4 MVC visits ?

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4 MVC visits ?

Postby Lakesbison » April 25th, 2017, 9:17 am

Dave Reynolds twitter.

Sources have told me that Valley officials visited Murray State Monday, is at Valparaiso today and has visits set for Milwaukee and Omaha




HAHA Omaha? wow.

edit - link: http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170425/m ... ew-members
Last edited by Lakesbison on April 25th, 2017, 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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4 MVC visits ?

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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby Redhawk » April 25th, 2017, 9:23 am

I believe the MVC is just doing their due diligence as they should to get info on a couple new schools.
Last time it was UIC and UMKC. Makes sense to get a gauge of where they are at in their commitment
to athletics/academics and to see if there actually might be a fit with the MVC down the road.

Prudent people explore numerous options even when they already know what the best choices are!
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby Lakesbison » April 25th, 2017, 9:31 am

Reynolds posts now:

"this isnt necessarily a complete list of visits. just the initial ones."

HMMMMMMMMM plot thickens.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby MidWestMidMajor » April 25th, 2017, 11:09 am

Redhawk wrote:I believe the MVC is just doing their due diligence as they should to get info on a couple new schools...Makes sense to get a gauge of where they are at in their commitment to athletics/academics and to see if there actually might be a fit with the MVC down the road.

I agree with Redhawk. I follow UNO hockey pretty closely, but I'm no expert. I think UNOmaha is on the MVC's radar (and with some reason). But I don't think they are ready for the call-up at this time.

Their ESPN rpi is #139 this year. Their coach has a style that players like (fast!) and he can recruit to; he has tapped into the basketball factory at Omaha Central HS. The new arena is very nice. Interest in UNO bb is growing- the Omaha paper wrote about the buzz around town when UNO was in the Summit championship game on ESPN2. Finances are tight right now. However, the hockey program has the potential to become a real cash cow for the school: they averaged of 6000 for 18 games (#7 in the nation). The arena averaged 90% capacity which boosts ticketprices, athletic dept donations, etc.

I think there is a lot to hold UNO to the Dakota schools and Denver in the Summit. BUT they are all about aligning all aspects of the school (including athletics) with their mission of being a metropolitan university. An MVC with UMKC & UW-Milw would be appealing to UNO. (Add UI-C and they might start banging down the door to get in.) *note- I'm not saying the MVC should add those schools at this time.

I'm guessing that the MVC is just doing its due-diligence and preparing a file on UNO for maybe sometime in the future. UNO should stay in the Summit and keep improving its program. But as they develop their other facilities, they should do so with the MVC in the back of their mind.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby Lakesbison » April 25th, 2017, 2:12 pm

good analysis of Omaha. I just don't see it.

now. if there is more visits, then we will see.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby PantherU » April 25th, 2017, 3:11 pm

Omaha is the Summit's version of NKU. Great newer arena, new to D-I. I fought hard for the Horizon League to add NKU, because I think they could be a strong program down the road. The problem with Omaha is that they also have hockey; I'm not sure I would want a program that's going to split new dollars for sports with another program. At least with Murray State you know basketball is going to supersede football. I don't know if that's the case with Omaha.

The other problem with Omaha is that they'll have to increase their MBB expenses by at least $1 million to meet some of the lower-tier MVC teams in spending. That's not a problem for Valparaiso or Milwaukee. It's also not as much of a problem for Murray State, although their operations expenses betray the fact that they're in an extremely compact conference and they spend a fraction of what they would in the MVC on travel.

Murray State has a lot of support for basketball. So maybe they'll be willing to make permanent increases in their MBB and operations expenses to make the move. If they are, Murray State is an obvious choice.

Milwaukee and Valpo would not need to increase their men's basketball-related expenses to compete with the MVC. Well, we could spend a lot more in hoops recruiting, but I think our number in the last recording year is reflective of the fact that our lead assistant in recruiting JUCO's under Jeter charged the program for about 10 nights of hotel stays in 11 years with the program. So I'm guessing we're already spending more. If we're not, it's not going to take a big increase for us to fall in line.

Financially, we're ready, as is Valpo. Our "structural debt" is owed to the rest of the university, so it's kinda like owing your wife money. Do we really have a "structural debt?" I'm guessing if we did, we wouldn't have expanded our athletics budget by roughly $7 million in the past 10 years. I think it exists for accounting reasons.

Valpo's ARC is in desperate need of a renovation, but a move to the MVC would be just what the doctor ordered for the Crusaders to use it to raise money for such a renovation.

At Milwaukee, the state entity that owns Panther Arena (the Wisconsin Center District) has spent millions in the past couple years updating the seats to our school colors and putting in a brand new center scoreboard. It's actually really cool, there's no bezel on the corners so basically the whole thing wraps around. The minor league Milwaukee Admirals are in the middle of spending another $6 million on renovating a lot of the other stuff, like the concourses and locker rooms, etc. Our facility would be a PERFECT fit in the MVC.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby RacerJoeD » April 25th, 2017, 3:22 pm

The ace in the hole for Murray State financially is that there is really no need for much in the way of facility upgrades. The CFSB center was built in 1998, but is in great shape and with the addition of a dedicated practice facility a couple years ago is on par with the MVC. Softball is brand new, baseball has recently been upgraded and volleyball plays in one of the largest dedicated arenas in the country. Football could use some work, but it seats nearly 17,000 and the field turf is nearly brand new. All the additional funding that was approved would go onto the field in travel and coaching salaries.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby Redhawk » April 25th, 2017, 3:26 pm

RacerJoeD wrote:The ace in the hole for Murray State financially is that there is really no need for much in the way of facility upgrades. The CFSB center was built in 1998, but is in great shape and with the addition of a dedicated practice facility a couple years ago is on par with the MVC. Softball is brand new, baseball has recently been upgraded and volleyball plays in one of the largest dedicated arenas in the country. Football could use some work, but it seats nearly 17,000 and the field turf is nearly brand new. All the additional funding that was approved would go onto the field in travel and coaching salaries.


RacerJoe...I have looked at all the Murray State facilities and I would agree they are a very nice fit for
the MVC and MVFC. The only thing that stuck out though was no seating for soccer...just a berm.
Any plans to improve that?
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby RacerJoeD » April 25th, 2017, 4:26 pm

That's a pretty easy fix. But it will be a shame. It's a really nice spot and students usually bring a blanket to watch the games. Here is video of last year's OVC championship. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw5QKhZfXkY

As for updates in general, word is a new video board and scoreboard at the CFSB is on the way.
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Re: 4 MVC visits ?

Postby PantherU » April 25th, 2017, 6:22 pm

RacerJoeD wrote:The ace in the hole for Murray State financially is that there is really no need for much in the way of facility upgrades. The CFSB center was built in 1998, but is in great shape and with the addition of a dedicated practice facility a couple years ago is on par with the MVC. Softball is brand new, baseball has recently been upgraded and volleyball plays in one of the largest dedicated arenas in the country. Football could use some work, but it seats nearly 17,000 and the field turf is nearly brand new. All the additional funding that was approved would go onto the field in travel and coaching salaries.


I don't know if I would call it an "ace in the hole." There are certainly many other strengths for Murray State in their pitch to the MVC, and the CFSB Center is just one of them.

The fact that there's no permanent seating for your soccer program wouldn't even register with me in picking a new school for the MVC. It's a negative, I guess, but it's not like anyone would see it as a strike against the Racers.

I mean, Engelmann Stadium has been called the "Wrigley Field of College Soccer," we've won a bunch of games in the NCAA Tournament, one of our men's soccer coaches left us to coach the US Men's National Team (Bob Gansler), we've got multiple USMNT players (Jimmy Banks, Tony Sanneh, Manny Lagos), we've got a ton of former men's and women's players playing professionally, our Panther Invitational is the longest running in-season tournament in college soccer, and I've never mentioned our soccer program before now.

I just don't think it's something that really registers in the argument about whether or not to add us to the conference. So I'm not gonna hold it against Murray State for lacking a soccer stadium.
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