Drew
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Expanding its horizon: Missouri Valley’s future decided soon
I woke up Thursday to various reports saying the Missouri Valley’s university presidents will hold a meeting next week on expansion.
A school hoping to join the Valley will need seven of the nine presidents to say “yes” on Monday. By Tuesday, we’ll learn if any are accepted – with those schools becoming a full member for the next school year.
It appears the Valley has narrowed it’s list to four schools; Murray State, Nebraska-Omaha, Valparaiso, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. MVC officials visited those campuses in recent weeks to see the facilities and meet their potential, new-partners.
For me, you lose one school – you bring in one school. That makes the most sense. But, as I started thinking about it I thought, “why not two or three?”
With two additions, yes the Valley would have 11 schools – but what’s wrong with odd numbers? Schools could play a 20-game, conference basketball schedule. Currently the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) is the only D-I league to have a 20-game conference schedule.
We’ve heard from coaches this past season, including Paul Lusk, saying it’s hard to schedule as a mid-major. You cannot get home and home games with Power Five Conferences. The good mid-majors already have full schedules or have scheduling conflicts to make open dates work.
So if you have 11 or even 12 schools in the Valley, you fill up your schedule easier. There’s less open dates to find the Chicago State’s or Fontbonne’s of the world. That might give you the flexibility to land that top-120 RPI school.
Also, there’s strength in numbers. Let’s say a team, or two, has a bad recruiting year, defections or injuries. With ten teams, those one or two schools bring down the entire conference RPI by a lot. But, if there are 12 teams, the down years by those two schools don’t doom the entire conference as bad.
I woke up Thursday to various reports saying the Missouri Valley’s university presidents will hold a meeting next week on expansion.
A school hoping to join the Valley will need seven of the nine presidents to say “yes” on Monday. By Tuesday, we’ll learn if any are accepted – with those schools becoming a full member for the next school year.
It appears the Valley has narrowed it’s list to four schools; Murray State, Nebraska-Omaha, Valparaiso, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. MVC officials visited those campuses in recent weeks to see the facilities and meet their potential, new-partners.
For me, you lose one school – you bring in one school. That makes the most sense. But, as I started thinking about it I thought, “why not two or three?”
With two additions, yes the Valley would have 11 schools – but what’s wrong with odd numbers? Schools could play a 20-game, conference basketball schedule. Currently the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) is the only D-I league to have a 20-game conference schedule.
We’ve heard from coaches this past season, including Paul Lusk, saying it’s hard to schedule as a mid-major. You cannot get home and home games with Power Five Conferences. The good mid-majors already have full schedules or have scheduling conflicts to make open dates work.
So if you have 11 or even 12 schools in the Valley, you fill up your schedule easier. There’s less open dates to find the Chicago State’s or Fontbonne’s of the world. That might give you the flexibility to land that top-120 RPI school.
Also, there’s strength in numbers. Let’s say a team, or two, has a bad recruiting year, defections or injuries. With ten teams, those one or two schools bring down the entire conference RPI by a lot. But, if there are 12 teams, the down years by those two schools don’t doom the entire conference as bad.
