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

[Redbirds4Life]

Pure and simple for UNI--

The economics of paying a basketball coach $1M per year don't work if you're more or less in the Horizon League. It's doable in the MAC where you can offset some of the basketball financial losses with greatly increased football revenue. Our new AD has made it clear that Jake is going to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and every move we make is going to be to keep basketball at the level its been for the past 15 years.

If this league becomes a low major league, it blows a hole in everything UNI does. The Valley is going to lose Creighton, WSU, UNI and Illinois State and has no one to blame but themselves for not being proactive 10 years ago and going out and getting Dayton, SLU, etc when they had the league to attract them.

[uniftw]

Pure and simple for UNI--

The economics of paying a basketball coach $1M per year don't work if you're more or less in the Horizon League. It's doable in the MAC where you can offset some of the basketball financial losses with greatly increased football revenue. Our new AD has made it clear that Jake is going to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and every move we make is going to be to keep basketball at the level its been for the past 15 years.

If this league becomes a low major league, it blows a hole in everything UNI does. The Valley is going to lose Creighton, WSU, UNI and Illinois State and has no one to blame but themselves for not being proactive 10 years ago and going out and getting Dayton, SLU, etc when they had the league to attract them.

It's not entirely "doable" in the MAC either, truthfully

http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2015/ ... in-the-mac
Men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley was the second-most expensive Buffalo head coach for the reporting year. Hurley’s base salary was $250,000 – second highest base salary in the Athletic Department – but earned $336,669 including benefits and bonuses paid by the university and third parties. Hurley’s original contract included $50,000 in additional compensation and 25 percent of ticket sales after $300,000 in gross sales.

Steve Hawkins, who led Western Michigan men’s basketball team to the 2013-14 MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament, earned $312,000 last year, according to USA Today. Hawkins is currently in his 12th season with the Broncos. Akron men’s basketball head coach, Keith Dambrot, earns $400,000 a season. Dambrot has coached at Akron since 2004 and has two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Ohio University’s Saul Phillips currently leads MAC basketball coaches with with a $550,000 base salary.

Buffalo has a deal in place to make Hurley the highest paid basketball coach in the conference. The offer came shortly after the men’s basketball team’s first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in program history. Hurley hasn’t signed the new contract with Buffalo – which is largely support by donation money.

On the football side it looks like Farley would be on the lower end, rather than one of the top paid FCS coaches in the country.

[BCPanther]

Pure and simple for UNI--

The economics of paying a basketball coach $1M per year don't work if you're more or less in the Horizon League. It's doable in the MAC where you can offset some of the basketball financial losses with greatly increased football revenue. Our new AD has made it clear that Jake is going to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and every move we make is going to be to keep basketball at the level its been for the past 15 years.

If this league becomes a low major league, it blows a hole in everything UNI does. The Valley is going to lose Creighton, WSU, UNI and Illinois State and has no one to blame but themselves for not being proactive 10 years ago and going out and getting Dayton, SLU, etc when they had the league to attract them.

It's not entirely "doable" in the MAC either, truthfully

http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2015/ ... in-the-mac
Men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley was the second-most expensive Buffalo head coach for the reporting year. Hurley’s base salary was $250,000 – second highest base salary in the Athletic Department – but earned $336,669 including benefits and bonuses paid by the university and third parties. Hurley’s original contract included $50,000 in additional compensation and 25 percent of ticket sales after $300,000 in gross sales.

Steve Hawkins, who led Western Michigan men’s basketball team to the 2013-14 MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament, earned $312,000 last year, according to USA Today. Hawkins is currently in his 12th season with the Broncos. Akron men’s basketball head coach, Keith Dambrot, earns $400,000 a season. Dambrot has coached at Akron since 2004 and has two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Ohio University’s Saul Phillips currently leads MAC basketball coaches with with a $550,000 base salary.

Buffalo has a deal in place to make Hurley the highest paid basketball coach in the conference. The offer came shortly after the men’s basketball team’s first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in program history. Hurley hasn’t signed the new contract with Buffalo – which is largely support by donation money.

On the football side it looks like Farley would be on the lower end, rather than one of the top paid FCS coaches in the country.

I'd drop football tomorrow, but that ain't happening, so for me its FBS or bust. The Mountain West with NDSU would be ideal but the travel is a killer.

[uniftw]

Pure and simple for UNI--

The economics of paying a basketball coach $1M per year don't work if you're more or less in the Horizon League. It's doable in the MAC where you can offset some of the basketball financial losses with greatly increased football revenue. Our new AD has made it clear that Jake is going to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it and every move we make is going to be to keep basketball at the level its been for the past 15 years.

If this league becomes a low major league, it blows a hole in everything UNI does. The Valley is going to lose Creighton, WSU, UNI and Illinois State and has no one to blame but themselves for not being proactive 10 years ago and going out and getting Dayton, SLU, etc when they had the league to attract them.

It's not entirely "doable" in the MAC either, truthfully

http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2015/ ... in-the-mac
Men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley was the second-most expensive Buffalo head coach for the reporting year. Hurley’s base salary was $250,000 – second highest base salary in the Athletic Department – but earned $336,669 including benefits and bonuses paid by the university and third parties. Hurley’s original contract included $50,000 in additional compensation and 25 percent of ticket sales after $300,000 in gross sales.

Steve Hawkins, who led Western Michigan men’s basketball team to the 2013-14 MAC Championship and NCAA Tournament, earned $312,000 last year, according to USA Today. Hawkins is currently in his 12th season with the Broncos. Akron men’s basketball head coach, Keith Dambrot, earns $400,000 a season. Dambrot has coached at Akron since 2004 and has two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Ohio University’s Saul Phillips currently leads MAC basketball coaches with with a $550,000 base salary.

Buffalo has a deal in place to make Hurley the highest paid basketball coach in the conference. The offer came shortly after the men’s basketball team’s first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in program history. Hurley hasn’t signed the new contract with Buffalo – which is largely support by donation money.

On the football side it looks like Farley would be on the lower end, rather than one of the top paid FCS coaches in the country.

I'd drop football tomorrow, but that ain't happening, so for me its FBS or bust. The Mountain West with NDSU would be ideal but the travel is a killer.

It sounds like NDSU has no intention of moving. I know a couple of well connected NDSU fans/donors and the administration (and most of their fans) actually want to stay FCS and continue to be the biggest fish in the small pond and dominate. IF UNI could make a MWC spot happen I'd it in less than a second. MWC isn't going to happen though. MAC or CUSA is most likely from an FBS stand point and CUSA is a MAAASIVE step back even from where the MVC is likely headed.

The general thought that UNI pairs together with someone like ISUr, NDSU, or WSU to get into a conference is likely what is needed though.

I don't want to drop football, but if it meant getting basketball into a home like the A10 or AAC I'd do it......I think?

[MidWestMidMajor]

"So one person (with 3 lifetime posts on this site) constitutes the Valley as whole and their entire mindset for a replacement? That replacement being UMKC...Perhaps this guy has an agenda?"

Fair question. I'm a long time visitor and a new poster. I attended Univ of Nebraska, live in western Iowa, and follow Drake and UNI.

Here is my concern (fear):
1. WSU leaves
2. Mo State gets its Sun Belt invite in 5-10 years
3. Then schools like UNI and ISUr start wondering why they are still in the MVC and start looking around.

I'm no conference insider with any special knowledge. But I would like there to be a MVC 10-20 years from now. I'm afraid that the Iowa-Illinois-Indiana Bus League model will lead to the MVC's decline in the coming years. And those dominoes could start falling once WSU leaves.

Hey, I hope I'm wrong.

[Cdizzle]

"So one person (with 3 lifetime posts on this site) constitutes the Valley as whole and their entire mindset for a replacement? That replacement being UMKC...Perhaps this guy has an agenda?"

Fair question. I'm a long time visitor and a new poster. I attended Univ of Nebraska, live in western Iowa, and follow Drake and UNI.

Here is my concern (fear):
1. WSU leaves
2. Mo State gets its Sun Belt invite in 5-10 years
3. Then schools like UNI and ISUr start wondering why they are still in the MVC and start looking around.

I'm no conference insider with any special knowledge. But I would like there to be a MVC 10-20 years from now. I'm afraid that the Iowa-Illinois-Indiana Bus League model will lead to the MVC's decline in the coming years. And those dominoes could start falling once WSU leaves.

Hey, I hope I'm wrong.

The dominoes have already started falling. And there isn't any stopping them.

[uniftw]

"So one person (with 3 lifetime posts on this site) constitutes the Valley as whole and their entire mindset for a replacement? That replacement being UMKC...Perhaps this guy has an agenda?"

Fair question. I'm a long time visitor and a new poster. I attended Univ of Nebraska, live in western Iowa, and follow Drake and UNI.

Here is my concern (fear):
1. WSU leaves
2. Mo State gets its Sun Belt invite in 5-10 years
3. Then schools like UNI and ISUr start wondering why they are still in the MVC and start looking around.

I'm no conference insider with any special knowledge. But I would like there to be a MVC 10-20 years from now. I'm afraid that the Iowa-Illinois-Indiana Bus League model will lead to the MVC's decline in the coming years. And those dominoes could start falling once WSU leaves.

Hey, I hope I'm wrong.

UNI and ISUr are already wondering why they are here. It has nothing to do with Missouri State going Sun Belt and everything to do with the league doing nothing to try to keep WSU and improve the league. Missouri State isn't going anywhere FBS any time soon.

The Iowa/Illinois/Indiana Bus League model has already killed the conference. It's a matter of how long members allow it to stay on life support. We can thank the likes of Evansville, Bradley, Drake, Indiana State and SIU for that happening.

Can't wait to see what the MVC looks like in 5-10 years when UNI, ISUr and WSU are gone. Those are the only 3 with any true vision of where they want to go. MSU *could* have that too but they have a lot of "dreams" but not a lot of leadership to actually prepare for anything.

Indiana State would be smart to drop football and try to take after the Valpo, Butler, IUPUI, IPFW model and going to the Horizon.

The dominoes are falling, and it's not schools like WSU, UNI and ISUr that are going to be left behind.

[All-MVC Fan]

Now hold on there just a minute, folks. Since when does moving football to FBS make any financial sense to cash strapped state schools like MSU, UNI and ILSU? I mean, I get the desire to play with the "big boys" and all, but for 99% of FBS, football at that level is a money pit. Hear that giant sucking sound in the MAC or Sunbelt? That's football draining resources at a rate far higher than FCS football does. It makes the alumni and students all warm inside, but it generally has a deleterious effect on the school as a whole. Remember, for every success story like Western Kentucky, there's 10 Georgia State's out there...and Western Kentucky was in a pickle until CUSA took them in...

For better or worse, MVC schools are basketball schools. Some are pretty bad at being basketball schools (ahem...Evansville...cough, cough...INSU...choke, gasp...MSU...etc.), but basketball schools they are. The only thing that makes sense for MVC schools is to, as much as possible after coming to the party 10 years late, strengthen the brand of MVC basketball. Ideally, that means keeping WSU and adding SLU and Dayton, along with maybe Murray State. But that's most likely fantasy.

So, the best bet is to add schools that have the desire and resources and commitment to excellence needed to move up to a new level. That's where the XDSU's come in. They have some money, they obviously enjoy the NCAA tournament, and their athletic departments have shown a commitment to excellence. They would be good additions to the MVC in the event that WSU leaves. The MVC is a step up for them and gives them growth potential that just isn't there in the Summit League. The MVC gets two schools that already have relationships with a number of Valley schools, and that will most likely be competing for the MVC Championship within a very few years...

Since that would be 11 schools, we need to add a 12th. Murray State is really our best option here. They have been a very successful program for going on 30 years with several different head coaches. They fit the criteria I outlined above. Once again, Murray gets a better, more high-profile home than the OVC, and the MVC gets a championship level program for its flagship sport, basketball.

All three schools play football (albeit some better than others...) which would make the current MVFC schools happy. All three have recent NCAA tournament basketball appearances, which should make the rest of the MVC happy.

I'm still not sure what the problem is with this model...in the real world...

[Haha]

Summit: NDSU, SDSU, UND, USD, UNI, ISUr, ISUb, SIU, MSU

*Valley: Bradley, Loyola, Drake, Evansville, Denver, Omaha, Oral Roberts, Kansas City, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis

*Drake keeps the Valley

Auto bids remain as no new leagues are formed

WIU needs to go OVC

There...done

[MidWestMidMajor]

I don't see the XDSU's leaving the Summit. One reason is that they own the Summit. But another reason is recruitment...not of athletes but of tuition paying students out of Minnesota.

An NDSU fan said that nearly half of their student body comes from Minnesota. Probably a high percentage as well for the other Dakota schools (both Dakotas have tuition reciprocity agreements with Minnesota- they pay only an extra $20-30 per credit hour above in-state rates; however USD is $63 higher for some reason- must have too many Minnesota kids there already).

I don't think playing in Peoria, Evansville, or Carbondale does much for the XDSU administrators even if the MVC is a step up in basketball. I think they want to stay as close to Minnesota as they can. If there are even 5000 Minnesota kids at an XDSU that's around $40M in tuition. That's a lot of motivation. I think student recruitment is more important to administrators than basketball RPI.

I could be wrong.
The XDSU's are quality programs that would strengthen the MVC if they joined.