American Athletic Conference

[SubGod22]

VCU is pretty much stuck there unless the old BE teams decide to take nonfootball members. Or the new BE decides to take non Catholic/privates

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

And George Mason will be joining them, so I think they will be ok.

I wouldn't worry about VCU any more than us. We both are in a situation we can take full advantage of. We can both be Gonzaga/Memphis where we play strong out of conference, dominate conference play, and get at-large if needed. Shown that will work.

I think the MWC would be better overall, but either would be a HUGE step up from where the Valley will be.

[wufan]

I like the MWC. and dare I say the proposal that Lutz wrote up seems very very good. Of course thats my vantage point as a WSU fan/student and hopefully soon to be alum.

I think it would hurt recruiting some as all of the games are played out West and good portion of our recruits come from the SE. Could that change? yeah of course and plus there is always OOC games to schedule. But one of the good things about the league is while the Valley lost Creighton... by joining the MVC we would essentially be joining about 2-3 more Creightons.

All the programs looked to be pretty even keeled. Not a real "bottom feeder" per se. Even though SJSU and Wyoming were fitting of that stature. New Mexico & UNLV have long standing tradition. SDSU has been a major player in the last decade. Colorado state seems to be up with b2b appearances in the NCAA Tourney.

Is it a move the MWC needs to make? probably not but would it be wise? I think so.

Yep! So this is what needs to happen. Anything less is week.

[Rlh04d]

The A-10 footprint sucks for Wichita State. Butler, Xavier and Temple moving on to other conferences. How will that effect the RPI's.

As of right now that leaves:

Charlotte
Dayton
Dusquesne
Fordham
George Washington
LaSalle
UMass
Rhode Island
Richmond
St. Bonaventure
St. Joseph
St. Louis
VCU

I guess George Mason is coming in next year.

How many of those will be gone in the next year or two. If Dayton and St. Louis leave then the A-10 is pretty much a pure East coast conference. I just can't get excited at all about the A-10 outside of VCU and maybe Dayton. St. Louis we will have to see.

I think I would rather hold off and see what develops with the Mountain West or the Big Preist. Not betting either one of those will come to fruition for us, but not sure the A-10 or some remnant of it won't always be available. However, even if it is available I don't see it being that attractive overall and I doubt Dr. Bardo will take us in that direction, but we will see.

The Big Priest will never be an option. The goal is clearly to have private, Catholic institutions ... we don't fit and never will.

Waiting to see what happens with the Mountain West is the only idea that makes sense to me.

Nevertheless, the A-10 makes sense right now. If WSU were to join now, that would leave a decent lineup of WSU, VCU, Saint Louis, Dayton, George Mason, La Salle, and UMass. Personally, my preferred lineup would be to add those six teams to the MVC for that matter, because that would allow the deadweight to be dropped, but that's a hell of a lot tougher to organize than us just leaving.

The thing is ... having a geographic spread the way the A-10 does leaves that conference better positioned to handle departures than the MVC. There simply aren't many teams in the MVC's geographic area that are going to be expansion targets. The A-10, however, can easily poach teams from the MVC should current teams leave, and has a huge contingent of east coast schools to choose from as well. Any A-10 schools leave, they can scoop up any of the top schools now in the MVC, who can leave their football programs here.

I'm not even all that concerned with what the A-10 has now, because that's obviously a fluid situation. What I see as the major problem is that limiting ourselves to the midwest is going to kill us. The MVC has no intention of expanding beyond the tiny geographic barriers that the others in the conference can financially operate within. We can operate within a larger geographic region. We need to either move east to the A-10 or west to the MWC, for the long-term success of the program, not just about what teams are in either conference right now. Regardless of current teams, there is no future in a mid-west only conference. The teams are on the coasts, and we have to find a way to go to one or the other.

We know what the future looks like for a mid-west conference ... and it's ORU. East or west, we have to pick one, because the remaining confined to the middle has a very bleak future for us.

[KC Shox]

Can't we please get Belmont

[SubGod22]

Can't we please get Belmont

Everyone will complain about their HS gym

[KC Shox]

Everyone will complain about their HS gym

It's worse than UNI's? Man - o - man.

[SubGod22]

It's worse than UNI's? Man - o - man.

I believe it holds a couple thousand less than UNI and they average a little over 2k.

[ShockTalk]

The Big Priest will never be an option. The goal is clearly to have private, Catholic institutions ... we don't fit and never will.

Waiting to see what happens with the Mountain West is the only idea that makes sense to me.

Nevertheless, the A-10 makes sense right now. If WSU were to join now, that would leave a decent lineup of WSU, VCU, Saint Louis, Dayton, George Mason, La Salle, and UMass. Personally, my preferred lineup would be to add those six teams to the MVC for that matter, because that would allow the deadweight to be dropped, but that's a hell of a lot tougher to organize than us just leaving.

The thing is ... having a geographic spread the way the A-10 does leaves that conference better positioned to handle departures than the MVC. There simply aren't many teams in the MVC's geographic area that are going to be expansion targets. The A-10, however, can easily poach teams from the MVC should current teams leave, and has a huge contingent of east coast schools to choose from as well. Any A-10 schools leave, they can scoop up any of the top schools now in the MVC, who can leave their football programs here.

I'm not even all that concerned with what the A-10 has now, because that's obviously a fluid situation. What I see as the major problem is that limiting ourselves to the midwest is going to kill us. The MVC has no intention of expanding beyond the tiny geographic barriers that the others in the conference can financially operate within. We can operate within a larger geographic region. We need to either move east to the A-10 or west to the MWC, for the long-term success of the program, not just about what teams are in either conference right now. Regardless of current teams, there is no future in a mid-west only conference. The teams are on the coasts, and we have to find a way to go to one or the other.

We know what the future looks like for a mid-west conference ... and it's ORU. East or west, we have to pick one, because the remaining confined to the middle has a very bleak future for us.

St. Lou, Dayton, Charlotte, and UMass are on their way out of the A-10, sooner more likely than later. Besides, if you're going to tout A-10 programs, Richmond and St Joe's are probably better than some you mentioned (LaSalle in particular).

Us joining the A-10 is no more likely than VCU joining the Valley, maybe less likely. With St. Louis and Dayton surely leaving next year to the new Big Least, just how close would we be to the next A-10 school. Try Pennsylvania. I'm sure VCU is closer to Indiana and Illinois than that.

Your comment from another post: "But that's comparing the MVC with Wichita State to the A-10 without Wichita State. What league is going to be better ... MVC with all current members + ORU, or an A-10 with Wichita State and maybe one other MVC member?"

Let me ask you this: " But that's like comparing the A-10 with VCU to the Valley without VCU. What league is going to be better...Atl-10 with all remaining members or an MVC with VCU and maybe one other Atl-10 member?." If you take WSU and VCU out of both leagues, the Valley has the better remaining teams.

[MadDog]

Now that we're in the Final Four, are more doors open for us? I was reading the Fresno State board and they are all like "grab WSU now before someone else does"

[GoShockers89]

Now that we're in the Final Four, are more doors open for us? I was reading the Fresno State board and they are all like "grab WSU now before someone else does"

It definitely helps our appeal. We will get more pub in the next week than any team in their league has enjoyed since UNLV in 1991 (and they were in the Big West back then). If that move happens to pan out, I think we can all look back at this run as a key catalyst.

A National Championship would make us almost irresistible, no?

[shoxrox89]

Here's what the folks over at the mwc boards are saying about Wichita St. Joining http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47170 basically no football, no offer.

[GoShockers89]

Here's what the folks over at the mwc boards are saying about Wichita St. Joining http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47170 basically no football, no offer.

I mean, that thread's pretty evenly split between detractors and supporters. It also should get as much weight as any thread on MVCFans, which is basically nil.

But your first post on this board also made it obvious you are a troll, so...



It's clear there is more interest between the MWC and WSU than ever before. I really, really hope Bardo can parlay it into something after this weekend.

[MadDog]

Here's what the folks over at the mwc boards are saying about Wichita St. Joining http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47170 basically no football, no offer.

I dont think you read the whole thread. There was a fair amount of WSU support in that thread.

[Ixiah]

Debate over bring in WSU has spawned a lot of threads over there - its gotten a bit redundant.

http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47081&hl=wichita

http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47169&hl=wichita

http://www.mwcboard.com/index.php?showtopic=47071&hl=wichita

There are similar threads now on the old big east forums.