(04-23-2021 08:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(04-23-2021 07:15 AM)MattBrownEP Wrote:  

(04-22-2021 11:21 PM)Foreverandever Wrote:  Denver doesn't work not only because they don't have history but the cost of travel is prohibitive for them and likely the league.

The travel costs aren't prohibitive. Denver already flies to most of their athletic contests, and flies a LOT for their two highest profile programs (hockey and lacrosse). The cost difference between flying to Kansas City and flying to Chicago is marginal. And like I've said multiple times, the cost increase for the rest of the league in travel does not matter if *the schools believe they can make up the difference in recruiting students in that market*. Metro markets that are heavy with transplants often export college students, and each league school only needs to add a handful of new students from that market to pay for the new flights.

Denver does not have a history in the league, that is correct, and neither does that market.

Denver wouldn't be skeered of somewhat higher travel costs. I'm 99% that they fly to KC, Omaha, the Dakotas, Tulsa (and, soon, St Paul)--the Summit is not a bus league for Denver.

What I question is the big assumption that joining the MVC is a good way to increase Chicago recruiting. You've got ONE school in Chicago, plus Valpo an hour away. Recruiting students from Terre Haute, Evansville, Des Moines, etc seems like a bad reason to change conferences. It's not like the eastern seaboard conferences where that list would be Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore-Washington.

If you want to increase Chicago recruiting, instead of spending a $50,000-$500,000 on increased travel for sports, in hopes that a high school student notices a 50-word article in a local newspaper on page 17 of a sports section of a newspaper that is barely even printed anymore--you could just spend that money on advertising targeting Chicagoland high school seniors.

Heck, if there's really a strong "play sports in that city to recruit students from that city", the Summit puts them in KC, Omaha, Tulsa, Minneapolis-St Paul. That's 4 trips a year to decent-sized metros, compared to one, maybe 2 in the Valley

Travel isn't just about money.

These aren't mini pro teams they have students, and again flying to major metro areas as opposed to some places in the valley is. It's also not really a cultural fit where as some of those flights for hockey and lacrosse aren't just the athletic recruiting grounds, they are too schools Denver wants to align itself with. Southern Illonios and Missouri St they ain't.