YES- Writer argues that A-10 should pursue Wichita State

[proshox]

Besides being boring to watch, this year's MVC has provided WSU with an excellent opportunity to establish it's brand.

Gonzaga had a similar situation in the early 2000s and it worked out pretty well for them.

[Shocks2005]

The ONLY option we might get outside of staying MVC is A10. Anyone who thinks we could land in a football driven conference is crazy.. (ACC and MWC is a flat no chance.) That being said. A10 could provide what the MVC is lacking, even without SLU, Dayton, or potentially others.

[Play Angry]

Regardless, you can be sure that this year's run is making us more attractive than we've ever been in the last 25+ years to any potential suitors.

Whether that is enough remains to be seen.

[Topshock]

Actually the American Athletic Conference (AAC) needs a school that does not have football, as Navy is a member for only football.

The Mountain West Conference (MWC) needs a school that does not have football, as Hawaii is a member for only football.

[CBB_Fan]

I don't see any positives for going to the A10. The best schools in the A10 are flight risks and an A10 without Saint Louis (100% chance gone to BE), Dayton, and/or VCU would just not be good. Yes, some other schools have decent RPIs, but remember that when a high RPI schools leaves it reduces the SOS and RPI of every other school in the league (ie, Creighton this year). We wouldn't get paid more, we wouldn't attract more attention from national audiences (total of 1.08 million viewers for the entire conference in 2008), and we'd have a lot more travel.

The A10 is a lateral or even negative move. I'd argue that travel costs would actually make us lose money, and no one watches the A10. The only positives for the league are looking to flee, which tells me that we shouldn't try to jump on the sinking ship unless it manages to right itself and establish itself clearly above the MVC. We'd be better served as a basketball-only in the AAC or MWC or as a member of the Big East. I've even started to wonder whether we could have success as an independent.

[Topshock]

Travel in the AAC would not be bad. Travel in the proposed west division would not be bad at all. If you play the east division once per year that would be 3 of them on the road per year. Two could be played on one road trip for a total of just two road trips east.

[WuShock16]

I've even started to wonder whether we could have success as an independent.

No, no, and no. You think our conference schedule is bad this year? Try having a January and February full of Houston Baptist, Utah Valley, Chicago State, Texas Pan-American, etc. That also means the rest of our sports would be independent. I like where your head is at, but as much as I love my alma mater, we don't have the cache of a Notre Dame or Texas to try to pull that off.

[Steeleshocker]

I'm wondering if the monstrosity of college football will be separated entirely from the NCAA, allowing universities to select which conference they want to be in for football without worrying about the travel associated with other sports.

When that happens every conference will become a geographically oriented basketball conference. I propose we join the big 12 or big 10.

[Play Angry]

Travel costs are such an overstated excuse. I'm not saying the A-10 is a great option, but travel $$$ really is not the difference maker it's made out to be. Nobody ever tosses out concrete numbers on this issue- they just assume that MOAR DISTANCE = PROHIBITIVE CO$T$. It really does not.

Men's hoops already flies charter, so the costs there remain relatively static. Women's hoops, Softball, Baseball and Volleyball are the other sports that actually play true road games against conference foes. And we only bus to 1 location (Missouri State) for most of those sports last I checked- the rest fly. And if you have experience with booking corporate travel, you'll know that a flight into lolEvansville or whatever podunk MVC airport you're going to is often the same price as flying into Charlotte, DC, and other farflung locations. The MVC is extremely travel friendly for the Illinois schools since they bus to each other, not so much for us.

Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Track, etc. are basically unaffected by a new arrangement since they play on a meet/tournament basis. It's not like we'd be paying to fly a dozen non-revenue sports to play St. Bonaventure's every year.


/rant

[Ricardo del Rio]

Gotta keep St. Louis and Dayton in the A-10 or they are the Valley except on Eastern Standard Time.

....except on Eastern Standard Time.

Clever line

[pogo]

My own perspective would be to forget about the MWC and stick with a conference A-10 or AAC due to the media exposure. Most of the sports scores in the MWC as well as the PAC-12 don't even make the papers the following day due to the time differential. Most of the large media outlets are on the east coast so being in the MWC gets no run until the following day and that is usually as a "oh by the way" type of lead.

[Play Angry]

Do people under 65 still buy newspapers? ;)

[shoxlax]

Travel costs are such an overstated excuse. I'm not saying the A-10 is a great option, but travel $$$ really is not the difference maker it's made out to be. Nobody ever tosses out concrete numbers on this issue- they just assume that MOAR DISTANCE = PROHIBITIVE CO$T$. It really does not.

Men's hoops already flies charter, so the costs there remain relatively static. Women's hoops, Softball, Baseball and Volleyball are the other sports that actually play true road games against conference foes. And we only bus to 1 location (Missouri State) for most of those sports last I checked- the rest fly. And if you have experience with booking corporate travel, you'll know that a flight into lolEvansville or whatever podunk MVC airport you're going to is often the same price as flying into Charlotte, DC, and other farflung locations. The MVC is extremely travel friendly for the Illinois schools since they bus to each other, not so much for us.

Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Track, etc. are basically unaffected by a new arrangement since they play on a meet/tournament basis. It's not like we'd be paying to fly a dozen non-revenue sports to play St. Bonaventure's every year.


/rant

For minor sports,


We fly and not bus to everywhere but Springfield? I guess I didn't know that. If so you convinced me.

[Mr. Obvious]

Travel costs are such an overstated excuse. I'm not saying the A-10 is a great option, but travel $$$ really is not the difference maker it's made out to be. Nobody ever tosses out concrete numbers on this issue- they just assume that MOAR DISTANCE = PROHIBITIVE CO$T$. It really does not.

Men's hoops already flies charter, so the costs there remain relatively static. Women's hoops, Softball, Baseball and Volleyball are the other sports that actually play true road games against conference foes. And we only bus to 1 location (Missouri State) for most of those sports last I checked- the rest fly. And if you have experience with booking corporate travel, you'll know that a flight into lolEvansville or whatever podunk MVC airport you're going to is often the same price as flying into Charlotte, DC, and other farflung locations. The MVC is extremely travel friendly for the Illinois schools since they bus to each other, not so much for us.

Golf, Tennis, Cross Country, Track, etc. are basically unaffected by a new arrangement since they play on a meet/tournament basis. It's not like we'd be paying to fly a dozen non-revenue sports to play St. Bonaventure's every year.


/rant

Creightons additional travel cost were thought to be $260k. Anyone know what the A10's TV package is valued at?

[Awesome Sauce Malone]

If I have a vote (I dont) I would say im 50/50 on the mwc/AAC

aac has more attractive names and we recruit this area HEAVILY

MWC might be better long term