Report: Loyola-Chicago to join MVC

[1979Shocker]

Loyola joining the Valley could be a result to the fact that WSU has made it be known that they are looking to leave the Valley. Thus, the Valley leadership chose a shool that is more in their geographic footprint in contrast to a Denver, ORU, or even UMKC.

Intersted in seeing the MoVal Pres' votes. I think WSU might have advised Elgin that they are looking to leave and Elgin asked for silence until a replacement for CU was found.

Let's hope so.

Has WSU really made it known that they want to leave the Valley? Do you have a link (not counting any Shockernet links)? I haven't read anything except for some wishes on here.

[Veritas]

The Loyola BB arena is exactly the kind of BB arena that the WSU women and VB players need. Perfect size.
Loyola does seem to have a pretty good winning percentage there.

http://www.loyolaramblers.com/facilities/loyc-facilities.html

[Veritas]

Has WSU really made it known that they want to leave the Valley? Do you have a link (not counting any Shockernet links)? I haven't read anything except for some wishes on here.

Nope.... I'm trying to read tea leaves rather than drink bitter coffee.

[GoShockers89]

Has WSU really made it known that they want to leave the Valley? Do you have a link (not counting any Shockernet links)? I haven't read anything except for some wishes on here.

In fairness, those links never exist. Creighton never made any statements like that before the Big Priest thing developed. Rutgers didn't have any press releases about wanting to escape the Big East before the B1G swooped them up. Same thing with Syracuse and Louisville and the ACC, West Virginia and the Big XII, and so on.

Speculation and rumors is all that anyone ever has concerning conference realignment. Frustrating, but it is what it is.

[ABC]

Loyola joining the Valley could be a result to the fact that WSU has made it be known that they are looking to leave the Valley. Thus, the Valley leadership chose a shool that is more in their geographic footprint in contrast to a Denver, ORU, or even UMKC.

Intersted in seeing the MoVal Pres' votes. I think WSU might have advised Elgin that they are looking to leave and Elgin asked for silence until a replacement for CU was found.

Let's hope so.

I've been wondering the same thing. It seems plausible.

Or the MVC is smart enough to know that WSU is considering its conference options and thus can't make a decision based on what is best for WSU.

I also agree with Suellentrop that Loyola is the best of a lot of bad options: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2...ces-creighton/

[MadaboutWu]

But with CU the rumors were all over the media. With us it's almost entirely message board chatter. I want out and quick too, but I don't feel optimistic for the short term. Not that I know anything in particular, but based on the radio silence it seems more likely that something would transpire between 1-3 years from now than in the next six months.

[GoShockers89]

CU's situation was pretty unusual though, and before the Big East secession absolutely nobody was talking about CU linking up with Georgetown, Marquette and friends.

I guess I'm saying that by the time a move is "widely talked about," it's pretty much already in the cards. People in the know aren't just gonna leak their latest expansion convos to the local beat writers.

I would be a very happy man if we start seeing multiple outlets picking up a rumor of us going, well, anywhere :)

[shockerfan]

Loyola joining the Valley could be a result to the fact that WSU has made it be known that they are looking to leave the Valley. Thus, the Valley leadership chose a shool that is more in their geographic footprint in contrast to a Denver, ORU, or even UMKC.

Intersted in seeing the MoVal Pres' votes. I think WSU might have advised Elgin that they are looking to leave and Elgin asked for silence until a replacement for CU was found.

Let's hope so.

There ya go! The rumor that was out there that both Loyola and UIC joining is because we are leaving so they needed to bring in 2 schools to give the Valley 10. Lol ok that is just wishful thinking.....

[Shox21]

Many in this land probably still think of the Shockers as a "flash in the pan." I think we will need to sustain our growth and success for a year or two before any meaningful, interesting and acceptable offers come our way. If we don't, then don't expect anyone to beat a path to our door. Who knows, by then even the Valley may have improved greatly. Stranger things have happened.

[EB 22]

With the lack of excitement for Loyola joining the Valley. I wanted to do some quick research and type something up to give everybody a reason to finally get encouraged of the new MVC member. Hope this helps:

Records and Postseason Play
They last made the NCAA Tournament in 1985 going to the Sweet 16. (Five total trips: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1985)
Last made the NIT in 1980 (Four total trips: 1939, 1949, 1962)

They've only had one winning season (conference record) in the Horizon League in the past 10 years. Their overall record in those past 10 years, 140-166, which includes 3 winning seasons in that span.

Basketball Attendance (out of the 4,486 seat Joseph J. Gentile Arena built in 1996, renovated in 2011)
2012: 2,277
2011: 2,428
2010: 2,208
2009: 2,270
2008: 1,776
2007: 2,850
2006: 2,420
2005: 2,451
2004: 2,511
2003: 3,010
Avg Attendance over 10 Years: 2,420

Coaching
Porter Moser is their head coach. He's in his third year there, but knows the Valley well. He was the head coach for Illinois St from 2003-2007 where he compiled a 51-67 record (.432). Once Porter Moser was fired, Illinois St then excelled in the Valley with three straight 20+ win seasons including a Sweet 16 performance.

RPI
2012-13: 264
2011-12: 257
2010-11: 209
2009-10: 200
2008-09: 199
2007-08: 162
2006-07: 132
2005-06: 208
2004-05: 200
2003-04: 112
Avg RPI over 10 Years: 194

[calfan]

I like the addition of Loyola-Chicago to the MVC. I like it for two reasons:

1. The MVC needs bigger media markets for TV contracts. The current media markets are not great.

2. Recruiting- Name the area where WSU's highest rated high school player is from? Hint-Chicago

As others have said, there were no great choices, but from a media standpoint the MVC not being in Chicago is silly.

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

thanks for working on all that info.. but nope doesnt help at all

[jpshocker]

Loyola could be fine in the long term. They have enough money to improve facilities, and maybe they'll come out as an upper-level MVC team after the adjustment period. They have the money to improve, if they decide to invest.

But the problem is, we don't care about their long-term future in the MVC. We care about maximizing what we have right now, and Loyola is a direct threat to that. Marshall has stated that he moved to the MVC partially to avoid having to win the tournament every year, and adding a low quality team makes it harder and harder to do that.

Basically, the addition of Loyola hurts our chances of keeping Marshall. We will jump conferences to avoid losing him. By the time Loyola could be good, Marshall will probably be retired. It isn't like Loyola is the only team that could have done this (UIC or UMKC are the same deal), but we would have vastly preferred a team like Belmont, Denver, or even ORU. With teams like that, we could improve the conference and keep getting at-large bids.

I think that the Valley avoided adding those teams because they want to become the IIAR (Indiana and Illinois Also Rans). They think that is the future. Adding a team like Belmont or Denver would appeal to us, but they probably don't think we will be a member for very long. Why add a team to appeal to a member that is probably going to leave anyway?

Still, I think switching conferences went from a luxury to a necessity with this move. We have to leave at the first opportunity. If we lose Marshall, the doors to the top will be forever closed, and we need to capitalize on our recent success.

No need for the hyperbole yet. While I don't disagree with many of your points don't you think that "if we lose Marshall the doors to the top will be forever closed" is a bit much? We should do everything possible to keep Marshall but there are a lot of pieces in play right now with the Valley. I don't think Loyola-Chicago is going to run Marshall off or necessarily make us a one bid league either. I'm not excited about the addition either but maybe, just maybe, the Valley will use the research and due diiligence from this process to add two more teams next year.

[Rlh04d]

Creighton leaving hurts Wichita state more than adding any other team. No team is going to bring to the table what CU did.

Losing Creighton removes two opportunities for good wins every year.

I'm okay with us not adding another team that's going to give us an opportunity for a good win. I understand that wasn't going to happen.

I'm not okay with us adding two opportunities for bad losses, though. Or going from a top 25 RPI team to a 200+ RPI team, where even if we were to lose to Creighton twice we would get more benefit to our RPI than if we beat Loyola twice.

We now have to go out of our way to schedule tougher non-conference games to make up for our conference.

[Kung Wu]

For me it comes down to this: Porter Moser has been at Loycago for two years. Let's assume the cupboard was very bare, as it was with HC3GM when he came here. You can write off a very poor first season (which Porter had). And you can give grace on a poor second season due to defections and what not as well. But next year is Porter's 3rd season and he better have Loycago cranking.

If he doesn't have them competitive next year we will see how serious Loycago is. If they don't fire him and get a much better coach we will have our answer. They have an excellent facility that will make recruiting easy _for a good coach_. If they aren't willing to do what it takes to get that good coach then it's really a complete waste of their new facilities and a bad invitation on behalf of the MVC.

Now if he does get them cranking then all of our griping is for nothing.

His record in the MVC was not good and there is nothing in his track record to indicate it will be different this time around. But he does get at least one more year because he did improve them from terrible to bad. Now he has to get them from bad to okay. And from okay to competitive the year following. If not we will soon know how committed Loycago is to major basketball.