Murray State notified they will NOT be invited to join MVC

[MissouriValleyUnite]

The vote was unanimous supposedly. There were five public (UNI, MSU, SIU, ISU and ISUb) who voted. Did the four private schools give those other five wet willies until they broke down and submitted to the private's wishes? The public schools had MORE votes than the privates. Putting this all on a weak vision of private schools is a joke.

Murray St was an at-large lock in 2012. From the OVC(!). If they lost the OVC title game, would that change your mind? They would've been the lowest-rated-conference team to receive an at-large in decades, if not ever. Speaks for itself.

Ahh--at large lock. Yeah. I've heard that before.

But the fact remains, they have never earned an at-large berth. Over the last five seasons their Ken Pom is 136.4. That's not off the charts awesome.

So you don't believe a 29-2 Murray St team (who was a 6-seed at 30-1) with wins over 26-7 Memphis and top 25 Saint Mary's (won WCC outright) was an at-large lock?

Keep in mind Iona was an at-large that year. And Oral Roberts was the last team in until a bid thief stole the A10 title on Selection Sunday.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Agreed 100%. But the publics still had more votes than the privates so blaming it all on the private schools is incorrect.

Okay so what are the publics supposed to do in this situation? They want Murray but cannot get them in on their 5 votes alone. Are they supposed to veto Valpo just out of spite? That seems counter productive.

In the end since we really have no idea what the votes were this is all conjecture anyway. Maybe some of the publics vetoed Murray too.

[tribecalledquest]

Agreed 100%. But the publics still had more votes than the privates so blaming it all on the private schools is incorrect.

Okay so what are the publics supposed to do in this situation? They want Murray but cannot get them in on their 5 votes alone. Are they supposed to veto Valpo just out of spite? That seems counter productive.

In the end since we really have no idea what the votes were this is all conjecture anyway. Maybe some of the publics vetoed Murray too.

Right. We are assuming that all the public schools wanted Murray State. I think that is a stretch.

[Make MVC Great Again]

The MVC probably hired a search committee that doesn't watch sports.

[TheAsianSensation]

The more and more I read between the lines, the more and more I think the MVC voted against an 11-team structure rather than against Murray St.

I think once a half-decent candidate for #12 emerges, Murray St will join them in the MVC.

My advice to Murray St: gently knock on Belmont's door, and force them at gunpoint to join the MVC with them. Or just try to lightly convince them on their own free will. Either way.

[Mikovio]

Agreed 100%. But the publics still had more votes than the privates so blaming it all on the private schools is incorrect.

Okay so what are the publics supposed to do in this situation? They want Murray but cannot get them in on their 5 votes alone. Are they supposed to veto Valpo just out of spite? That seems counter productive.

In the end since we really have no idea what the votes were this is all conjecture anyway. Maybe some of the publics vetoed Murray too.

Right. We are assuming that all the public schools wanted Murray State. I think that is a stretch.

http://www.cbssports.com/college-basket ... -10-teams/

One source said the majority of league presidents were in favor of Valpo, but two league presidents stumped hard for Murray State. The league's official stance is that the vote to add Valpo was unanimous.

Sounds like a 7-2 split in favor of Valpo, so some of these public presidents didn't get the memo apparently.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Listen to this 3-minute interview with Clif Smart and then read the article.
http://www.ozarkssportszone.com/2017/05 ... -addition/

Clif Smart hints very strongly the Valley adds Murray and TBD at the March 2018 meeting, and the only reason Murray isn't added now is because 11 was untenable in other sports.

[tribecalledquest]

Listen to this 3-minute interview with Clif Smart and then read the article.
http://www.ozarkssportszone.com/2017/05 ... -addition/

Clif Smart hints very strongly the Valley adds Murray and TBD at the March 2018 meeting, and the only reason Murray isn't added now is because 11 was untenable in other sports.

The 11 team thing was a non starter for a lot of people.

[purple&orange]

There's about a 9 minute clip on the Evansville Courier & Press website of local media speaking with the Evansville AD. Around the 5:30 mark while talking about the public vs private balance he talks about it not coming up but more importantly in that answer he says "if the next two schools are public schools, that's great too."

Hearing that, trying to put two and two together with the talk of two Presidents strongly stumping for Murray State I wonder if wink wink, nod, nod Murray hasn't been assured they are on deck if you will.

I personally believe Murray State would be a great fit for the league, but it seems the timing just isn't right at this moment. Things can change in an instant in the realignment game but if I could place a wager on it, I'm of the belief that Murray State will be in the Missouri Valley sooner rather than later. The struggle seems finding the perfect 12th member who fits and adds value to the conference. It's a basketball league, always has been and the 12th needs to be a quality fit in men's basketball, plain and simple.

[tribecalledquest]

It hasn't helped that Murray has been on a downward trend the last two seasons...never finishing better than the 5th best league record the last two seasons. It's not a death notice but is that a blip or the new Murray basketball program?