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It's starting to look like the HL is replacing us with IUPUI...the HL board seems about ready for a serious mental breakdown.


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It's even better than I thought...now Jimmy wants UWM to join the Summit League!

https://twitter.com/pantheru/status/878078674939129856

It's starting to look like the HL is replacing us with IUPUI...the HL board seems about ready for a serious mental breakdown.


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Great to see the ARC on this list. Looking forward to getting to some the Valley venues this year to see them for myself (I've been to ISU for a h.s. tourney, but not for a Redbirds game, and I went to the UNI-Dome once way back when, but not their new arena).

Some other good Midwest mid-major venues to see:

Central Michigan's McGuirk Arena: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cml/19663_crowd2f.jpg

Akron's JAR Arena (also where LeBron James played all of his h.s. games): http://gozips.com/sports/mbkb/gameday/parking

I actually prefer Kent State's Memorial Athletics Center to Rhodes Arena in Akron.


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From Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer, Todd Rosiak.

https://twitter.com/Todd_Rosiak/status/874366057389191169

The Horizon League is healthy and on the rise!





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Just thinking out loud. Do you think either former Butler Assistant Coaches Ryan Pedon & Terry Johnson would be interested the potentially still available assistant coaching position if Holtmann doesn't take them with to Ohio State or if they don't remain on the Butler Staff.

Pedon is a Columbus native and was key to Butler beating Ohio State to land a few Ohio guys recently, most notably 4* wing Kyle Young from Massillon (who is likely following Holtmann to OSU if Butler lets him out of his LOI). Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, and Eleven Warriors all say the only way he doesn't go to Buckeyes is if he gets Butler HC.


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I'm not saying valpo will do it, but expecting them to be competitive in baseball without adding turf is asking too much.


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As a casual Ohio State supporter and ardent Butler detractor, I find this especially amusing.

The big question now is "does Butler have any 2018 commits we might be able to poach during the July contact period?"


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Complacency kills mid major leagues, especially in this 'eat or be eaten' climate that the NCAA has thrust us into, and the fact is that either LeCrone, the HL university presidents, or both became complacent following Butler's success, and did not plan for when the raging Ragnarok-like tempest of realignment came to their doorstep.

For the sake of argument, doesn't "replacing" Wichita State with Valpo and not being proactive in the push for 12 also reek of status-quo maintaining complacency on the part of the MVC?

Belmont clearly had no interest in joining Murray State and neither Milwaukee nor Omaha had the looks of a competent MVC member. But to say a strong 3rd member didn't exist at all is hard for me to believe.

As much as I believe in the Valpo program, this move has the potential to drive Missouri State to C-USA the same way poor decisions in Indianapolis drove us to the Valley.

We (Valpo) always seem to be a year or two behind the realignment momentum of the day. It's burned us before, and I fear it may again. 


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If we want a competitive MVC baseball program (ie make and threaten to win regionals) an artificial turf field is a must. We lose too many home dates and practices to unplayable field conditions.


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I'm guessing $500,000?  I know Paul Twenge coaches at a high school in the Minneapolis area that has one.  My guess is he would know the number! Not sure he will tell us though.   

$750k with a 10 year life per the vendor site. Not sure if that's for football/soccer or baseball, but the square footage seems close enough to be a fair estimate. Kent State and ISUb have turf fields, and they're about the best we can hope for in terms of peer programs. This strikes me as a cost of doing business in today's baseball environment.

http://www.fieldturf.com/en/fieldturf-difference/cost-analysis



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If we want a competitive MVC baseball program (ie make and threaten to win regionals) an artificial turf field is a must. We lose too many home dates and practices to unplayable field conditions.


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TheD1Docket Twitter page claims Valpo is heading to the Savannah Invitational on November 24-25, along with Kent State, UNCW, and Loyola (IL) (yeah...). Can anyone corroborate this? I haven't been able to find any other source referencing Valpo heading to Savannah. I hope it is true, though. Savannah may be my favorite city in the country, and is a short drive for me from Columbia, SC.

As he mentions, because Loyola (IL) is apparently in the event, Valpo's new conference affiliation could complicate the matter.

Yeah that may be a problem. Has there ever been a case of conference opponents playing each other in Non-Conference Neutral site tournaments? I can't remember that ever happening.

I wonder if Valpo is going to be the team that is forced to exit the Tournament because we're the brand new team to the conference. Hopefully it all works out and they just put us on different ends of the tournament.

Didn't that happen with either Utah or Colorado football when they joined the Pac12? I remember one of them playing a league member (Washington/Wazzu?) "OOC" their first season in the league. It wouldn't be unprecedented.

*Edit* Colorado played a non conference game at home vs Cal Sept 10, 2011...its first season in the Pac12.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Colorado_Buffaloes_football_team?wprov=sfsi1 **


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[walk-on and have to pay his own way.]

Re: Sasha, if it is true that Purdue is at -1 if Edwards returns, and Sasha is the odd man out, will he not have to redshirt as a walk-on and have to pay his own way.  And if that is the case, why not simply not enroll.  That would give him 4 seasons of eligibility in 5 years beginning the following year -- the fall of 1918.

I think he can still red-shirt his freshman year (I don't think he'll be paying out-of-pocket)

Whether the player redshirts or not, his scholarship will count against the school's allotment. If you have 14 scholarship players, someone has to go.

Football is able to get around this with the "greyshirt" process by which the player doesn't enroll/get his scholarship until the spring semester of his freshman year, but I doubt that will work in a 2 semester sport like basketball.


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The best part of this has been the massive increase in press that MVC schools get, both in their local market and in other markets within the league footprint, relative to the HL. Alums of many HL schools barely care about their athletics, never mind the community at-large.

The more words written and spoken about your league/program the better, both for tournament placing and fundraising.

[compete for a national title some day.]

Bryce left because he is uber competitive and wants to go to a final 4 and compete for a national title some day.   

That is it.   

No other reasons.  Can't do that at Valpo.  Possibility exists at Vandy to get there eventually. 

I agree his chances of competing for a national title are better at Vandy. They increase from zero to .01 percent

Take a look at Duke before Coach K...a couple of final fours in the 60s and 70s, but not too far ahead of Vandy today. Both are/were academic heavy institutions with some recent success, but not a national championship pedigree. I'm not saying Bryce is Coach K, but with sufficient financial support (read: most Power 5 schools) a good coach/recruiter can win big.

Moral of the story, if Bryce is as good as we think he is/can be, Vandy has more than enough resources for him to win a national title.

Personally, I've always had the impression that his long term goal is the NBA. He seems like someone motivated by unfinished business at that level.


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New Mexico State is starting to get serious traction on the HL board. From what I can tell, they have 2 reasons:

1- they've made the tournament 5 of the last 6 years.

2- geography doesn't matter.

From any sane perspective both of these arguments are poor. They made the tournament because the WAC is terrible and travel to and from Las Cruces, while not as bad as Southern Utah back in the MidCon days, is a pain. Additionally, NMSU is presumably looking for a long term home for all of its sports, including football. Even if they join, it will be a temporary partnership.


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as far as mid major conference goes I would much rather see a mvc/A-10 or MVC/American

I would add the MAC to this list as well.

The problem is that the Valley currently sits in an undefined space. It is neither a perennial multi-bid league (like the A10, American, or MWC), nor is it a perennial single-bid like (HL, MAC, OVC, Summit). To schedule a conference challenge will require either a marked step up or down. My preference is always for the step up.


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All of the examples, 72, are excellent Lutheran Colleges but are low profile, non-national colleges/universities (and they are not D-I, do not appear on the ESPN crawler, and are VERY regional in appeal).  How many people outside of Iowa have heard of Luther? How many in Florida know about St. Olaf? Wagner (not mentioned) is D-I but buried in the northeast. There is also Wittenburg, all the Concordias, Cal Lutheran, etc.

We are now in the same discussion as most bigger D-I schools but our Lutheran identity (with maybe the BYU exception, most of my list has a diluted student body membership),  IMO,  is not on the same level as the religious affiliations 'image' of the list I mentioned.

So, how can we ratchet up our image to the world and reach the Liberty/Baylor level of religious affilliation recognition?

The reason there isn't a "national Lutheran university" is largely because there aren't enough Lutherans to support it. The ELCA is in decline just like the rest of the 7 sisters and the LCMS can't make peace between the people still living in 1941 and those who want to build mega churches. The only Lutheran churches that seem to be growing right now tend to shy away from even using the word Lutheran to describe themselves.



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Maybe Valpo could agree to take over the music program in Ft Wayne and have immediate expanded facilities and program.  Tie-ins with Concordia FW.  In today's educational economy, those that think ahead and out of the box will have the advantages.  Synergies!

Lol. The thought of the Fort Wayne seminary doing anything in conjunction with Valpo would certainly be a sign of the apocalypse. If memory serves, they refuse to accept applicants with Valpo theology degrees. I believe Valpo students are told to study classics and Greek/Hebrew but avoid letting the heretics in the VU Theology faculty pollute their minds.



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There are more important considerations than mid major basketball when selecting a name.  Purdue University is an internationally recognized, respected name in higher education. Personally, I would much prefer a reference to Purdue University on my resume than "Ft. Wayne U.," especially if I'm an engineering major or other field that Purdue is nationally ranked in. "Ft. Wayne" has secondary tier written all over it.

Understandable. Then I'd go with Purdue-Fort Wayne, keeping athletics as Fort Wayne. Purdue-Northeast has community college written all over it.


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Yikes, I hope that they rethink that Purdue Northeast moniker.  They basically bail on any name tied to Fort Wayne.

Those rebrandings aren't cheap either. If the school is struggling financially, there are probably better uses for the money.


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[I thought they only made money due to tuition from 100 young men?]

Football has nothing to do with the MVC move. Valpo Football is a separate money making entity. Valpo is decades and at least a $15M commitment away from playing 1-AA scholarship football.

VU makes money on football?  I thought they only made money due to tuition from 100 young men?  Is there money made other ways?

I've always wondered about the premise that Valparaiso University is reaping a big financial benefit from its non-scholarship football program. $50,000 per student per year for tuition, fees, room and board x 100 football players = $5 million in GROSS revenues. That is a HUGE number, especially in the age of declining enrollments and budget cuts. If it's that easy to add $5M to the revenue side of the ledger, wouldn't every small to mid-sized university in the country jump at the opportunity to start a non-scholarship football program?

That's the premise for the track program as well.  The only thing I can contribute is, having played on both teams, VU did discount tuition through several academic scholarships.  One of which I seem to recall was -$5500 for being a well rounded student who volunteers in their community.  In the end admissions/finance office found around -$9000/year to help.  But there lies the problem, is that price flexibility purposely available for football/track athletes to sweeten the pot?  In any case, I still paid around $15,000 per year.  In the early 2000s that passed for more than State schools tuition.

It's probably closer to a break even situation than a big money maker.

First we can assume a decent portion don't pay full tuition. So you may be looking at a gross closer to 3MM. Subtract travel, maintenance, equipment,  coaches salary, etc. Then subtract all normal student fixed and variable expenses (teachers/staff salary, building maintenance, etc). It may make some money but at the end of the day the work it takes to field the team is likely not worth it for most schools.

What it does do is act as a built in enrollment tool for male students and regularly brings in 50 new male students each year. I say male because the demographics at universities is skewing female and attracting male students is important to maintain diversity (IMO).

I'd also be curious as to the amount of football-specific donations the department receives annually. By a wide margin, football has the largest alumni base and that giving stops the day you take away their program.

There is no doubt in my mind the school is running that program in the black. Given all the troubles it's had over the years, there would be no reason to continue sponsoring football if it was a frequent money loser.


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another Summit school to discuss for the HL... Western Illinois... have baseball.  What am I missing?

Given complaints about YSU's football emphasis interfering with basketball, I'd guess HL members would have reservations about going back to the well for a school with a similar profile.


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another Summit school to discuss for the HL... Western Illinois... have baseball.  What am I missing?

Makes too much sense for that to happen... Obviously New Mexico State is a better fit, or better yet maybe there's a small college in Hawaii that wants to join...

Chaminade did have that big win over Virginia one time...


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Fort Wayne seems like the most logical addition for the HL, since it can work as a travel partner for UIC and has baseball. It seems like a program capable of breaking out, given the right opportunity.

I'd go to 12 with some combination of IUPUI, SIUe, and Robert Morris joining FW. I don't see Omaha particularly interested, as the Summit is a better fit geographically and on par with a Valpo-less HL in terms of MBB quality.

For the sake of my own entertainment, I hope it's Grand Canyon, Denver, and NMSU as that will confirm everything we already know about the questionable wisdom of conference leadership.


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Considering the timeframe and on field quality of each team this season, it has to be about softball.

I don't think we'll be able to stall for the better part of a month for the sake of our baseball team. To stay eligible for softball we just have to hold out 5 days. Nor do I think baseball is in a position to make much noise in the HL tournament this year.


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