Murray State notified they will NOT be invited to join MVC

[mvfcfan]

Couldn't we have announced that Murray State would be added for the 2018-19 basketball season and that we would be searching for a 12th candidate that way MuSu could save $250K on their buyout? Maybe I'm missing something? So let's assume this mystery #12 has to be a private school. Who is available? Maybe that's why it wasn't announced?

Assuming Murray State would be added as the #11 here are the potential candidates.

Private Candidates

St Louis - doubt they would leave A-10
Belmont - supposedly said no twice and doubt they'd say yes if asked a third time
Lipscomb - just came off a 20 win season, maybe they continue to improve
Detroit Mercy - another Horizon League team, seems to be on a downward slope.
Oral Roberts - gives Missouri St a nearby school. Their arena is pretty big (11,300). Basketball team hasn't been very good as of late is a downfall, but could get better.

Public Candidates (if none of the privates work)
UW Milwaukee - questionable, but has had success in the past, finalist this last time around
SE Missouri St - travel partner for Mo St?
Ark LR- see SEMO, UALR has had more success than SEMO though
N KY- program on the rise with a nice arena
Morehead St - rival with Murray St, has had some success in the past

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Oral Roberts - 2 1/2 hrs from Springfield (Wichita was 4).

Beat #1 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse one year. Seems they'd have common ground in the Valley.

[IllinoisState]

Couldn't we have announced that Murray State would be added for the 2018-19 basketball season and that we would be searching for a 12th candidate that way MuSu could save $250K on their buyout? Maybe I'm missing something? So let's assume this mystery #12 has to be a private school. Who is available? Maybe that's why it wasn't announced?

Assuming Murray State would be added as the #11 here are the potential candidates.

Private Candidates

St Louis - doubt they would leave A-10
Belmont - supposedly said no twice and doubt they'd say yes if asked a third time
Lipscomb - just came off a 20 win season, maybe they continue to improve
Detroit Mercy - another Horizon League team, seems to be on a downward slope.
Oral Roberts - gives Missouri St a nearby school. Their arena is pretty big (11,300). Basketball team hasn't been very good as of late is a downfall, but could get better.

Public Candidates (if none of the privates work)
UW Milwaukee - questionable, but has had success in the past, finalist this last time around
SE Missouri St - travel partner for Mo St?
Ark LR- see SEMO, UALR has had more success than SEMO though
N KY- program on the rise with a nice arena
Morehead St - rival with Murray St, has had some success in the past

I'd prefer one of the below realistically.

NKU
ETSU
Oakland
UIC
Wright State
Chattanooga
Tennessee Tech

[Make MVC Great Again]

It's official.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

My short list of teams to join next spring: (in order) Murray State (pretty much a shoe-in), St. Louis, North Dakota State (due to familiarity. but, I'm sure they're viewed as too far away AND they would have to double their basketball budget to get in-line with current MVC men's basketball budgets), Milwaukee (only if they can clean up they're act and put some fans in the seats then they wouldn't be a bad add because they are a top research school and their basketball budget would be number one in the MVC), Northern Kentucky (get back in the Cincinnati area and a beautiful, new arena), and, finally, Grand Canyon (I realize this will NEVER happen but it would be an absolute home run. A lot of fans and probably the MVC don't want a for-profit university to join but they are up-and-coming. Great fan base, high profile coach, and recent success. They will be the next Gonzaga/Wichita State. They're also in Phoenix, however).

[municup14]

I really wish everyone would stop talking about Belmont.They didn't
join the time before and wasn't even mentioned this time.Give it a rest

[Make MVC Great Again]

I want to know if Murray even got an official vote or the schools just voted for Valpo.

[VU2014]

Valpo fan here.

Reading through this thread was a tad funny and enlightening.

First off, no Privates want to go D3. I'm hoping that talk was just sarcasm because we definitely didn't just join the MVC for that and no Privates want that either.

Second, the vote for Valpo was confirmed unanimous by multiple reports. Valpo was rumored to be 2nd choice after Loyola.

There were a few reasons for why Valpo was chosen this time around.

-I think we were the best Basketball schools within the current geographic footprint, that was willing to join the MVC. We are not Wichita State and no one from our fan-base is claiming to be the next WSU, but we are still a very good Mid-Major Basketball program and we can definitely help strengthen the current 9 MVC members.

-Valpo brings strong academics which is going to be an additional revenue stream for NCAA conference's eventually down the road. The NCAA will be giving out additional units $$ for academic excellence.

-We are a very easy travel partner, which means no it saves schools $.

-We are not the size of Creighton or Wichita State but we are a passionate fan-base and support our teams, particularly Basketball.

As for this Public vs Private narrative I can tell you for a fact that Valpo has had absolutely 0 problem voting for Public schools in the past when we were in the Horizon League. Valpo voted for Oakland and NKU when we were in the HL, both Public.

-Valpo's priorities in voting new members is 1. School strength in Basketball 2. School strength in Basketball Basketball and 3. School strength in Basketball. Our AD has publicly stated while we were in the HL it was priority to take the best basketball schools with also hoping for an institution that emphasizes academics.

-Our AD has really pushed for 'Out of Conference' scheduling standards! Valpo has been victim to some HL schools scheduling too many "cupcake" games in the HL which affect the higher seeded teams down the road. So look for Valpo to push for OOC standards when we join the conference, Not sure how the rest of the MVC schools feel about them. Personally I find them critical.

-Valpo always tries to schedule the best OOC games that we possibly can. Unfortunately many Power 6 Conference schools refuse to play us (especially at home... which sucks). But the last few years we've scheduled schools like Kentucky, Oregon (few times), Oregon State, BYU (twice), Alabama, Rhode Island (twice), Ball State, Multiple MVC schools (which we've had pretty good success against), Belmont, Iona, Murray State, etc. We hardly take cupcake games. We do usually schedule 1 D2 team (D2s don't affect RPI) as "tune-up" game to get our freshman/young guys in the game and to get them some early playing time.

-Next season we are scheduled to play Northwestern, Purdue, Ball State and we are also going to going on long west-coast road trip (currently only Santa Clara announced as part of a 1-for-1.) May play in a neutral site tournament out west. We were scheduled to play Indiana State as part of a 2-for-2, but now we are joining MVC, so we'll see what happen who else we potentially play.

The Students/Fans/Alumni are all pretty excited to join the MVC. I know we are no Wichita State or Creighton, but I think we bring some pretty strong basketball to the conference. I'm personally pretty excited about next season.

[VU2014]

Valpo fan here.

Reading through this thread was a tad funny and enlightening.

First off, no Privates want to go D3. I'm hoping that talk was just sarcasm because we definitely didn't just join the MVC for that and no Privates want that either.

Second, the vote for Valpo was confirmed unanimous by multiple reports. Valpo was rumored to be 2nd choice after Loyola.

There were a few reasons for why Valpo was chosen this time around.

-I think we were the best Basketball schools within the current geographic footprint, that was willing to join the MVC. We are not Wichita State and no one from our fan-base is claiming to be the next WSU, but we are still a very good Mid-Major Basketball program and we can definitely help strengthen the current 9 MVC members.

-Valpo brings strong academics which is going to be an additional revenue stream for NCAA conference's eventually down the road. The NCAA will be giving out additional units $$ for academic excellence.

-We are a very easy travel partner, which means schools save $.

-We are not the size of Creighton or Wichita State but we are a passionate fan-base and support our teams, particularly Basketball.

As for this Public vs Private narrative I can tell you for a fact that Valpo has had absolutely 0 problem voting for Public schools in the past when we were in the Horizon League. Valpo voted for Oakland and NKU when we were in the HL, both Public.

-Valpo's priorities in voting new members is 1. School strength in Basketball 2. School strength in Basketball Basketball and 3. School strength in Basketball. Our AD has publicly stated while we were in the HL it was priority to take the best basketball schools with also hoping for an institution that emphasizes academics.

-Our AD has really pushed for 'Out of Conference' scheduling standards! Valpo has been victim to some HL schools scheduling too many "cupcake" games in the HL which affect the higher seeded teams down the road. So look for Valpo to push for OOC standards when we join the conference, Not sure how the rest of the MVC schools feel about them. Personally I find them critical.

-Valpo always tries to schedule the best OOC games that we possibly can. Unfortunately many Power 6 Conference schools refuse to play us (especially at home... which sucks). But the last few years we've scheduled schools like Kentucky, Oregon (few times), Oregon State, BYU (twice), Alabama, Rhode Island (twice), Ball State, Multiple MVC schools (which we've had pretty good success against), Belmont, Iona, Murray State, etc. We hardly take cupcake games. We do usually schedule 1 D2 team (D2s don't affect RPI) as "tune-up" game to get our freshman/young guys in the game and to get them some early playing time.

-Next season we are scheduled to play Northwestern, Purdue, Ball State and we are also going to going on long west-coast road trip (currently only Santa Clara announced as part of a 1-for-1.) May play in a neutral site tournament out west. We were scheduled to play Indiana State as part of a 2-for-2, but now we are joining MVC, so we'll see what happen who else we potentially play.

The Students/Fans/Alumni are all pretty excited to join the MVC. I know we are no Wichita State or Creighton, but I think we bring some pretty strong basketball to the conference. I'm personally pretty excited about next season.

[Mikovio]

Welcome! I think most of us are glad you're joining but some public school fans wanted the Dakotas because they get starry eyed thinking about their JV football, even though their basketball programs operate as low majors and lose their coaches to Wright State and Ohio.