American Athletic Conference

[Rlh04d]

George Mason to the A-10.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...ing-to-the-a10

Really think best case scenario at this point is for Wichita and a few other MVC teams to join the A-10.

Neither the MVC or A-10 is very strong at the moment.

So A-10 has lost Butler, Xavier, Charlotte, and Temple. Add Wichita State, George Mason, and two other MVC teams (from the SIU, UNI, Indiana State, Illinois State crowd). If Saint Louis (and Dayton? I don't remember) leaves eventually for the Big Priest, grab another MVC team. That is a better conference for us than the MVC currently, without a doubt, and geographically acceptable. We have a few MVC teams for rivalries, and of course VCU. Would prefer to drop some of the bottom feeders from the conference, though.

Personally I'd love to see Wichita State join the MW. Many MW fans feel the same way, although some have a pipe dream about Gonzaga and a few poor lost souls pine for BYU.

Would love for it to happen, but it would require the MW to accept basketball only schools. That's a decision your conference is going to have to make.

Hell, I'd love for Gonzaga to be in the conference as well.

[WillieJeffJeffries]

Really think best case scenario at this point is for Wichita and a few other MVC teams to join the A-10.

Neither the MVC or A-10 is very strong at the moment.

So A-10 has lost Butler, Xavier, Charlotte, and Temple. Add Wichita State, George Mason, and two other MVC teams (from the SIU, UNI, Indiana State, Illinois State crowd). If Saint Louis (and Dayton? I don't remember) leaves eventually for the Big Priest, grab another MVC team. That is a better conference for us than the MVC currently, without a doubt, and geographically acceptable. We have a few MVC teams for rivalries, and of course VCU. Would prefer to drop some of the bottom feeders from the conference, though.


Would love for it to happen, but it would require the MW to accept basketball only schools. That's a decision your conference is going to have to make.

Hell, I'd love for Gonzaga to be in the conference as well.

Doesnt the MW need a basketball only school to offset Hawaii who plays MW as footballball only? I would think the MW would want the Zags but if WSU could get in the mix, this would be their best option. Leaving the Valley would suk, but in these times you have to look out for number one.

[dregn]

Personally I'd love to see Wichita State join the MW. Many MW fans feel the same way, although some have a pipe dream about Gonzaga and a few poor lost souls pine for BYU.

Wichita State would be our easternmost member, but you'd have New Mexico, Utah State, Colorado State, Wyoming, and Air Force as MW members who aren't much farther than some of your current MVC brethren. With an 18 game conference schedule and 11 teams to play the MW can minimize travel by locking in annual regional "rivals" for home and homes. Thereby guaranteeing Wichita State H&H against New Mexico, Colorado State, etc and minimizing your trips to San Jose, Fresno, and San Diego.

I think the MW averages about 9k in attendance for league games and our conference tourney in Vegas is regularly sold out, so we have some solid fan support for the sport and I think Wichita State fits our profile nicely. Plus you can join our multitude of other city-state members like Boise State, San Jose State, San Diego State, and Fresno State.

Mostly, I like the idea of adding Wichita State's pedigree to our basketball core of Utah State, New Mexico, UNLV, and San Diego State. A 12 team MW with Wichita State would never earn less than 3 NCAA bids, should regularly earn 4-5, and in some good years might garner 6-7.

Anyways, I'm sure you guys have discussed most of this before and I'm not breaking any new ground. But I really want Wichita State in our conference and am hoping like hell that it happens. I never would have thought it possible before Creighton left, but cheers to new beginnings and hopefully a MW strengthened with your addition.

Good luck in the Sweet 16. And thanks for busting my bracket by beating the Zags.

The real question is, would Fresno State fans make shirts to inform Shocker fans that Wichita is not a state???...

[jocoshock]

Brett McMurphy @McMurphyESPN 6m
Tulsa will join old Big East & East Carolina will be added as full member in 2014, sources told @ESPN

[Rlh04d]

Have hope, friend. Butler had no options before its run and neither did VCU.

Keep winning and #PlayAngry

Unfortunately, VCU is on the east coast, and Butler is a hell of a lot further east than us.

When it comes to conference realignment, geography is WSU's biggest enemy, not success. Big difference between parlaying NCAA success for a team in Virginia or Indiana into a conference switch than for a team in Kansas.

Creighton is a more similar situation, but the private Catholic connection helped them as a major addition to their consistent success and financial strengths.

[Kung Wu]

The Big 12 needs to let in a football only school.

[WuDrWu]

Brett McMurphy @McMurphyESPN 6m
Tulsa will join old Big East & East Carolina will be added as full member in 2014, sources told @ESPN

Holy Shat....PLEASE TELL ME EAST CAROLINA is a private school....PRETTY PLEASE??!!


Wait..old Big East and not new Big Priest?

[shockerfan]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=234&articleid=20130326_234_0_TheMis322605

[Shocker-maniac]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextr...0_TheMis322605

This is very disappointing. The Valley is taking a major step backwards.

[wu_shizzle]

So basically all the old Conference USA teams are still together.

[SubGod22]

Of the four privates at the bottom of that article, ORU would be the last one I'd target. I'm expecting to be disappointed. Now that doesn't mean ORU is horrible, we could do worse, but I feel we could do better.

[jocoshock]

Would still lean towards Belmont or Valpo...

[isu87]

Would still lean towards Belmont or Valpo...

what if the MVC adds ORU now, and then miraculously SLU and Dayton do not get invited to the new Big East, the MVC goes after them, they decide they don't want to be in the depleted A-10 anymore (maybe VCU leaves for the America 12 conference?) and both wind up in the MVC, making it a 12 team conference. I'd be ok with that. Now I highly doubt it happens, but that would be a good setup

[GOSHOX1]

I hope oru isn't the first choice!

[Rlh04d]

This is very disappointing. The Valley is taking a major step backwards.

The Valley is taking a major step backwards regardless of who we replace Creighton with. We're not going to find someone to replace Creighton. The question is how big of a step backwards we take.

But yeah, out of ORU, Denver, Valpo, and Belmont, ORU is probably my least favorite.