American Athletic Conference

[Eric]

Wow sully just tweeted a link to story that the MVC when asked if they would consider WSU for the football conference the commissioner said "We're not interested in somebody using us a stepping stone" and responded with "why would we want to make it easy for them to leave to another league."

Those dumb bastards have been "making it easy for us to leave to another league" for years now. Fuggem.

[shoxrox89]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, aac or bust, if we get football back we should go 3 years independent at FCS level then pray like hell aac knocks on our door or we knock on theirs.

[SB Shock]

Here is the article in question.

Nothing in this article is really very surprising IMHO.

Your right - we all suspected that is they way they thought about WSu. Now they have put it out in the public domain of "screw WSU".

[_kai_]

I'm about 1.9 seconds past my limit with the Valley.

[SHOCKvalue]

And here I thought it wasn't possible for me to want WSU out of the MVC more than I already did.

[Ta town]

Article mentions she works for both the Valley and Valley football. Pretty obvious the Valley front office isn't happy with WSU. Please get out of the Valley ASAP powers that be.

[Walker]

Yeah, we need out of this stupid league. It would be mutually beneficial as the Valley could stick with its love of mediocrity. I like to think that Bardo is too bright of an individual (and hopefully Boatright) to be so public about this inquiry only to have egg in his face in the end of it. Surely they're steps ahead of these MVC and MVCF goons.

Whoever mentioned going independent like UNC Charlotte is spot on. I hope we do that with football if we can't get into a different league without it.

[Aargh]

You would think the Valley would be making moves to attempt to keep WSU in the league instead of making statements that increase WSU's desire to get out of the league. I guess they want us gone so they can collect our NCAA payouts while letting mediocre basketball teams get the auto bid and going one-and-done 9 years out of 10.

It's the Valley's attempt to repeat the Creighton era.

[ShockerFever]

A normal conference's reaction to WSU would be: if you can't beat em, join em.

The Valley's reaction to WSU actually is: if you can't beat em, then get them the hell out.


Seriously, a watered-down AAC or Conference USA would be better than this POS league whose jealousy and insecurity of us is finally showing itself in all facets.

[Veritas]

The only possible rationale for her statement is that she knows WSU is gone. If not, she is incredibly insecure, silly, and shining a light on her apparent lack of intellect.

[Kung Wu]

Wow sully just tweeted a link to story that the MVC when asked if they would consider WSU for the football conference the commissioner said "We're not interested in somebody using us a stepping stone" and responded with "why would we want to make it easy for them to leave to another league."

Ohhh, so THAT's why they changed their name from Gateway Football Conference.

[Dave Stalwart]

The only possible rationale for her statement is that she knows WSU is gone. If not, she is incredibly insecure, silly, and shining a light on her apparent lack of intellect.

This is exactly what I thought. Those statements make me think they have already lost and are now just acting out a little bit. there's nothing left to preserve so maybe they feel a little more liberty to express frustration, aka whine and begin the new narrative of "the valley doesn't need WSU" in an effort to circle the wagons

[SB Shock]

The only possible rationale for her statement is that she knows WSU is gone. If not, she is incredibly insecure, silly, and shining a light on her apparent lack of intellect.

I agree that what it would seem - but then I ask my question where would that be? I just don't see any opportunity out there for conference in the current state of affairs.

So I'm just left with it just the MVC being the MVC and alway taking their little jabs at WSU where ever they can, probably hoping WSU might just go away.

This is a conference that had member voting down DBU inclusion in baseball who don't even play baseball because there were Illinois teams who didn't want to travel to Dallas and thought DBU would make the league to hard to win. They complained incessantly of having to travel to WSU for the MVC baseball tournament because it to far away (but they expect WSU fans to travel to **** Louis every year.

This is the conference, who had an AD on the baseball selection committee and lobbied against WSU because even though they had an at large resume, they shouldn't be taken if SWOMO was bypassed (because they played a **** schedule)even though they won the regular season.

Their coach of their year criteria is anybody but WSU unless they are perfect, and the team that didn't suck as bad as they thought. But if any team wins the conference beside WSU, u know who the coach of the year award going to.

[Cdizzle]

I agree that what it would seem - but then I ask my question where would that be? I just don't see any opportunity out there for conference in the current state of affairs.

So I'm just left with it just the MVC being the MVC and alway taking their little jabs at WSU where ever they can, probably hoping WSU might just go away.

This is a conference that had member voting down DBU inclusion in baseball who don't even play baseball because there were Illinois teams who didn't want to travel to Dallas and thought DBU would make the league to hard to win. They complained incessantly of having to travel to WSU for the MVC baseball tournament because it to far away (but they expect WSU fans to travel to **** Louis every year.

Their coach of their year criteria is anybody but WSU unless they are perfect, and the team that didn't suck as bad as they thought. But if any team wins the conference beside WSU, u know who the coach of the year award going to.

Pssh. Sour grapes. If your team limps to a conference championship with TWICE as many losses as the last 2 conference championship teams COMBINED, you probably aren't that great. Certainly not CoY material.

[1972Shocker]

The statement from the MVFC is exactly the position I would expect them to take. Not sure expressing the opinion in the manner that they did was very professional, far from it. Obviously, the proper way to do this would be to communicate this position privately to Dr. Bardo and IADDB. Maybe they have done that but for some reason felt compelled to make that position publicly known. Perhaps it is because WSU has been so public about their desire to find a new conference although Dr. Bardo has said that one possible result of the study is that they would determine the Valley is the best fit for WSU.

As far as the MVFC position goes I can't blame them. If WSU announces they are bringing back football with the intent of starting at the FCS level then moving to FBS status as quickly as possible I don't blame the MVFC for not wanting to take them. Now if WSU announces they are bringing back football with the intent of playing at the FCS level then the MVFC should take them.

The ironic thing is that the Missouri Valley Conference is the poster child for being on the wrong side of conference realignment. The history, with a few minor exceptions, is clear on that. Former members of the Valley include among others: Butler, Cincinnati, Creighton, Houston, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, K-State, Louisville, Memphis, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, St. Louis and Tulsa.

It would be nice if Wichita State could be added to that list but whether or not a window of opportunity will open for WSU remains to be seen. At this point it doesn't look too promising but perhaps something will open up with the next round of conference realignment. Whether or not there will be any opportunities without FBS football (or even with FBS football) remains a big question mark.

I am a little concerned we don't have more seasoned and astute leadership in the Athletic Department to assist Dr. Bardo with this. No doubt that was a big factor in deciding to hire outside consultants to help him evaluate this.