MVC Presidents hold conference call about Creightno's possible departure.

[ABC]

http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/16/2606010/missouri-valley-conference-presidents.html

The Missouri Valley Conference’s exemption from realignment worries is over.

According to multiple sources, MVC presidents will hold a conference call to discuss the possibility of Creighton’s departure. Creighton is a possible candidate for membership in a conference formed by seven Catholic schools that announced their departure from the Big East Conference on Saturday.

Creighton officials declined to comment on reports and speculation placing their school as a candidate to join the new group, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Georgetown, Saint John’s, Villanova, DePaul, Marquette, Seton Hall and Providence are leaving the Big East. Numerous reports list Xavier, Butler, Dayton, Saint Louis and Creighton, a Jesuit institution, among schools who would fit with those private schools.

Those schools feature basketball as their main sport and do not compete at the highest level of NCAA football. Most of the schools linked with the Big East breakaways are Catholic, although Butler is not. Xavier, Dayton, Saint Louis and Butler are members of the Atlantic 10.

No plans for adding schools to the group of seven are public.

“There’s no target number (of members),” Georgetown athletic director Lee Reed told The Associated Press. “I think it would be safe to say that at the right time, at the proper time, that those things will be discussed and dealt with.”

Evansville athletic director John Stanley denied a report, by the Peoria Journal Star, that his school was considering leaving the MVC for the Horizon League. Stanley told the Evansville Courier-Press that MVC administrators would discuss Creighton’s situation and that a departure by Evansville is not on the table.

Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson reacted strongly when asked about possible departures from the MVC.

"It’s a basketball conference," he said in a news release from SIU. "There will be people lining up to get in our conference. That’s how good it is. And I don’t think anybody’s leaving our conference, because they know how damn good it is.”

The MVC membership of 10 schools has not changed since Tulsa left in 1996. Creighton is in its 55th year of MVC membership. It joined the conference in 1928 and departed in the late 1940s. It rejoined the conference in 1976. Drake, Wichita State and Bradley are the only MVC members with a longer tenure.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/16/260...#storylink=cpy

[1979Shocker]

I clicked the second link to read more, but there was nothing more to read.

[ABC]

Sorry about my spelling difficulties.

[wsushox1]

Good for them.

[CBB_Fan]

The league should be prepared for two eventualities. One is that Creighton gets picked and starts a conference implosion. They need to be prepared to try and stop everyone from bolting.

The other is poaching the A-10 and C-USA if no one leaves. Try to pick up any of the western teams that aren't picked by the C7, and maybe a team like Tulsa or ORU. You need to strength the conference, and this will be the best and probably last chance.

[SB Shock]

They need to be prepared to try and stop everyone from bolting.

Couple questions.

So if Evansville announces they want to go to the Horizon, the MVC should try and stop them?

Should WSU just come out and say for MVC unity "we are not going anywhere"? What if the moon and the stars align and the MWC makes a offer to WSU, should the MVC stop them? Should WSU turn them down?

If CU says they might consider an offer to leave, what should the MVC do to stop them? Offer them the Automatic bid? Give them extra portion of the share?

[tropicalshox]

No.
No, No, No.
Your must be joking, another joke right?

[SB Shock]

No.
No, No, No.
Your must be joking, another joke right?

I'm just trying to clarify what CBB_fan means when he says

They need to be prepared to try and stop everyone from bolting.

I mean how do you do that? - Once somebody decides to leave, they are going to leave.

[CBB_Fan]

You do that by making concessions and adding teams, along with requiring any team that leaves to pay a fine. Also, to be clear, this isn't about stopped people after they announce they are going to leave. It is about acting preemptively to stop them from making that decision.

Actually, in either situation the first thing we need to is be looking to add teams. If we lose Creighton, but add Saint Louis, Dayton, and ORU, people wouldn't feel the immediate pressure to leave, especially not with high fines and a forfeit of NCAA money.

[CBB_Fan]

.

[Ta town]

It's the Valley you can't keep people from bolting. I would hope that if WSU has an escape hatch it is used without haste.

What you can do is get the existing schools to invest more in basketball. Yes the focus is on basketball, it's a basketball conference but in my opinion only 2 schools are doing it properly. I'm talking more on assistant coaches, facilities, recruiting, etc. Not just head coaching salaries, although keeping a good coach from not looking for the first exit is key as well. Here is a list of basketball expenditures from 2011. Note that Creighton, Bradley and I believe Evansville rent their joints. So without knowing for sure I would venture to guess that CU and WSU are very similar in budgets and Bradley actually has a bigger gap from them than it looks. I also think a few of the football schools should really consider dropping it. The ones that are looking to invest more in football and potential FBS should really look towards leaving the conference. If I'm right about Evansville paying rent then they are probably at the bottom of the league and should almost be encouraged to leave. Also don't replace a team for no reason, you need schools with the resources to commit fully. Nothing wrong with 8 or 9 schools.

58 $4,771,088 Creighton
80 $3,798,648 Wichita State
98 $2,931,281 Bradley
129 $2,138,770 Northern Iowa
133 $2,067,844 Drake
136 $2,047,843 Southern Illinois
137 $2,047,005 Evansville Aces
141 $1,991,617 Illinois State
168 $1,683,601 Missouri State
200 $1,445,143 Indiana State

[Ta town]

Saint Louis, Dayton

Lets go ahead and add some more teams that wouldn't touch the Valley with a 10ft pole, I'm sure that would make everybody feel that much better about CU leaving. Maybe Texas, OSU, and KU? Come on SLU and Dayton will never be in the Valley, get real.

[SB Shock]

You do that by making concessions

What type of concessions? Offer CU the Automatic bid in basketball each year? Give them extra portion of the NCAA share? Pay the rent at the quiet center? Give the wookie and his son a free pass to the next star wars movie? What?

along with requiring any team that leaves to pay a fine.

well - I'm pretty sure there already is a exit penalty, that exit penalty the MVC has is small and I doubt it would go over very well if Elgin tried to jack it up.

[Ta town]

well - I'm pretty sure there already is a exit penalty, that exit penalty the MVC has is small and I doubt it would go over very well if Elgin tried to jack it up.

No doubt I know as a WSU fan I don't want that thing going up. Make it as cheap as possible to GTFO when that time comes. Like I said in an earlier post, all you can do is try to make it a conference committed to investing at a high level in basketball. Outside of WSU and CU there isn't a school that does it.

[SB Shock]

No doubt I know as a WSU fan I don't want that thing going up. Make it as cheap as possible to GTFO when that time comes. Like I said in an earlier post, all you can do is try to make it a conference committed to investing at a high level in basketball. Outside of WSU and CU there isn't a school that does it.

I actually think it would be a good thing for CU to leave. We have been taking it in butt from the MVC in basketball and don't even get me started on baseball. If CU leaves then WSU will have to do something (other than the MVC).