Drakey wrote:Why do people talk about Butler joining the Valley? Butler is one of a handful of schools that have figured out the one way to national prominence for a non BCS school, which is to play in a weak conference, dominate that conference, get into the NCAA tournament every year, and improve recruiting every year as a result. If the Valley had taken Butler instead of Evansville when they both applied, Evansville might have been in the final four last year. I can assure you that Butler would not have been, as they probably would have been in the NCAA tournament 2-3 times at the most over the past 15 years.
Drakey wrote:If the Valley had taken Butler instead of Evansville when they both applied, Evansville might have been in the final four last year.
Drakey wrote:Why do people talk about Butler joining the Valley? Butler is one of a handful of schools that have figured out the one way to national prominence for a non BCS school, which is to play in a weak conference, dominate that conference, get into the NCAA tournament every year, and improve recruiting every year as a result. If the Valley had taken Butler instead of Evansville when they both applied, Evansville might have been in the final four last year. I can assure you that Butler would not have been, as they probably would have been in the NCAA tournament 2-3 times at the most over the past 15 years.
baller wrote:The Valley is a completely different animal
WSUbballer wrote:jayball, I understand your general logic that replacing Butler with an Evansville would make things more difficult for individual programs. Every conference needs a whipping boy and I guess ours is Evansville. Am I right to assume this?
Exhibition games are meaningless. I get that. When teams continually lose to schools two tiers below them (Division III), it makes that school look grotesque. In return, it hurts the conference's image IMO. And then if that team gets hot one night and takes down an NCAA at-large contender, it's not good. (Again, it was WSU's fault for losing that game, not saying it wasn't). UNI lost a couple of seed lines with their loss to UE IMO. Those losses do happen. South Florida a couple of years ago. Colorado has stunned KU a few times before. The Valley is a completely different animal. We need less drag from the bottom IMO. Schools like WSU, Creighton, Bradley, etc. have large fanbases that bring $$$$ and prestige into the league. SIU, UNI have brought limelight onto the conference with their postseason runs. Empty arenas with 250 RPI grenades on a continuous basis is what I would call "drag". If you're the one who believes we all need conference "whipping boys", then I guess I see your side of things a little bit more. We disagree that replacing Evansville with Butler would give the league more balance and attention. Drake has made a nice recent run. Indiana State is borderline, but like I said, they have had a good history a while back, and have taken small steps to improve. We haven't seen that consistently with Evansville.
Evansville would fit perfectly in the OVC or some other middling conference, IMO.
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