We will have to respectfully disagree on the A-10. I don’t think it changes 17 year olds minds whether they come to play in the Valley against Bradley and northern Iowa or go play against Dayton and Duquesne. Ultimately, mid major success is about the type of guys you can recruit. IF (big if) we got invited to the A-10, you have to consider the fact that we would probably be going there without Moser. You start A-10 play with a new coach trying to recruit in a better (overall) league, and you don’t know what you’re going to get. We might sink down to an A-10 bottom feeder for several years before we even have a chance to build ourselves back up.

We now have seen what a winning program and sustained success looks like, and I, personally, am not ready to start over again right now and risk losing it. It was hard work + the transfer market + “buy in” that got us where we are now, but we all would be fools if we didn’t acknowledge it also required, at least, a little bit of luck. We went from finishing dead last in the conference our first year in the Valley, to winning it and going to a Final Four in 5 years! That’s insane.

As long as we have Moser, I’m confident that we will finish in the top 3 in the Valley each year and have a legit chance of making the tournament. Hope will always be there throughout each season. We aren’t finishing 6th any time soon. The question is, if/when he leaves, can our program sustain success? Do we get a coach that can sustain and expand upon it (Brad Stevens-Butler), or do we get someone like Paul Hewitt after George Mason lost Jim Larranega (who slowly let George Mason erode back down to basketball irrelevance)? We don’t have a Brad Stevens-like guy right now who could take the baton and keep running. We DID have that type of guy... but he’s now the head coach of SIU. If we ever have to rebuild, we are going to have a hell of better chance of doing it in the Valley than we would in the A-10.

If going to a better conference with more bids and playing against bigger name schools is what you think will make Loyola basketball fandom more successful and fun, I highly encourage you to talk to a DePaul fan and ask them how much fun they’ve had the past 10 years.

If we are going to jump to a better conference, I want to see us do it after we’ve had 2 coaches prove we are above the league we are in as a program. Otherwise, I’m afraid one step forward may turn out to be 3 steps back.

Cigarboy sucks.

2 things
1) I think the team as it's currently constructed could absolutely compete and win in the A10. I don't think we would need to make a big recruiting jump to get there.
2) The point is not that it's a more prestigious league or whatever, but that it's just got better teams. Loyola's conference play right now only impacts tournament seeding and a bid to the NIT. In a world in which our B1G neighbors refuse to play us in the non-con, the only way for Loyola to get enough quality games on the schedule is for the MVC to get drastically better or for Loyola to join a more competitive league.

Fair enough about travel for non-revenue sports. I'm just speaking as a fan of the basketball team right now. As a fan I find it irksome that the whole season comes down to a weekend in St. Louis and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.

You made some great points Toledo, I agree with you 100%. Especially on the Cigarboy sucks comment.

According to KenPom.com, Loyola would be the 3rd place team in the Big East, the 2nd place team in the AAC, and the 1st place team in the A-10.

That is true, but would our stats be the same if we were playing BE level competition? The best win that we have is against a team ranked 91, the average kenpom ranking in the BE is 59. The average in the MVC is 150.

I wasn't going by wins and losses, only the KenPom ranking. The ranking is done by efficiency metrics and does account for opponent's metrics.

If there’s any interest, it would likely be reported by Matt Brown of Extra Points as that guy has broken WAC/ASUN realignment rumors months before national media.

I would not recommend going to the MVC board for information. It’s effectively a Valpo fan posting long-winded conspiracies and reporting every little thing he’s read on a message board like he’s a reporter for the National Enquirer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone not familiar with his ramblings post his misinformation on their team board (it even happened here once ).

Not to change the subject, but think about the old MCC/Horizon league when LU was in it. The conference had at one point at its height:

1) LU
2) Xavier
3) Oral Roberts
4) Butler
5) St. Louis
6) Detroit Mercy
7) Dayton
8) Marquette
9) Evansville

They were trying to get Notre Dame and even told them they could keep all their football revenue. They also tried to get DePaul into the conference.

Had these schools stuck together, it very well could have become a power conference. After the bigger names left, we wallowed in the Horizon League, which was a rebranded version of the MCC until we got accepted into the MVC.

The MCC was a fun conference and the basketball was good.

There was a powerpoint-like video summarizing the MCC on Youtube recently. It was pretty good.

well this is a fun discussion but again has there been any talk or info of either expansion or a new conference.?......the biggest factor will always be money......It was our biggest hurdle in the Valley...to get our mens basketball budget inline with the rest of the Valley.....I remember when they were begging for money just so they could charter a flight to SIU for an important game....I have not looked at the budgets in the A-10 but guessing they are a bump up from the Valley....