American Athletic Conference

[Ta town]

Went to ramblermania, looks like the Loyola school newspaper posted an article about Loyola having interest in the Valley and vice versa. It is titled "Loyola looks to replace Creighton in the Missouri Valley Conference". I believe the player read the title and took it from there. Apparently he has removed said tweet.

http://www.loyolaphoenix.com/loyola-replace-creighton-missouri-valley-conference

[Rlh04d]

If this happens, you'll see WSU, Bradley, MSU and ISU looking to get out.

You know what? Fine! Go! Just go then! We'll replace you with Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, UIC, and Chicago State. You don't think we have options? We have options!

You'll come crawling back when you see how much Chicago cares about our conference once we have eight teams from Illinois. Oh yes you will.

-Sincerely,
The (Illinois) Valley Conference

[Rlh04d]

Any chance Elgin is so dumb he thinks this is the Loyola in Maryland?

That would at least explain things. Maybe he's searching "Loyola" on Google and under the impression that this is a 23 win program with a top 100 RPI?

[ShockerFever]

Todd Golden @TribStarTodd

Rumor mill time! Loyola athletes are under impression that Ramblers-to-the-MVC is a done deal. We'll see. Chicago market needs to be tapped.

Dumpster fire.

[Steeleshocker]

I've been doing some thinking about this whole conference situation and have come up with a potential idea that would strengthen the Valley. Of course, I am in full agreement that the AAC or MWC are better deals but there is no guarantee that we will be getting an offer.

The idea is this: add 3 teams to the Valley, all with the potential top be a top 100 RPI on a regular basis. Then set the conference up in divisions like av English soccer league. The top 6 teams from the prior conference season play each other home and home and 3 home and 3 road against the lower half. This avoids having as many painful high RPI games. It adds the opportunity for a stronger schedule for the top half of the league, which improves the number of potential at large bids. The lower half teams still have something to play for to move into the top half for the next year. And you can still give out the auto bid to the conference tourney winner.

Discuss...

Edit: This would only be the case for men's basketball. All other sports would be divided by geography for travel costs.

[Aargh]

I've been doing some thinking about this whole conference situation and have come up with a potential idea that would strengthen the Valley. Of course, I am in full agreement that the AAC or MWC are better deals but there is no guarantee that we will be getting an offer.

The idea is this: add 3 teams to the Valley, all with the potential top be a top 100 RPI on a regular basis. Then set the conference up in divisions like av English soccer league. The top 6 teams from the prior conference season play each other home and home and 3 home and 3 road against the lower half. This avoids having as many painful high RPI games. It adds the opportunity for a stronger schedule for the top half of the league, which improves the number of potential at large bids. The lower half teams still have something to play for to move into the top half for the next year. And you can still give out the auto bid to the conference tourney winner.

Discuss...

Edit: This would only be the case for men's basketball. All other sports would be divided by geography for travel costs.

I recognize forward thinking. That's never happened in the history of the MVC, so I'm not confident anything "outside the box" will occur in the Valley.

I really like that concept. MVC-A and MVC-B. If you don't like the "B" designation, get better!

Edit: That is absolutely brilliant. The top 6 teams play each other twice. That gives those teams the best opportunity to raise their RPI's. The top 6 teams play the bottom 6 once each, which minimizes the effect of weak teams in the conference.

That would make the MVC trick the system ala 2006.

We're still gasping for air to try to find either 1 or 3 teams worth bringing into the conference.

[Rlh04d]

I like the idea. Is there an NCAA rule that would prevent that? I can't imagine what it would be, since you'd still be playing every team in the conference at least once.

[MadaboutWu]

It would be like promotion/demotion in European soccer (if that is what is called). Always thought that was cool. Obviously not going to happen in the MVC (or probably any college basketball conference), but a very fun idea.

[wufan]

I like the idea. Is there an NCAA rule that would prevent that? I can't imagine what it would be, since you'd still be playing every team in the conference at least once.

You could just call it an unbalanced schedule and set it up however you want. That's how the Big XII used to do Football. All the good (south) schools played each other every year and the bad (north) schools were only played once. That's why Nebraska left. They quit winning the "bad" division.

[SubGod22]

I have seen a few rumors that the Big East may not be eager to expand to 12. IF that were true, I'd throw the A10 into the possible realm of departures. IF SLU and Dayton are to remain for awhile, throw in Bradley and whoever else they want and I'd be down. I've heard Detroit may be a target of the A10

[MadaboutWu]

You could just call it an unbalanced schedule and set it up however you want. That's how the Big XII used to do Football. All the good (south) schools played each other every year and the bad (north) schools were only played once. That's why Nebraska left. They quit winning the "bad" division.

Thanks for letting me know about that precedent (I don't follow football at all). I think what would be unprecedented would be having soccer style promotions and demotions.

[The Mad Hatter]

It would be like promotion/demotion in European soccer (if that is what is called). Always thought that was cool. Obviously not going to happen in the MVC (or probably any college basketball conference), but a very fun idea.

It is technically called promotion/relegation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_and_relegation

[Steeleshocker]

I recognize forward thinking. That's never happened in the history of the MVC, so I'm not confident anything "outside the box" will occur in the Valley.

I really like that concept. MVC-A and MVC-B. If you don't like the "B" designation, get better!

Edit: That is absolutely brilliant. The top 6 teams play each other twice. That gives those teams the best opportunity to raise their RPI's. The top 6 teams play the bottom 6 once each, which minimizes the effect of weak teams in the conference.

That would make the MVC trick the system ala 2006.

We're still gasping for air to try to find either 1 or 3 teams worth bringing into the conference.

Another benefit is that the conference schedule is now two games shorter, effectively dropping two games against the dregs. This gives more flexibility to the non-con schedule, allowing for two more high quality games.

Edit: Hell, this has never occurred in college sports, or American sports for that matter. But since the teams available are not very exciting we need to have the conference start thinking outside of the box if we want to get 3-4 bids every so often, and lock in at least 2 bids each year.

[Aargh]

Make the winner of the regular season mean something. Winner of the regular season gets to assign schools to each division for the next season.

[RoyalShock]

I happened across this post while browsing the Redbird forum today:

Here is what I know.

1. Reportedly (from another poster on this board) the MVC Presidents met yesterday.
2. Sometime in the afternoon, a Loyola athlete posted on Twitter that Loyola was moving to the MVC, and the post was removed about 20 minutes later.
3. WHOI's Jim Mattson tweeted yesterday afternoon that it "sounds like" Loyola was going to MVC.
4. Chicago Sun Times sports blogger Joe Henrickson tweeted "Big move for Loyola. Ramblers headed to the Missouri Valley to replace Creighton."
5. About that time, I got a cryptic, coded message from someone who would definitely know the facts that positive things had happened with Loyola's talks with the Valley.
6. I called a well-connected fan I know with contacts high up in the Loyola athletic department who had heard that Loyola's campaign to move to the MVC had been successful. (We also discussed plans to go to Arch Madness).
7. KSDK-TV in St. Louis reported on their 10 p.m. news sports report that Loyola was going to be admitted to the MVC.
8. Dave Reynolds from the Peoria Journal Star then tweeted that Loyola was going to the MVC. (With a little sarcastic slap at Loyola's value as a member).

This news came on the heels of Loyola announcing Sheryl Swoopes as new Women's Basketball coach earlier in the day. The opening of the multi-million dollar Damen Student Center (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybH7MUXD ... e=youtu.be ) happened the day after the MVC visit to Loyola on April 2, which I assume was impressive to the visiting team. Overall Loyola has spent roughly $100 million on facility upgrades and new construction over the past two years. Additionally, Loyola is currently in first place in the Horizon League in terms of its overall performance in all athletic programs (http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/loyol ... ships.html ). I think it's obvious from what I know about the athletic program that there is a willingness and intent on Loyola's part to invest a lot in the athletic program.

And lastly, from the point of view of the MVC presidents, I have to feel that Loyola's finances and resources must make a difference. With the departure of Creighton, the MVC lost its highest endowed school. Creighton had a $375 million endowment, more than twice as much as the average of the other nine MVC schools. Loyola's endowment is now $389 million. Loyola has assets of $1.2 Billion and they average $159 Million in donations per year. They also average $10 Million per year on investments in dividends and interest. By comparison, Creighton had $853 million in assets, $64 million in donations.

So although Loyola may not have had as much success leading up to the change in the leadership of its athletic department two years ago, there are some significant upgrades in progress and there is no financial impediment to Loyola becoming a major factor in a league with the stature and typical budgets in the MVC. It just depends on their will to spend and compete financially. I think there's enough proof that they're willing to do so to satisfy the concerns the MVC might have had.