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I think this statistical analysis of Lutherans in America is essential reading for anyone thinking about the present condition and future of Valparaiso University.

https://medium.com/migration-issues/a-very-brief-history-of-american-lutheranism-be8b7a26fd59

It includes geographic distribution of Lutherans over time, share of Lutherans of the total US population, and the membership trends of the major synods (LCMS, ELCA, WELS, ELCA breakaways).

One quick highlight for those who don't have the time to dig in to it. I don't think it's any coincidence that the sharpest increase in growth in total Lutherans nationwide coincided with the Lutheran purchase of the University in the late 20's and that the total share of Lutherans in America peaks at the same time as the "golden years" of OP Kretzmann's presidency. Since then, both the total number and percentage of US Lutherans has done nothing but decrease. Not to diminish OP at all, but he had the wind at his back in a way that no future leader of the University has since.

Finally, the money quote of the whole article has to be the following: "Arguing about who is facing church-ending-demographic-disaster-soonest is a very Lutheran thing to do." You really should read it all!

Valpo's leadership is currently organized to have a specifically designated role of "COO" separate from the position of provost.

https://www.valpo.edu/president/leadership/presidents-council/david-n-phelps/

3.   Well with maybe the only team they could have beat this year that did not work

If you look at the results so far in the non-conference of the 8 PFL schools on our schedule, at least 4 (and maybe 5) of them are all probably the same or worse than UCharleston. Don't forget that Charleston has 36 full scholarships to give out and were picked 4th of 10 in their conference.

If I were trying to market this (I'm not) I would put my emphasis on the #29 NATIONAL best value ranking. The list has a lot of well known brands that I would assume Valpo would be happy to be associated with.
...
#25 Wake Forest
#26 Lehigh
#27 Georgetown
#28 Tufts
#29 Valpo
#30 Carnegie Mellon
#31 Univ of St. Joseph (CT)
#32 Virginia
#33 Brandeis
#34 Boston College

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/best-value

I want to put out a slight correction to the original post here about the football coaching search. ml didn't say you would know the names of the applicants who applied for the job, he said you'd know the names of the people who called him to suggest or recommend candidates for the job.

https://youtu.be/nKNFcs9ocpU?t=1614

Here's Tonagel's shot. I can't think of another game winner from beyond half court. Just one of those special rewards for fandom that comes along once every couple of decades. What an awesome comeback!

https://youtu.be/ZsjEXkJcXVg

Gonzaga is entirely possible if we want it.

What Gonzaga has done is a lot more impressive than what most people realize. They not only spend like a big time program (over 7 million dollars a year) but they also outperform what you'd expect based on their spending. To be "the next Gonzaga" involves not only radically increasing spending, but also performing at a really high level even relative to that higher spending.

Below is a graph I put together of all D1 schools that shows the relationship between MBB budget size and KenPom rating (averaged over 7 years to avoid the effects of one fluke season). The orange line is the expected relationship between spending and on-court success, based on the averages of all schools in D1 (each gray dot is one school). Schools above the line are UNDER-performing relative to their budget and schools below the line are OVER-performing relative to their budget. Gonzaga is farther below the line than any other program in the country.

Check out this article about Nevada's non-conference schedule costs last year. It gives numbers for their non-D1 and D1 buy games, as well as for Nevada's participation in a Tournament in Las Vegas. From my understanding the dollar amounts and contract terms are pretty typical for college basketball right now.

https://www.rgj.com/story/sports/college/nevada/2017/10/27/why-nevada-basketballs-non-league-schedule-cost-200-000/806706001/

Relating specifically to the tournament, based on the article details, Nevada paid over $200k to "Las Vegas Tournamnt Inc." and got home games against Radford and UC Davis, and neutral site games against Southern Illinois and San Francisco. (the article breaks these payments out on a per game basis, but since the money is going to the tournament promoter and not the opposing school, it's really better to look at this collectively as payment for tournament participation, as opposed to individual "buy" games).

[finding a spot in 1 of myriad early season tournaments is the easy stuff]

I don't disagree that there are quality road and neutral court opponents on the schedule, but shouldn't there be? Agreeing to play someone at their place or finding a spot in 1 of myriad early season tournaments is the easy stuff. Where good schedulers earn their money is in putting together respectable home schedules, and Luke Gore, et al., failed once again. There are some good home schedules this year in the MVC. Inexcusably, Valpo's is nowhere among them.

Agree that just getting into any early season tournament is not that difficult, however getting into an early season tournament that includes the opportunity to play a P5 team(s) on a neutral court is another matter entirely. That is very difficult for a mid-major and usually involves 1) building relationships with the people running the tournaments (often by playing in an inferior tournament they run first), 2) planning an additional year or two in advance relative to all other basketball scheduling and 3) a six figure entry fee payment - a major investment for programs without P5 money.

Have to disagree. This Twitter thread is about promoting IPFW. Any positive mention for Valpo is just an unintended and unavoidable by product of trying to promote the Mastadons.

Agree.  If you look at the Tweet, @MastondonMBB is the only twitter handle included.  Clear bias toward that Fort Wayne school (whatever their name is now).

You'd expect better from a professional journalist ... we're just spoiled by the unbiased and professional coverage provided by Oren and Osipoff.

Never change Eddie! 

https://twitter.com/Tom101010/status/1024460326706839552

Amazing! The Butler Braggadocio finally recognizes Valpo for some prolonged success. How did that slip by him before?

Have to disagree. This Twitter thread is about promoting IPFW. Any positive mention for Valpo is just an unintended and unavoidable by product of trying to promote the Mastadons.

How about making attendance of athletic events available for CORE 5th hour credit or giving students a punch card every month where attendance at athletic events leads to rewards like free food or bookstore discounts or partner with businesses in the community on this venture so that students on a budget can still patronize and support community businesses while supporting their fellow students. Rewards can escalate in value with the number of events they attend. Or you can do this on a point system. Each event a student attends is worth a certain amount of points (same value for every sport--extra points can be awarded throughout the game for students who dress up\make signs and cheer loudly. The points are then redeemed for prizes at least once per semester. Prizes can simply be bought with points or they can be given away in a raffle (attend more events win more points have better chance to win but everyone has a chance at the best prizes) or they can be auctioned off. Students may also have the option to save their points for later if they choose under the buying\redemption or auction format to go for bigger prizes later. Additionally a special set of prizes could be given out for those recognized for their spirit (cheering signmaking wearing Valpo gear). Not sure how feasible any of these ideas are but at least it's a suggestion for whatever that's worth.

There was a program just like this in place and operating in the 2007-2009 range. Several of the student leaders from that program are still occasional posters on this board.

Would a road win benefit Butler at all come selection Sunday most years?

Using the recently introduced Quadrant system, a win at the ARC would have counted as a coveted Quadrant 1 victory 5 of the last 8 seasons (RPI of 75 or better on Selection Sunday). In the other 3 seasons a win at Valpo would have been a respectable Quadrant 2 once and an admittedly useless Quadrant 3 twice (2013-14 and last season).

Based on Alize Johnson's NBA Combine standing reach of 8'7" and his max vertical of 2'7", with a running start he can get his hand about 11'2" above the ground or about four inches shy of the top white line of the backboard box. That doesn't sound too far off from the kind of above the rim play we saw from him during the last couple seasons.

I think people's expectations for vertical leap numbers are a little out of whack based on seeing HS recruiting numbers that are often junk, whereas the NBA Combine numbers are legit.

When comparing Hammink and Golder's offensive stats it's also worth noting that in 17-18 Golder faced defenses that on average ranked 89th according to KenPom, while Shane's numbers from 16-17 were against defenses that collectively ranked 193rd.

Annual funds are counted in the campaign totals.

In terms of our alumni, WHY DOE VU72 and many others assume our alumni are less wealthy than Drake and Bradley?   

The best source I have seen on alumni wealth is this database at the New York Times, which I think is pulled from a large academic paper based on tax filings.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/valparaiso-university

Bradley does look pretty similar to Valpo, but most of the other private schools in the MVC (as well as others that often get mentioned as models on this board) do seem to have significantly larger pools of top 1% and top 5% people to hopefully draw large and/or lead donors from. Although UNI, which apparently is having incredible fundraising success, has by far the worst percentages, but perhaps when multiplied out by a larger alumni base it still results in a larger sized pool of wealthy donors? I am not sure how much bigger UNIs alumni population is compared to the other schools on the list. If you are curious about any other schools that I didn't list, you can search for thousands of them at the site. The numbers I pulled are from the "Outcomes" section. Also interesting to look at is how wealthy the families of current students are, which is likely to be a pretty good indicator of what kind of pool of future donors each university will have to rely on 20 to 40 years from now.

Alumni in Top 1%
Loyola...3.9%
Xavier...3.7%
Drake...3.5%
Gonzaga...3.3%
Butler...2.8%
Valpo...2.3%
Bradley...2.3%
Evansville...1.7%
UNI...1.3%

Alumni in Top 5%
Drake...23%
Butler...22%
Loyola...17%
Gonzaga...17%
Xavier...15%
Bradley...14%
Valpo...13%
Evansville...7.8%
UNI...7.3%

(modified post to add Evansville, bad oversight on my part)

For the second link, the Total Allocated column shows the amount of University subsidy going to athletics.

Just to add some data to this conversation.

Here is what it actually costs to go to a school on average based on student's family income. You can look up over 1,500 schools, including Valpo and UNI. The price difference is about $4,000 per year, for all but the wealthiest students.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/30/444446022/what-youll-actually-pay-at-1-550-colleges

And here is how much various state schools are subsidizing their athletic departments with university funds. This is something that private schools do as well, but of course the difference is that at a private school all the money is coming from students and donors, whereas at a state school you do have that third input of taxpayer money.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

Bond documents from UNI in 2004 show that the McLeod Center was anticipated to cost $21 million, with $10 million borrowed, $9.25 million fundraised and the remainder coming from existing university funds. If what UNIFTW is reporting is correct, then UNI's new plans represent a huge increase in both fundraising and in the scope of athletic facility costs.

Get a free account at munios.com and you can download PDFs of bond information (prepared for prospective investors) for Valpo, or any other university you'd like to compare it to. These documents are densely written in legal and financial terms, so you will need some background in one or both areas to fully understand everything in them, but the breadth of financial and institutional information available in them is stunning. There are files available for Valpo from 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2017 which each show a snapshot of where the university was at those times, and what money was borrowed for.

You are doing great.  So well in fact that it makes me wonder why Valpo is not more in the national conversation with religious affiliated Baylor (Baptist), BYU (Mormon), Liberty (Evangelicals), You Name It (Catholic), to just name a few.

I think a big part of the answer to this question has more to do with the religious groups in question, than with the universities associated with them. Lutherans are a much smaller and/or more divided group than the others mentioned. Here is the full breakdown of US religious affiliation in 2014 from Pew Research. http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2015/05/Religious-Composition-of-U.S.-Adults.pdf
Baptists, Catholics and "evangelicals" are all much larger groups than Lutherans. Only Mormons are equivalent in size, but their shared history of persecution and geographic clustering around Utah gives them a level of loyalty to BYU that Valpo probably hasn't had from Lutherans since the days when VU students had grandparents/parents still speaking German at home. Lastly, Lutherans are badly divided between the "evangelical" (ie conservative) LCMS and the "mainline" (ie liberal) ELCA. No other group sharing a common name is so evenly divided. See this additional breakdown from Pew: http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-1-the-changing-religious-composition-of-the-u-s/pr_15-05-12_rls_chapter1-00/

The only similar Lutheran University I can think of is Capital In Columbus, Ohio

Based on my experience getting to know some Capital alumni here in Columbus, I don't think Capital has the same national reach or aspirations as Valpo. It's alumni are overwhelmingly in Ohio, and even here mostly in the Columbus/Central Ohio area and Cleveland area.

https://public.tableau.com/profile/capitalvfb#!/vizhome/VFB-UniversityAlumnibyState/AlumbyState
https://public.tableau.com/profile/capitalvfb#!/vizhome/VFB-UniversityAlumnibyOhioCounty/AlumbyOhioCty

2006-07 @ ARC lost 65-62  that was a wild/wooly one with Dominic James (who was a great college player) hitting a 3 at the end to lead highly ranked Marquette to the win.  Todd's radio call on that game was tremendous!!

Here's the video of that shot. Make sure to watch with the sound on. Great atmosphere that game. Also, Brandon McPherson's desperation heave at the buzzer to force OT was agonizingly close.

No mentions yet for the two teams that came closest to earning NCAA Tournament wins.

1996-97
2014-15

According to the NCAA RPI Archive, the 96-97 team finished the year with an RPI of 70, significantly better than the 89 ranking that the 97-98 team had on Selection Sunday.