Sorry for the title. Having a bit of fun.

Go take a look at this thread on the other board. It'll give you a few chuckles.

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Cigarboy sucks!

You got me to go read it. Some of the sky is falling crap annoys me, but the simple fact is that IF the AAC were to call on us to offset Navy we'd jump in a heartbeat. Better TV, more money, areas we recruit, bigger markets, more prestige.

The odds of that happening may be slim, but I think Navy doesn't join unitl the '15-'16 and we wouldn't be considered before then. Which means we have a couple more years were we need to remain a big player and I think we can do that. But I also think the odds of us getting that invite are slim. We'd also leave I think for the MWC if the AAC didn't want us. I don't see the A10 as an option considering what they're going to lose in the next few years.

I like the MVC, but I've been frustrated for years about what is seen as a lack of commitment to top basketball by a number of schools. And it's not because they don't want it, it's because they can't afford it and don't know how to go about growing it to support it. Outside of you guys and Bradley, I'm not sure who could finance and maintain a top program. There may be a couple of others but you can't retain coaches if you can't pay them seven figures. Not that you have to start them there, but if they're successful, they must be rewarded or you're starting over. And the lower you start your pay, the more risk involved with the hire.

I want the MVC to be strong. I know it'll be stronger than this year moving forward, but I'm not sure the ceiling appears to be high enough to warrant WSU staying if they should have the opportunity to move.

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The Roundhouse

Anyone would leave for a bigger conference given the chance.

I feel fine.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

+1

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Cigarboy sucks!

I read through that thread last night, but didn't bother to comment. One thing they didn't mention at all in the perceived decline of the MVC is the proliferation of newer conferences. The AAC is less than a year old, cobbled together from former Big East football schools. The Big East as it exists today is composed of schools that three years ago were in the Horizon, MVC, A-10, and Big East. The Great Midwest was created in the early 90s, and became Conference USA in 1995. There are conferences that have appeared and disappeared, such as the Metro, East Coast, and Southwestern.

Football is obviously the thing that is driving the chaos and hopscotching. The money and overall interest in football has overwhelmed athletic deparments that used to be content to focus primarily on basketball while fielding a football team as an afterthought. The effect has been the big conferences getting bigger, and the basketball only schools clustering in new enclaves. The addition of 70 or so new schools to Division I basketball since the late 1980s has kept many of the smaller conferences a revolving door of newer DI schools replacing longtime basketball schools departing for the likes of the A-10, Big East, and others.

The "glory days" of the MVC referred to in the thread is a more ancient concept than Loyola in the NCAA Tournament. Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis haven't been in the MVC since the late 60s/early 70s. I highly doubt that people in those cities ever think about Wichita as having any type of kinship whatsoever with them, even if WSU fans feel like they do.

I think the enormous changes in conference membership over the past several years will create some object lessons for athletic directors to think twice before jumping up in conferences. Butler and DePaul are really having a hard time in the Big East, and our MVC adjustment has been more daunting than envisioned. Maybe George Mason has a few second thoughts about leaving the Colonial.

The criticism that the MVC is focused mostly on survival, rather than improvement, is ridiculous to me. The MVC is in a stronger place today than it was for a lot of the past 35 years, which is something a lot of conferences can't claim. Thirty years ago this year, the MVC had 60% of the same members-- Tulsa and Creighton have left the conference, and West Texas A&M no longer plays Division I. The schools that have been added-- Northern Iowa, Missouri State, Evansville, and Loyola-- have a good mix of history, potential, and recent success. Other than that, it's the same conference, except for Wichita State being a national power on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Most people would say that Northern Iowa is a better basketball school than Tulsa today. Losing Creighton was certainly a blow to the conference, but next year they will be without Doug McDermott (the nation's leading scorer) for the first time in five years.

The fortunes of conferences wax and wane. Every one of these conferences that can straddle the line between mid-major and major have had varying levels of success. That's mostly out of a single team's control. If I'm Wichita, I don't have a problem dominating the MVC until the right opportunity comes along the lines. There's no need to rush into the first non-MVC conference that will have you just because there's an opening. Especially with how football has driven the expansion and realignment, the AAC strikes me as fairly unstable and I imagine there will be more realignment along the lines of the current Big East. The divide between football/basketball school and solely basketball schools will grow, and the like minded universities will inevitably coalesce.

Xavier, Butler, and Creighton all built their Big East credentials (a basketball based conference) on very consistent conference dominance. Butler went A-10 briefly, but it was all based over sustained success. Wichita's day will certainly come. They should go to the right situation and where the money is. Wichita should definitely follow the money.

And that's why there's no way I think DePaul or Butler regrets moving up. That FS1 TV deal money comes regardless of basketball success. DePaul has been out of their depth since they jumped from C-USA to the Big East anyway. They still get the conference tournament at Madison Square Garden. If the chance to jump is there, you go--short-term basketball consequences be damned. The name of the game is money and exposure. And that's why Loyola went to the MVC, why Butler went to the A-10 and Big East, and why Syracuse and Pitt decided to go ACC. Some are just concerned with football and some are not.

Wichita must want to get out ASAP because they fear the inevitable rise to MVC dominance of the Ramblers.

You have to wonder when transportation costs and the inability of fan bases to go to few away games will catch up with the Midwest schools that have switched conferences. I know Depaul gets Madison Square Garden but I wonder how many of their fans make the trip? The longer trips and stay times for the athletes. And yes there is TV money but eventually you get what Depaul has ,,,,a paper tiger with few people or students in the stand...then you are just a TV show with few ties to your original community.

DePaul also loses $15 million a year on athletics according to that faculty letter that was going around a few weeks ago.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Don't most college athletic departments lose money? Or is that just most athletic departments with football programs? I remember this one USA Today article I can't find (if I have time later, I'll give it a better search), but it was the exception, not the rule for an athletic department to turn a profit. Like Texas, OSU, Bama, OK, and a few others did and every other college program was just trying to keep up with the Joneses in the hope of eventually turning a profit or just staying competitive to continue to draw undergraduates that will keep the university afloat (boy everything is connected).