Q: When to expect potential MVC news?

[valleydays]

I don't see any expansion at this point. As far as Murray State, their financial status is poor, their endowment is poor, their location is poor. I don't think league presidents are anxious to chase the expansion race and they have shown as much. Murray was begging in public to join last uear, so we would have heard from their president if there was another pending expansion.

Much of this is blatantly false (or maybe it's just ignorance), unless you consider some of the other MVC schools' situation as equally "poor."

I do agree that it appears the the MVC leadership is content to stand pat, which, as many have already pointed out, is far from forward thinking. I also believe that poor ol' Murray State will likely be first in line when the next MVC team bolts for greener pastures, unless the likes of Dayton, Saint Louis, et al, have an unlikely change of heart.

[pafan]

I don't see any expansion at this point. As far as Murray State, their financial status is poor, their endowment is poor, their location is poor. I don't think league presidents are anxious to chase the expansion race and they have shown as much. Murray was begging in public to join last uear, so we would have heard from their president if there was another pending expansion.

Much of this is blatantly false (or maybe it's just ignorance), unless you consider some of the other MVC schools' situation as equally "poor."

This conference contains schools in "poor locations" like Carbondale and Terre Haute.

It contains two publics from Illinois, where public funding has been in limbo for years. I think its safe to say Murray is no worse than some (several?) existing members.

[third rail]

You can insult any existing league school all you want. The difference would be that they are already members. Unless you expect all MVC schools to reapply your arguement is irrelevant. You can call me ignorant all day long but an attack on Peoria doesn't exactly prove your arguement that I am wrong. The conference presidents had a chance to jump on them a year ago. They didn't.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

As far as Murray State, their financial status is poor, their endowment is poor, their location is poor.

Hasn’t stopped them for 30 years.

Murray brought more to Evansville than any MVC team brought to St Louis. Is there another scenario in the country where a school that would bring more fans to a conference tournament than any existing member and willing to join isn’t allowed in by the league? The answer is no for a reason. That says everything about MVC leaders and nothing about Murray State.

[Mikovio]

Devil's advocate here. How does Murray's bringing fans to Evansville make them a good bet to win future games?

Loyola draws less but thanks to their wealth, they can build sparkling new practice facilities, give Porter Moser a massive contract extension after a Final Four run and money to pay his assistants, buy their way out of a bad Bahamas tournament and into a better one to give them more Q1 games etc etc. Murray having a couple thousand more fans paying peanuts to see them play does what exactly? Now the league office might be excited because it could sell more Arch Madness tickets, but the real cash cow in this league are the NCAA shares, and most of those Murray appearances over the last 30 years wouldn't have been so had they not won a tournament of a bad conference.

That said, I do think they should be invited.

[Bjhracer]

You make it sound like you think the OVC tournament is easy to win because of bad teams in the conference. The top of the OVC is comparable to the MVC. Sure the OVC has more bad teams at the bottom of the league, but that doesn't make a tournament any easier to win when you still have excellent top 4 teams.

[VUGrad1314]

All I know is that we'd definitely be better off with Murray State in the conference a 20 game schedule unless scheduling continues to pick up.

[Mikovio]

You make it sound like you think the OVC tournament is easy to win because of bad teams in the conference. The top of the OVC is comparable to the MVC. Sure the OVC has more bad teams at the bottom of the league, but that doesn't make a tournament any easier to win when you still have excellent top 4 teams.

Are you being serious? You really think the OVC tournament has been just as easy to win as the MVC tournament the last 30 years? Murray did have a couple at large quality teams in there but mostly it was 14 and 15 seeds which indicate they were the best of a bad lot.

[VUGrad1314]

Your conference generally has 1-2 excellent teams.: the two we're interested in adding. Your 3rd best would have been 7th by RPI in the MVC 4th best would have been 8th and that's without adjusting for the conference. I have no doubt that a bottom 3 MVC team would have little trouble being a top 3 OVC team.

[mvfcfan]

Disagree strongly. I'm a big fan of Indiana State, but I go to most of Eastern Illinois' home games (fb, mbb, baseball) as well. The top of the OVC in basketball is pretty close to the same caliber as the top of the MVC. The big difference is that the bottom of the OVC is not nearly as good as the bottom of the MVC. Murray State, Belmont, and Jacksonville State were all very good teams this season that could have easily finished 2nd in the MVC this year. Just because Loyola did really well doesn't exactly mean that the rest of the teams in the MVC are that good. I definitely think the conference is trending the right direction, but most MVC schools are still a ways from where they should be.

Now in football, the MVFC is worlds ahead of the OVC.

Also finishing in the top 2 in the OVC gives you a bye to the semifinals, so winning the OVC tournament as a top 2 seed is easier than winning the MVC tournament. I also think the reason the OVC typically doesn't do well in the NCAA tournament is just due to bad seeding. If Murray State had gotten an 11 seed they probably would have won a tournament game.