MERGER PROPOSAL

[yoteforever]

The current Missouri Valley Conference looks like this:

Bradley
Drake
Evansville
Illinois State
Indiana State
Loyola
Missouri State
UNI
Southern Illinois
Valdosta

Proposal:

Add USD, SDSU, UND, NDSU, UNO, and DENVER. Make it one conference. There would be 16 teams that play basketball. You could have Eastern Division and Western Division. There would 9 teams that play football. Everybody could play everybody every year and have 3-4 out of conference games to fill your schedule. The basketball tournament initially would be played in St. Louis as it is now, but after a specified period of time, it would alternate with Sioux Falls.

East Division

Bradley
Drake
Evansville
Illinois State
Indiana State
Loyola
Southern Illinois
Valdosta

West Division

UNI
Missouri State
USD
SDSU
UND
NDSU
UNO
DENVER

In all likelihood, IPFW is going to leave anyway due to travel to conference tournament concerns and travel costs. Youngstown State will find a football league to play in, or merge where they are at in all sports. Oral Roberts would be the one school having to look elsewhere.

Now you have an all sports league. The schools in the Summit that play baseball now have a league they can count on. It's highly competitive, and will increase the caliber of all other sports, or you'll be dead. Last annually of you don't. Our AD's need to band together and Lund on the door of the MVC to make this happen. It gives the Valley now a very strong all sports league that isn't going anywhere. And fits the academic footprint presidents are wanting.

Thoughts?

[gorabbits]

Although this sounds good at first read, it is not likely to happen. First, you reduce from 2 to 1 the number of automatic bids in all sports and since both conferences are currently 1 bid conferences in effect now, I don't think they would get an at large bid very often. that hurts financially and perhaps more importantly prestige/pride wise since the auto bid is usually considered the real prize each year in all sports. A one in 8 or 9 or 10 chance to go to the big dance is a much better scenario than a 1 in 16 chance. In addition, you are missing Western Illinois from your plan and they would essentially be the geographic center of such a conference.

Also, I assume you mean Valparaiso instead of the school in Georgia named Valdosto State.

[yoteforever]

Jul 15, 2017 15:22:47 GMT -6 gorabbits said:

Although this sounds good at first read, it is not likely to happen. First, you reduce from 2 to 1 the number of automatic bids in all sports and since both conferences are currently 1 bid conferences in effect now, I don't think they would get an at large bid very often. that hurts financially and perhaps more importantly prestige/pride wise since the auto bid is usually considered the real prize each year in all sports. A one in 8 or 9 or 10 chance to go to the big dance is a much better scenario than a 1 in 16 chance. In addition, you are missing Western Illinois from your plan and they would essentially be the geographic center of such a conference.

Also, I assume you mean Valparaiso instead of the school in Georgia named Valdosto State.

I did type Valpo but spellcheck changed it. You're right, I forgot about Western Illinois.

Regarding the NCAA tournament, most non power 5 leagues are getting 1 bid. The odds of a team out of this league winning it all are about zero, so I would also propose a tournament for non power 5 leagues. I think it's an idea whose time has come.

I think in some capacity, the MVC is the answer....somehow.

[Coyote Fan]

I like the proposal but unfortunately I don't think the Valley would be as open to it as a potential Big Sky merger. Maybe neither will happen but the 16 team Valley would be just fine by me as long as the entire football conference would reside within this conference which appears to be the case.

[Yotes]

I'd be all for joining the MVC, but the zero interest they show to the Dakotas is quite telling of their thoughts on something like this. My guess would be that this is due to the rift between the public football schools and private non-football schools.

How about the football Summit teams just take the place of the non-football MVC teams? Those privates always crowd the MVC cellar. There would be little downside for the MVC, and it would up the quality of play while bringing together a conference of like-minded institutions.

[Coyote Fan]

The football playing Valley schools in the MVC would be better off splitting from the privates and joining the Dakota's for an all sports conference. Schools like UNI would end up being better off if they would remove their stereo-types of thinking they are above the Dakota's. Actually in football the XDSU's have already passed them in football and the UXD's are on the way to doing the same.

If you wanna talk merger the below would make sense as well and it would be a nice packaged 10 team conference. Tourney rotates between St. Louis and Sioux Falls every other year. Let the non football Valley form their own conference without having to worry about football. That way there would be no relying on non football schools pushing their agenda's. Sensible things are not meant to happen though.

Illinois State
Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Western Illinois
Northern Iowa
Missouri State
North Dakota
North Dakota State
South Dakota
South Dakota State

[easmus]

Spot on about UNI. You can't tell me they wouldn't be better off in a conference with the Dakota 4. I like some of this out of the box thinking.

[Cousin Eddie]

I like it and I think this is the most realistic concept I have heard actually. It isn't the first time I have heard comparable concepts like this and from people, like YF, that might be in a position to know or hear things.

[gopheryote]

I personally can't get past all 16 teams agreeing to cut their chances of getting the auto bid in half, along with the check from the NCAA.

However, if you make those divisions into 2 conferences with a long term scheduling agreement between them, or some other agreement that preserves to 2 autobids, it would be awesome.

[Yote 53]

It will never happen as the Valley schools have their noses up pretty high in the air when it comes to the Dakotas. This last round of re-alignment tells you what they are thinking, small school, private, bus league. Most of those schools are going in the opposite direction of expansion and thinking national given their last couple of additions to the conference. Now, maybe the football playing state schools in the Valley get sick of dealing with the privates and someday the MVFC becomes an all-sports conference, but that is probably the best chance we have of any conference to the east.

I still believe our best chances for a stable all-sports conference are in the west with the Montanas, EWU, and Idaho. The Big Sky isn't what it used to be, it's now bloated with "extra" schools. There is more likely to be a split over there and that would present an opportunity to form a conference with those schools.

Whatever happens a conference will not be destroyed in all this. A merger eliminating an autobid is not going to happen as that autobid is too valuable to let it disappear.

[Yote 53]

The thing you have to remember with any conference expansions is that large scale movements don't happen often. Any scenario that has a bulk of schools moving here & there is not likely to happen. The more moving parts there are the harder it is to get everybody on the same page and that's when deals break down.

Small incremental steps over time is what is most likely to happen.

[Yotes]

Jul 17, 2017 8:27:05 GMT -6 Yote 53 said:

The thing you have to remember with any conference expansions is that large scale movements don't happen often. Any scenario that has a bulk of schools moving here & there is not likely to happen. The more moving parts there are the harder it is to get everybody on the same page and that's when deals break down.

Small incremental steps over time is what is most likely to happen.

Incremental movements are far more common, but precedence for a large scale movement exists. A large scale movement is possible if a conference splits in half like the Big East did 5 years ago. The rift between public football schools and private non-football schools got to be too great, creating two separate conferences. I don't know that the MVC is nearing that point though.

[Yote 53]

Jul 17, 2017 16:47:01 GMT -6 Yotes said:

Jul 17, 2017 8:27:05 GMT -6 Yote 53 said:

The thing you have to remember with any conference expansions is that large scale movements don't happen often. Any scenario that has a bulk of schools moving here & there is not likely to happen. The more moving parts there are the harder it is to get everybody on the same page and that's when deals break down.

Small incremental steps over time is what is most likely to happen.

Incremental movements are far more common, but precedence for a large scale movement exists. A large scale movement is possible if a conference splits in half like the Big East did 5 years ago. The rift between public football schools and private non-football schools got to be too great, creating two separate conferences. I don't know that the MVC is nearing that point though.

It's not there yet but it might get to that point if the Summit can elevate their basketball programs to MVC levels. If the Dakota 4 can meet or exceed in facilities, support, and on-court results what the private Valley schools offer then we become a viable alternative to them. At that point the MVC-MVFC schools might be more open to forming an all-sports conference. Until that time, why would they downgrade? (Even if that downgrade is just perception, I don't believe it is a downgrade as it exists today.)

[kiyoat]

Jul 17, 2017 16:47:01 GMT -6 Yotes said:

Jul 17, 2017 8:27:05 GMT -6 Yote 53 said:

... A large scale movement is possible if a conference splits in half like the Big East did 5 years ago. The rift between public football schools and private non-football schools got to be too great, creating two separate conferences...

That's actually a really interesting parallel.  The thing that pushed the issue for the Big East was all the instability and defections among the football schools.  This annoyed the basketball-only schools, which were among the best basketball conferences in the country.

If it were to happen in the MVC, it would be from all the instability and defections among the basketball-only schools, annoying the football schools, which are among the best football conferences in the country.