The Rise & Fall of the Valley

[ShockerPhi]

I posted this in the pinned AAC topic, but is even more relevant here:

Missouri Valley has what it takes without Wichita State



Koch brothers? Unlimited resources? . . . Ok . . .



Did he say that with a straight face?



They really care, because now it's fair.

This entire article summed up beautifully why I was so excited to get out of the Valley. They are all relieved because they now have a shot at winning the league. Guess they don't care about receiving an at large bid ever again... Your comments here were very similar to mine.

[Dice260]

This entire article summed up beautifully why I was so excited to get out of the Valley. They are all relieved because they now have a shot at winning the league. Guess they don't care about receiving an at large bid ever again... Your comments here were very similar to mine.

That's exactly what I got from the article as well. They seem content with one bid year in and year out. It's like as long as they can be competitive with eachother, that's all that matters. I don't understand their thinking.

July 1st can't get here fast enough!

[Dan]

The Valley of Even. Everyone gets a chance to go to the dance and lose in the first round, NCAA credits be damned.

[LandStander]

I love how the perspective is that WSU was bringing the valley "down" when we were propping up the league. I'm paraphrasing here: but in WSU's last 5 years of dominance the valleys power ranking dropped from 12 to 14. Are you kidding me? Someone's logical train of thought on this was: WSU lowered valley's RPI by winning? What would the valley drop to if WSU was already gone? I hated the valley before but since the announcement I have gone from nostalgic, to peripheral, to impartial, to now I hate the valley again. F these guys.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

The Valley is going to get a sobering wake up call this season. The league was 12th in RPI--behind the WCC and CAA, and dangerously close to being eclipsed by the Sun Belt and MAC. Those are four leagues the MVC was considered far superior to just a few years ago.

Everyone losing to WSU never hurt the league, it was crap like the third place MVC team barely above .500 (7-6 in OOC against a weak schedule) with an RPI of 145 that hurt the league.

Seriously, the league needed to stop worrying about losing to WSU and start worrying that it was losing to everyone else.

[im4wsu]

I love how the perspective is that WSU was bringing the valley "down" when we were propping up the league. I'm paraphrasing here: but in WSU's last 5 years of dominance the valleys power ranking dropped from 12 to 14. Are you kidding me? Someone's logical train of thought on this was: WSU lowered valley's RPI by winning? What would the valley drop to if WSU was already gone? I hated the valley before but since the announcement I have gone from nostalgic, to peripheral, to impartial, to now I hate the valley again. F these guys.

maybe they think nobody would notice how atrocious they were if the Shockers hadn't made it so obvious.

[Boss1786]

I know I am going to sound crazy, but I actually agree with the article. With the loss of Creighton and Wichita State, it did severely knock the league back several notches.

It won't be next year, it probably won't be in the next five years. But my guess is within the next 10 years, one or two of the remaining schools are going try to follow the Wichita State footprint and invest heavily in their basketball programs. Especially now they are not competing against us.

I'm not talking final fours, or national championship contenders... But there will be a team that consistently vies for the Valley Championship and occasionally makes some noise in the big dance.

[Boss1786]

And yes, it will be a one bid league 90% of the time

[Aargh]

I know I am going to sound crazy, but I actually agree with the article. With the loss of Creighton and Wichita State, it did severely knock the league back several notches.

It won't be next year, it probably won't be in the next five years. But my guess is within the next 10 years, one or two of the remaining schools are going try to follow the Wichita State footprint and invest heavily in their basketball programs. Especially now they are not competing against us.

I'm not talking final fours, or national championship contenders... But there will be a team that consistently vies for the Valley Championship and occasionally makes some noise in the big dance.

I disagree.

I think AD's and Presidents in the Valley are relieved that WSU is gone. It takes the pressure off of them to spend more on athletics.

It will be interesting to see the effect on attendance in the Valley.

[Dave Stalwart]

I still expect that the team that wins the MVC each year will be a really good team. There will probably be a team that climbs to the 30-80 RPI range each year. The conference isn't necessarily incapable of fielding a great team. It's still a good conference without WSU, but it is absolutely going the way of your average mid-major with one autobid.

I think they really missed an opportunity to expand "bigly." I know there are all kinds of reasons why it's hard to do that and technically it wouldn't have elevated the MVC above the A10 or MWC...but that was never my goal. To me, the reason why they needed to expand to 12, 14 or even 16 was so they could poach the other conferences and create a huge gap. Valpo should have been one of several additions of good schools. Take the conference leaders from several other mid-major conferences while you still have any clout left. Basically differentiate the A10, MWC and MVC from the average mid-major conferences with a giant RPI chasm. Instead, by just adding Valpo, all the MVC did was join the average mid-major conferences for good. Now, the A10 and MWC are probably going to be your only strong mid-majors in the future.

[ShockerFan87]

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I would be interested to see what kind of financial hit hotels, restaurants, etc, in StL takes this year without WSU fans driving in for Arch Madness. I know they took a hit after Creighton left. But losing us has to be a huge economic hit for them.

I'm sure they're thrilled to be getting the SEC tournament the following weekend just to help ease that burden.

[Dave Stalwart]

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I would be interested to see what kind of financial hit hotels, restaurants, etc, in StL takes this year without WSU fans driving in for Arch Madness. I know they took a hit after Creighton left. But losing us has to be a huge economic hit for them.

I'm sure they're thrilled to be getting the SEC tournament the following weekend just to help ease that burden.

No kidding. I wouldn't be surprised if St. Louis bails on the deal after a few years of it being a shell of what it once was. They ought to just move it to that St. Charles arena where we had women's tournaments. That place was nice. The size would make for a great atmosphere with the inevitably smaller crowd.

[ShockerEngr]

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I would be interested to see what kind of financial hit hotels, restaurants, etc, in StL takes this year without WSU fans driving in for Arch Madness. I know they took a hit after Creighton left. But losing us has to be a huge economic hit for them.

I'm sure they're thrilled to be getting the SEC tournament the following weekend just to help ease that burden.

Depends on how much of a bounce they get from the remaining schools fans having more interest in attending due to a personal greater chance to win. Since the valley will likely be a one bid league most years Arch madness becomes some of the only games that actually matter.

On the flip side, most fan bases are a much easier drive so they may just show up for the championship game and not stay in hotels (a la southern Illinois)

[martymoose]

Depends on how much of a bounce they get from the remaining schools fans having more interest in attending due to a personal greater chance to win. Since the valley will likely be a one bid league most years Arch madness becomes some of the only games that actually matter.

On the flip side, most fan bases are a much easier drive so they may just show up for the championship game and not stay in hotels (a la southern Illinois)

I think their chances to win probably aren't much different than before, in 40 years WSU has won the MVC Tourney a whopping 4 times. lol ...and 2 of those were in the last 10 years when you can consider we've been good again. On the flip side, UNI has won it 4 times in the last 10 years....more than any other school.

[BOBB]

In a perfect storm situation with SIU, IlSU, Bradley, and Evansville having greater than ten Valley wins and decent seadons, you could see some big crowds on Friday. Agreed that hotels wouldn't see much bounce as people would likely pick up a night only if their team won. Lord knows I would have driven home many a Friday or Saturday if Wichita was only two hours away.

Edit: now that it wouldn't be convenient for WSU maybe a move to the Hutchinson Sports Arena is imminent.