least amount of travel for the bottom teams. But there's a reason there's only 2 conferences that currently employ divisions.

Yes. Absolutely. Do any conferences do divisions for basketball?

Unless you want to replace the conference tournament with a game (or maybe 3 game series) between the two division champs, it just doesn't make sense.

[BCPanther]

I know I keep saying this, but we should NOT create divisions if we go to 12 teams.

We need the top teams all playing each other twice every year. Divisions get in the way of that.

There can still be elements of geography in the schedule, we can always insure the least amount of travel for the bottom teams. But there's a reason there's only 2 conferences that currently employ divisions.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS X1000!!

The worst thing we can do is go to a model that limits flexibility of making sure that top teams play each other twice and get stuck playing bottom teams twice. Also, cutting to 16 league games is a huge mistake. It's borderline impossible for top teams to get OOC games as it is and having to find two more would be a nightmare. Continue to play 18. With 12 teams that would mean you'd play 7 teams home and home and then play the other 4 once (2 home, 2 away). That model works!

[TheAsianSensation]

I know I keep saying this, but we should NOT create divisions if we go to 12 teams.

We need the top teams all playing each other twice every year. Divisions get in the way of that.

There can still be elements of geography in the schedule, we can always insure the least amount of travel for the bottom teams. But there's a reason there's only 2 conferences that currently employ divisions.

Yes. Absolutely. Do any conferences do divisions for basketball?

Unless you want to replace the conference tournament with a game (or maybe 3 game series) between the two division champs, it just doesn't make sense.

The MAC does it, and the OVC.

It's pretty telling with the MAC. They're the greatest underachievers in mid-major land the last decade. Although most of the power in the league is in the East currently, so it's not as bad for them.

Did you know Belmont and Murray are in different divisions in the OVC, and only played once this year? That's a travesty of the highest order.