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It's a little off subject, but man is it good to talk to COLLEGE BASKETBALL FANS talking about the benefits of conference realignment. This Racer is damn proud to be in a conference with Valpo.

If added in 2017, the MVC would have had two more first round NBA draft picks, and the NBA rookie of the year to their credit.

That said, I would bet dollars to donuts that UIC is added very soon.

The private schools (at least from what I have heard) wanted a large metro from which to recruit students. Hence looking at Omaha, Kansas City, Arlington and UIC. They also kicked the tires on Norther Kentucky (Cincy metro) and Milwaukee. Adding Belmont brought a large metro and good athletics. Adding Murray just brought in good athletics. UIC is the compromise school added to help the private schools in their (I think misguided) attempt to stem enrollment losses.

Exciting day! So glad to join the premier Midwest MM basketball conference.

Not sure our two all conference first team players stay, they both have pro all in their sights. That said I don't expect a major drop off, though maybe some growing pains early on. We have a pretty good recruiting class lined up and we are playing 10 deep so far this season so the talent level is there.

We have a top ten player in Missouri, a four star out of Memphis, Jaxson Edwards out of Cathedral in Indianapolis, and a three star center all committed.

United has flights nonstop from O'Hare to Paducah

Or you can hop your private plane and land in Murray.

It's only a six hour drive.

Not too bad for the 44th best program in college basketball.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/the-greatest-college-basketball-programs-ever-ranking-the-top-teams-of-all-time-nos-50-26/

Well, the time has finally come for MURRAY State and Valpo to be conference mates, and I have to say I'm extremely excited. I look forward to seeing you all when it comes time for a trip south. As always, if you have questions about Murray, our team, or anything, I'm here to help.

Here is to a multibid MVC!!

Is Murray nice in wintertime?


It rarely snows, so when it does there is panic in the streets amd the stores are out of bread. When it does snow it's usually about 6" or less but you wouldn't know it from the panic. Most times the temperatures are in the 40s. Sometimes we get ice storms.


But the food is good, most people are nice, and if you slide off the road there is bound to be someone with either a tractor or a 4x4 who will pull you out.


In all honesty, the only time to avoid Murray is in the Summer (even then it's pretty, just hot). The rest of the year is pretty spectacular. If you're the outdoorsy type, look into Land Between The Lakes. This time of year is my favorite though. The tobacco barns are smoking, there is a chill in the air, the leaves are falling, and there is basketball. Doesn't get any better.

Hey VUGrad1314, If all this shakes out and my Racers end up in the Valley, first Valpo conference road game in Murray, Im buying you a beer. Or a bourbon. Hell, maybe both.

Arlington exploring a move

https://twitter.com/tdaragincajuns/status/1433548795808296962?s=21

Putting together a couple rumors (and that is all they are at this point is rumor)- Texas Arlington and Little Rock

I meant to post this earlier, but didn't know exactly where it should go. Its a fun little tool that looks at the statistical changes expected by adding transfers.

https://barttorvik.com/rostercast.php?team=Valparaiso&run=1&player=&transfers=&seniors=&recruits=&everyone=

My point was only about market size rank population wise. the Paducah market is ranked 84 with a population of around 330,000, while Elkhart/SB is ranked  98 with 277,000. Cedar Rapids is is 90 with 311,000 people. Of course Elkhart/SB is far more dense and for same geographic size would cover a much larger population. Here is the list I'm using. Kinda fun to see where everywhere ranks. https://mediatracks.com/resources/nielsen-dma-rankings-2020/

Historically, Murray State has drawn a majority of their students from that same market overlay, which means you have good market saturation, but it also means that as a school, we are very interested in opening up the region in which we are seen. But back to my original point, the ability to make inroads into a market is much easier in a place like ours, whereas in Chicago, its harder to get a blip on the radar. I guess what I'm trying to say, in a very roundabout way, is that the "TV Market" argument is a really weak one to make as a pro or a con for adding a school, Loyola notwithstanding.

I can appreciate that. My biggest concern is that adding teams to "get into the market" only works when the team wins, otherwise its an expensive mistake. I always think about DePaul and Fordham. Both have some followers in their city and when they win they add more, but are bad often enough that they are ignored by their market.

One of the things that many conferences seemingly fail to do is to do a little market research on their potential adds. The biggest knock for my Racers isn't necessarily the media market (the Paducah/Cape Girardeau/Harrisburg market is ranked ahead of Cedar Rapids and South Bend/Elkhart in size) its that SIU already is in that market. What I can tell you is that SIU is not followed all that closely in the southern part of the media market where Murray State is dominant, and Murray State isn't as prevalent as SIU in the northern part.

Chicago State would be a bad add for the OVC, IMO. Not saying they wouldn't do it. One thing I can say for sure, the home office in Brentwood has made some pretty poor calls in the past.

I have watched the feed for some of Belmont's games... they were counting people passing by on their way to someplace else.

I dont understand the Scott Cross firing either.

No worries. In all honesty, I probably should have been more clear about what I was talking about.

I have to admit, I have never been to Lipscomb to see a game. Beautiful campus though. I just dont know how much Nashville cares about college basketball. The OVC had their conference tournament there for years and having gone to many of them, there was very little community support at large. In Evansville, a much smaller town, there is real general interest in college sports and the OVC tournament, to the point that during the OVC tournament, there are always good numbers of Evansville locals just showing up to watch basketball. I know its passè to have a conference tournament on a perceived equal's home floor but the facility os great and the people care.

It was bad enough in Nashville, that Belmont's fans couldn't bother to show up or the championship game in the same city. They would turn out maybe 1000 fans at best. There have been years that there were 8000 Racer fans for the same game.

So to answer your question- Lipscomb isn't quite at the same level, IMO, as Belmont basketball wise, but I have no idea about their fan support.

UTA is a public, Belmont a private. If the expansion is into Texas, its much more likely that the public comes from there. Otherwise you are looking at Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian.or Houston  Baptist or outside Texas Oral Roberts in Tulsa.  The other thing said in the OP, was that the Texas university would be in a major city. That drops ACU. So then the MVC is looking at Incarnate Word, Houston Baptist, or the like. If Texas is home to the public in this scenario, that opens up Texas Arlington. Arlington is between Dallas and Ft Worth, and about 19 miles from DFW airport.

Assuming that public/private balance is required, that would mean that the MVC is probably leaning towards a private in a large city. Bellarmine could be that. But Belmont would fit better with their name being thrown around before.

I don't want that to happen. Not the least of which is that it would screw my Racers.

But, and this is something that made Valpo getting the invite over the Racers in the last round palatable, Belmont has no fan support. None. And that is with a tremendous amount of success. Valpo has huge buy in from their nearby area. They pack the gym, they support their team, and they do so seemingly come hell or high water. Belmont, as a basketball team, would absolutely fit the MVC. As a program who can't sell out their building even when they are good, that doesn't fit, IMO.

In all honesty I'm not sure if there is any truth to either. Chattanooga was a surprise to me as well.

During the last round of MVC expansion, Texas- Arlington was mentioned by folks I talked to, but if public/private split is important that might not be reasonable.

My worry would be that they add a Texas public like UTA and Belmont. Both would fit the OP.

Frankly I would be physically ill if that happened.

Now this is all rumor so tifwiw

OVC is adding two. The scuttlebutt is Chattanooga and Western Illinois.

As for Peay, I highly doubt the go anywhere. There is very little support in Clarksville.

Yes, expansion that doesn't involve Murray St or Belmont is just expansion for the sake of expansion.

I support this message...

Hello to all. I was cruising the board and thought I would drop in. Wanted to give you all some rumors on OVC expansion if you are interested but the tl;dr on that is that they won't do anything to sway the Racers, if the MVC came calling I think we would answer.

Expansion should never be about a single player or year. That is why I dont worry about Murray State if expansion were to happen. Also why Valpo to the MVC was and is the right call, despite the first couple years. Its like buying stock. Short positions vs long positions. Losing Ja Morant makes Murray State short positions look worse than they probably are. Knowing that Ja is another great player in a line of great players at his position that includes a lottery pick, a 2nd rounder, and a G Leaguer makes the long position for Murray State far more positive

I take no offense to the talk about remoteness. We are two hours away from an international airport. That is just a fact. There is a regional airport about 45 mins away from Murray that has direct service to O'Hare.

But to those who would say that is too far, I would ask this question- how long would it take you right now to get to O'hare in a bus if you left right now?


(Normally I do this with Houston as anyone who has ever driven in Houston can attest, wherever you are, you are two hours at least from the airport)

This is a little off topic, but I actually had someone challenge me on this,

What is Valpo's travel look like in the Valley? 50/50 bus to plane? What was it when you guys were in the Horizon?

I will put it this way. This season, Valpo is 194 in the NET. That would be good enough for 5th in the OVC. The next highest OVC team would be Eastern Kentucky, 70 spots lower. Now, you may believe that this has been a bad stretch for your team. Historically I would agree, especially after the sustained success your program has achieved.


Here is something to think about.

The average NET for games against the top 3 other OVC NET teams and the entire OOC (D1 only) schedule for the Racers this season (15 games) is 149.53.
The Average NET of the rest of the games vs the OVC (13 games) is 301.5.

If we did nothing more than take away the 13 games against NET average 301.5 teams, and replaced them with lets say, 13 or so games vs teams with a NET average of 170 or so, that would be an equivalent NET schedule of Wofford.

The kicker? the MVC average NET is 170.