Big Red
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RE: MVC adding UIC
(02-05-2022 10:01 AM)Big Red Wrote: (02-05-2022 04:38 AM)pvk75 Wrote: (02-04-2022 11:21 PM)Big Red Wrote: (02-04-2022 11:02 PM)pvk75 Wrote: (02-04-2022 09:04 PM)Huskie D Wrote: Let's be honest - UIC is a men's bball school only, and a fairly irrelevant one at that. The school garners minimal sports media coverage. Loyola leaving and UIC joining is not a net gain for the MVC. I've gone to bbal games at both Loyola and UIC - If you think our attendance is poor, go to a UIC game!
I went on Milwaukee and Green Bays Boards - They are concerned with no Chicago presence in the HL. If you think the MAC is weak, HL is worse.
Made me think when I was on Milwaukee's board...Not a bad move for them to join the MAC (no chance that they'd have football so that could be a non starter). We play them already in a few sports. They would be the closest conference school for us. Academically they are on par with us and the other MAC schools.
Some general observations:
--- IF!!!! the MAC were to expand without football being the big concern (which I seriously doubt), UW-Milwaukee and either Southern Indiana (USI) or Northern Kentucky would be ideal adds. Just an opine, not a suggestion.
--- As for Chicago State, they are looking at starting football. It would be cheaper to start baseball and that would boost the Horizon's interest.
--- USI will be a Horizon target.
--- UIC's athletic program was not the target. The Chicago market was the MVC's target.
--- However, the MVC could be a refresher for the Flames that will boost their attitude and their efforts. Likewise, adding UIC could result in an MVC push in Chicago for the whole conference.
Change can provide the impetus/energy for renewed effort ... excitement, news value, promotions, etc. Compare this to the same-old same=old MAC.
What all this means I have no idea. However, this does not bode well for whatever "presence" NIU and the MAC have/want in Chicago. A rebuilt/rebuilding MVC could push the MAC down in the ranks of bball mid-majors.
Eh...
The MVC is a basketball conference, whereas the MAC is football focused. People still like football more than basketball, and that matters.
Yeah...MVC has football but its FCS and that matters. Also, UIC doesn't have, and will never have, football.
I must be missing something. I never suggested UIC start up football and join the MVFC. Of course they won't. I was talking bball. And while football is the top in the MAC, not building up everything else is dangerous to the MAC's future.
The P5 seems to be going semi-pro, there may be a P5 separation from everybody else, the NCAA is fading as a governing body for college sports, the P5 is proposing to have conferences management rule/violation enforcement (think fox-henhouse), the transfer portal was created by and for the P5, and NIL/pay-for-play will be largely the purview of the P5, which has the resources for it.
And, yes, people still like football more than bball ... except it's not always football season. Look what happened to NIU when MBB was left to flounder for 10 years.
Yeah, I didn't communicate well.
I guess my point was that moving down a notch or whatever in the mid-major basketball ranks isn't all that big of a deal. There's basically a big blob of interchanging parts once you get below that group of "mid-major" basketball conferences that aren't technically in the Power conferences but kind of tiptoe in and out of that conversation (AAC, Big East, Mountain West, WCC [which is in reality, one ridiculously great team and then two pretty good teams and then basically average to nothing the rest of the way], A-10).
After that, its all basically a bunch of 1 bid conferences and they kind of cycle about for superiority. Until you get down to conferences like the MEAC, Big South, WAC (before the expansion but maybe even still since they're losing New Mexico State and Sam Houston State), SWAC, Southland, etc.
So, yeah, I didn't articulate it but the overall idea was that a rebranded MVC doesn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things in regards to the MAC. Especially as long as the MAC is going to not put any more importance in it's basketball standing (which I've thought for a long time is a mistake, but it's one the conference is making on purpose).
One other thing...
While getting back into (or staying in) Chicago was really important to the MVC (for a lot of reasons), that conference is headquartered in St. Louis and they hold their championship ship there as well.
This is never going to be a Chicago-centric conference and they're never going to host their conference tournament here.
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