uniguy wrote:Eventually Grand Canyon is going to become such a good program that someone is going to want them, despite the for-profit model. They're going to force their way in.
Will that league be the MVC? Probably not. But if your goal is to add programs that will make the league stronger and give it a better chance for multiple bids in men's basketball, there aren't a lot of options out there for us that would do that better than Grand Canyon will in the long-term.
I don't see it.
Look at Liberty. Liberty is doing the exact same thing. The only difference is they are a private/regligonutbag institution. Liberty is the like the 5th or 7th largest higher education institution in the US with something like 110,000 and 2nd largest undergrad enrollment in the nation at 50,000 (only UCF has more). They are the largest private Christian college in the world. Liberty's resident/campus enrollment? 14,000.
They have more money than they know what to do with. They have athletic facilities that crush all "peer" institutions (peer is based on the fact they've been FCS football and low major in other sports).
Basketball/volleyball - 9,500
http://manrymission.com/wp-content/gall ... arena_.jpgSECONDARY VOLLEYBALL PRACTICE FACILITY
http://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/facil ... ll_250.jpgFootball - 20,000 - building IPF as well
http://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/footb ... _photo.jpgBaseball - 3,000
https://www.liberty.edu/archives/public ... MB%20(Copy).jpg
Softball - 1,000
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a8c6 ... 00_jpg_srzSoccer/outdoor track
http://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/facil ... _small.jpghttps://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image ... estern.jpghttps://dailytrackpic.files.wordpress.c ... ersity.pngLacross/Field hockey
http://www.liberty.edu/archives/public/ ... DP%20(Copy).jpg
Indoor track
https://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/faci ... er_version).jpg
Tennis
http://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/facil ... omplex.jpgSwimming/Diving - opening this year
https://www.liberty.edu/journal/wp-cont ... ljs16g.jpgOffices for track, soccer, lacross and swimming...
http://www.liberty.edu/media/1912/facil ... er_250.jpgPrivate golf club house for the team
http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm?PID=3176060,000 square foot athletic complex - opening soon
http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm?PID=33357There isn't a facility on campus that is older than 9 years old. I guess technically the basketball and football stadiums are older, but they've gutted and remolded both in the last decade. They've literally spent over a billion dollars on athletics facilities over the last decade.
Liberty has spent the last 6 years BEGGING for an FBS invite. They were passed over for programs start up programs like Georgia State, UTSA, South Alabama, Charlotte. They were behind programs like App State, Georgia Southern, Texas State. Heck, Coastal Carolina got an invite and CCU has horrendous facilities and don't even meet the requirements for FBS football with their stadium.
Liberty was behind at least a dozen current FCS programs in terms of when they'd get an invite. Literally no one was going to invite them to their conference - actually no one has yet. They petitioned the NCAA to let them move FBS as an independent, bypassing the rule of requiring a conference invite. No one is sure if Liberty is going to be allowed to stay in the Big South for other sports yet. They might end up in the ultimate purgatory of independent in all sports.
Maybe people are scared because of the resources they have, and if they get into a P5 conference they dominate the world (ROFL). Maybe it's because they are a religonutbag institution.
If Liberty, with those resources. Those facilities. That everything isn't getting invited to a larger conference, I can't image GCU getting one. They are one in the same, one just happens to be private and the other public.