(10-04-2019 07:50 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(10-03-2019 11:18 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-03-2019 11:16 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  The MVCFans board had 106-pg and 69-pg threads of people yelling for it.

Whether it's right or wrong in this case, it would be perilous or worse for any conference's leadership to just take direction from message boards, or Twitter, or whatever.

Exactly. I actually think that the MVC is an example where the university president focus on TV markets and academics actually worked out exactly how they wanted competitively and financially. The same MVC fans were calling for Murray State when the MVC was looking for replacements after Creighton defected to the Big East. Yet, the MVC presidents were focused on what we all here know are the critical factors for conference realignment: TV markets, demographics, academic prestige, etc. Many MVC fans at that time decried the ultimate choice of adding Loyola was one based on image and snobbery with a pie-in-the-sky wish for the Chicago market as opposed to the on-the-court product.

Yet, Loyola then making the Final Four several years later was worth *infinitely* more than any other single school than who the MVC could have ever realistically added. A Final Four school directly in the city of Chicago!! You can’t really get much better than that outside of the power conferences.

At the end of the day, is Murray State worth anything if they have zero wins? Do they bring a valuable TV market? Do they have a national brand that compensates for a smaller local market (such as Nebraska football or Gonzaga basketball)? Do they bring any academic prestige? Are they located in a key recruiting area (both for athletes and “regular” students)? If the answer is no, then they aren’t really valuable from a conference realignment perspective regardless of on-the-court performance.

The MVC presidents actually made exactly the right call several years ago when they ignored the short-sighted wishes of fans and then added Loyola. There’s a reason why they’re in charge instead of the fans.

Kentucky is a good recruiting area. And they won't have zero wins.

I thought Marshall was a bad choice for the MAC when they were added for the same reasons you discuss above, along with the possibility that Marshall would recruit the same area as the existing MAC schools, thinning out talent. I thought they should have combined Buffalo with Northern Illinois at the time. Turns out Marshall to the MAC was one of the best conference moves made over the last 25 years. It put the MAC back on the map.

Loyola had a history, even if it was a ways back. Murray is a better choice than Cleveland St. or Robert Morris or Detroit because they have a tradition of winning and good fan support. Doesn't matter that they are closer to Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky than they are to any skyscrapers.