Valpo to be visited by MVC this week, thoughts?

[wh]

That was beautifully written and all that and that might impress Evansville, Drake, Missouri State or Loyola but....

Those sound like fighting words! We should settle this on the court...twice a year...every year. 

I agree. We haven't had any good-natured trash talking since Butler left the HL (on a 4-game losing streak to Valpo, I might add).   

[ISUBird]

The ARC is in its Sunday best and looking good. Bleachers out (upper and lower), scorer's table and team seating set up, scoreboard lit up with lighted "welcome" signs on all 4 sides, 30-second basket clocks and "end zone" scoreboards lit up, and, of course, the seemingly endless display of NCAA and NIT Tournament banners and conference championship banners that MVC teams could only dream of. As I quietly stood there a simple message softly echoed from the rafters, "You are standing on holy ground."  It was a spiritual experience.

The MVC still has 3 schools with a S16 in the last 10 seasons.

That was beautifully written and all that and that might impress Evansville, Drake, Missouri State or Loyola but....

Contrary to popular national belief the MVC was more than Creighton and WSU. Keep in kind Creighton has never been out of the first weekend.

Without looking it up, I'm going to guess that those same 3 schools also have 1 S16 in the last 20 years - the same as Valpo. 

Now back to those NCAA, NIT and conference championship banners at the ARC that have grown steadily over the past 20 years (the ultimate benchmark for winning tradition, meaning we were good 20 years ago, 15 years ago, etc., all the way to last years 30 wins and this year's 24). Would you care to compare your numbers to those?  Save the research.  For time sake I'll shortcut to your answer.  "Well, we'd have that many championships and NCAA/NIT appearances if we played in the Horizon and Summit."  Yep.

You'd be wrong.   

[agibson]

We're in the middle of a $250 Million fundraising campaign. If the MVC makes us pay our way, I think we can manage if it's truly a priority.

Hard to say if the fundraising campaign will make it easier or harder to raise any extra money for an MVC move. The campaign is for endowment, and you're not going to pay for a one-time athletic expense on the order of $1M out of endowment.

I imagine that they'll look for targeted gifts, same as Oakland seems to have done when they joined the Horizon. And some of their candidates may have made significant gifts already in the current campaign.

Hopefully they can find some folks with a special place in their hearts for athletics, and an understanding of one-time expenses.

[crusaderjoe]

I'm not an insider, but I think I'm going to up my prediction from 65% to 90% Valpo to the MVC if the MVC moves to 11.  Just a feeling.

[oklahomamick]

Big IF they go to 11.

[SanityLost17]

I am going to be highly pessimistic on all of this.   

I think the MVC stays at 10 and although the MVC really wishes they could go back in time and take Valpo instead of Loyola, they can't.  Wichita State was a public school, so they are going to add a public school.  Murray State will go in ahead of us despite our 3-0 record over them recently.  Main argument cited will be Murray State's attendance figures.  At that point I will be even more furious with the way the HL has scheduled away our home crowds.  No saturday games, students on break for rivalry games, Friday night games when all the local high schools are playing (Holy ground in Indiana), and the list goes on.  It is almost as if the HL is trying to keep attendance down so that nobody is attractive to other conferences.   

[jloose128]

The ARC is in its Sunday best and looking good. Bleachers out (upper and lower), scorer's table and team seating set up, scoreboard lit up with lighted "welcome" signs on all 4 sides, 30-second basket clocks and "end zone" scoreboards lit up, and, of course, the seemingly endless display of NCAA and NIT Tournament banners and conference championship banners that MVC teams could only dream of. As I quietly stood there a simple message softly echoed from the rafters, "You are standing on holy ground."  It was a spiritual experience.

The MVC still has 3 schools with a S16 in the last 10 seasons.

That was beautifully written and all that and that might impress Evansville, Drake, Missouri State or Loyola but....

Contrary to popular national belief the MVC was more than Creighton and WSU. Keep in kind Creighton has never been out of the first weekend.

Without looking it up, I'm going to guess that those same 3 schools also have 1 S16 in the last 20 years - the same as Valpo. 

Now back to those NCAA, NIT and conference championship banners at the ARC that have grown steadily over the past 20 years (the ultimate benchmark for winning tradition, meaning we were good 20 years ago, 15 years ago, etc., all the way to last years 30 wins and this year's 24). Would you care to compare your numbers to those?  Save the research.  For time sake I'll shortcut to your answer.  "Well, we'd have that many championships and NCAA/NIT appearances if we played in the Horizon and Summit."  Yep.

You'd be wrong.   

Technically in the last ten NCAA tournaments, only Northern Iowa is left that has made the S16 from the MVC. I do believe that S. Illinois made two S16's in the early 2000's, but clearly by the current state of the program those days are a bit in the past.

[elephtheria47]

I have a feeling theyll go to at least 11. You cant straight up replace Creighton with Loyola and WSU with Murray State. Will it be Valpo or someone else?

Drove through campus on my way home tonight....looked nice. Still was sunny and in the 70s with a lot of students being active outside.

[VU2014]

Jimmy brings up a great point about Omaha. Maybe the MVC is just doing its due-diligence in scouting potential future members with Omaha.

https://twitter.com/PantherU/status/857035468013281280

[usc4valpo]

I see UWM as a better candidate than UNO. No way for UMKC.

[wh]

If the MVC really wants to elevate the profile of their conference, they'll add Murray State, Valpo and Milwaukee and move the conference tournament to the United Center in Chicago. 7 of the 12 schools are closer to Chicago than St. Louis. The average distance for all 12 is less. Chicago is the 3rd largest media market in the U.S. - St. Louis is 17th. Chicago is a destination city. St. Louis is not. It would be a boon to recruiting across the entire league. What mid major player wouldn't want to play on national TV in the house that Michael built?   

The MVC said they wanted Loyola so they could leverage the Chicago market. So leverage it.

[usc4valpo]

I think having the MVC tournament at DePauls new facility would be great too. Better yet, it would be ideal for the Horizon league.

BTW, there are cool things to do in St. Louis.

[VULB#62]

Does Chicago (any sizeable venue inside I-294) host any other conference championships?  If not, WH you might be onto something. Can't call it Arch Madness anymore though. That is a cool name. Chicago college basketball has been scrambling for an identity for decades now. An MVC Tournament could bring back that luster -- at least for one weekend a year.

[vusupporter]

Arch Madness attendances last year:
Day 1 - 5,057
Day 2 - 9,124
Day 3 - 12,124
Title game - 11,744

Arch Madness isn't moving anywhere else. And it shouldn't. It's what every non-Power Five league tournament, including Motor City Madness, is trying to be.

[VULB#62]

Just speculating without figures in front of me, but I'll bet that MCM attendance (actual butts in the seats attendance) was the the exact opposite.

[UNIFTW]

I think having the MVC tournament at DePauls new facility would be great too. Better yet, it would be ideal for the Horizon league.

BTW, there are cool things to do in St. Louis.

You aren't prying Arch Madness away without killing every single person in the Valley office, those affiliated with the tournament and most bar/restaurant owners in St Louis

That's not a joke

The head of the St Louis Sports Commission, main party involved in brining events in, is named Frank Vivierto.

His wife is Party Vivierto.

Go look at the MVC admin page and look who is second in charge in the conference.

[FWalum]

Arch Madness attendances last year:
Day 1 - 5,057
Day 2 - 9,124
Day 3 - 12,124
Title game - 11,744

Arch Madness isn't moving anywhere else. And it shouldn't. It's what every non-Power Five league tournament, including Motor City Madness, is trying to be.

Just wondering if you think those numbers hold up without Wichita State??? Could be some disappointed hotel owners next year.

[RacerJoeD]

I will say this- if Murray St get in, and someday makes the finals, you can expect 6000 Racers, maybe more. That's without attracting more bandwagon fans.

[wh]

Arch Madness attendances last year:
Day 1 - 5,057
Day 2 - 9,124
Day 3 - 12,124
Title game - 11,744

Arch Madness isn't moving anywhere else. And it shouldn't. It's what every non-Power Five league tournament, including Motor City Madness, is trying to be.

No disrespect to the MVC at all, but the gold standard for non-Power 5 (and Big East) conferences and conference tournaments is the A-10. They are consistently a multi-bid league (as the MVC once was) at a time when mid-major at-large bids are in decline. Attendance last year at the Barclay Center was 52,000. This year they made a bold move to the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and had more than 50,000.  Without a first round upset of Dayton, who has the best traveling fan base in the A-10, attendance would have been > 60,000.  Tournament revenues exceeded $1.2 million. They were doing well in NYC and easily could have rested on their laurels there, but that's not what progressive organizations do.

That's all I'm thinking about - how can the MVC take a major conference shake-up and turn it into something positive for the entire league. Again, I'm not trying to diminish the MVC's reputation or its many accomplishments. But the goal shouldn't be to run a good tournament with a cool name. The goal is to get as many Tournament bids as possible. Chicago is one of the biggest recruiting hotbeds in the country, yet not one conference has a major presence there. This could be a huge opportunity for the MVC. Arch Madness is a very nice capstone event for a 1-bid league. MVChicago - who knows?

[bbtds]

His wife is Party Vivierto.

I'd like to party with Party!!!


Lord knows, that is a party girl.

[FieldGoodie05]

I think having the MVC tournament at DePauls new facility would be great too. Better yet, it would be ideal for the Horizon league.

BTW, there are cool things to do in St. Louis.

You aren't prying Arch Madness away without killing every single person in the Valley office, those affiliated with the tournament and most bar/restaurant owners in St Louis

That's not a joke

The head of the St Louis Sports Commission, main party involved in brining events in, is named Frank Vivierto.

His wife is Party Vivierto.

Go look at the MVC admin page and look who is second in charge in the conference.

Again with this fascination in Chicago, the city doesn't want us and will not want us.

It's fanciful to think otherwise.   The suburbanites and city people that I live with up here have too many other things going on to care about some basketball tournament. At best you are looking at getting some of the potential recruits to come and watch games, but they aren't paying the bill that Chicago is going to invoice us for.

Too expensive
Pipe dream

[NativeCheesehead]

Guys, were not even in the conference yet and we're moving the tourney?

[wh]

Guys, were not even in the conference yet and we're moving the tourney?

We're fans on a message board. In our theoretical world we can bring up anything we want since we can't act on it or have any influence over it. Now, if we find out that President Heckler suggested the same thing to the search committee yesterday and they gave each other sideways glances, we may have a little problem. LOL

[M]

While we are suddenly talking about moving a tournament we aren't even in yet.... why not move it to The courts of NWI. 😂😂😂  "Bring your team to compete at Northwest Indiana's Elite Sports Complex. Our state-of-the-art, 60,000 square-foot, air-conditioned complex houses four high-school regulation sized hardwood basketball courts. Your teams have the opportunity to face the best in officiated game action, the change to be a champion."

[ISUBird]

The ARC is in its Sunday best and looking good. Bleachers out (upper and lower), scorer's table and team seating set up, scoreboard lit up with lighted "welcome" signs on all 4 sides, 30-second basket clocks and "end zone" scoreboards lit up, and, of course, the seemingly endless display of NCAA and NIT Tournament banners and conference championship banners that MVC teams could only dream of. As I quietly stood there a simple message softly echoed from the rafters, "You are standing on holy ground."  It was a spiritual experience.

The MVC still has 3 schools with a S16 in the last 10 seasons.

That was beautifully written and all that and that might impress Evansville, Drake, Missouri State or Loyola but....

Contrary to popular national belief the MVC was more than Creighton and WSU. Keep in kind Creighton has never been out of the first weekend.

Without looking it up, I'm going to guess that those same 3 schools also have 1 S16 in the last 20 years - the same as Valpo. 

Now back to those NCAA, NIT and conference championship banners at the ARC that have grown steadily over the past 20 years (the ultimate benchmark for winning tradition, meaning we were good 20 years ago, 15 years ago, etc., all the way to last years 30 wins and this year's 24). Would you care to compare your numbers to those?  Save the research.  For time sake I'll shortcut to your answer.  "Well, we'd have that many championships and NCAA/NIT appearances if we played in the Horizon and Summit."  Yep.

You'd be wrong.   

Technically in the last ten NCAA tournaments, only Northern Iowa is left that has made the S16 from the MVC. I do believe that S. Illinois made two S16's in the early 2000's, but clearly by the current state of the program those days are a bit in the past.

wh was talking about 20 years.

Arch Madness attendances last year:
Day 1 - 5,057
Day 2 - 9,124
Day 3 - 12,124
Title game - 11,744

Arch Madness isn't moving anywhere else. And it shouldn't. It's what every non-Power Five league tournament, including Motor City Madness, is trying to be.

I don't want it to move anyway and I'm sure that most don't either.