RacerJoeD wrote:Other possible options for the OVC would be to try to go after Western Illinois or even Indiana State. For those schools, the OVC would allow for cheaper overall costs, a place for football and basketball, and a chance for both to compete. But I have no idea if those teams would want to move to the OVC.
As for Western Illinois (my school), I'm not opposed to an Ohio Valley move for most sports, it would make sense if the Summit loses the Indiana schools to the Horizon...the issue is football. I would REALLY miss our rivalries with ISUr, UNI, and SIU. We've been playing them (especially the other IL schools) for a LONG time (this year is our 100th meeting with the Redbirds). I realize we'd pick up Eastern Illinois, who we've played quite a bit recently...maybe could do something with SEMO, but in general, I really like who we play now.
My ideal scenario would be for the MVC public schools to bolt and join with the other MVFC schools for an all-sports conference. I realize that this is not even remotely likely to happen though, due to most of the public MVC schools not wanting to have anything to do with us in basketball...which is understandable at this point.
Still...combine IL State, IN State, Missouri State, and Southern IL, with Western IL, NDSU, SDSU, USD and UND (and let Youngstown find something to the east)...maybe then bring in Murray State for all sports (to help bring up the level of basketball)...you're at 10 teams for football and basketball...all public, all FCS football schools...not a giant footprint (although I know the Dakota schools do expand your MVC "base" quite a bit). I don't think it's the absolute worst idea in the world (again, as unlikely as it actually is to happen). I know that Western would pretty much be the "anchor" of the conference for basketball for the forseeable future, but adding Murray and the SD schools (SD is CRAZY about basketball) would provide a decent boost.