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Valpo up 12 against 3-0 UNI. They look much better than Evansville. They lost to Ohio State by 22…going to have to play a lot better on Wednesday.

4-0 was sooo close.. 🤬.. would have liked to have seen that chart for our percent at top 4 if we would have won BU.
 

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Just tuned into and saw Texas on the tv so I'd figure I'd see what's going on there.

First possession; Larry with a fast break drive and nice finish at the rack.

Second possession: Kent air-balls a 3 in the corner.

The more things change, the more they stay the same
 
Just turned on the TV and it's South Florida @ Wichita State. SF is beating them 40-26. WSU doesn't appear horrible this year as they are 10-4. What I can't help but notice is there looks to be about 3,000 scattered around the round house. no atmosphere and just nothing of intrigue to draw a casual viewer in. Feels like you stumbled upon a Tuesday night MACtion football game. Crazy what that program has turned into
 
treeman said:
Just turned on the TV and it's South Florida @ Wichita State. SF is beating them 40-26. WSU doesn't appear horrible this year as they are 10-4. What I can't help but notice is there looks to be about 3,000 scattered around the round house. no atmosphere and just nothing of intrigue to draw a casual viewer in. Feels like you stumbled upon a Tuesday night MACtion football game. Crazy what that program has turned into
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They fumbled their program so hard moving up. It literally made zero sense as they don't have football.
 

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Jason Svoboda said:
They fumbled their program so hard moving up. It literally made zero sense as they don't have football.
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It was undoubtedly a step up when they were in a conference that included UConn, Houston, and Cincinnati. If they knew within a decade those teams would be replaced by Rice, Charlotte, and UTSA, they probably would have pushed for the Mountain West instead.
 
Jason Svoboda said:
They fumbled their program so hard moving up. It literally made zero sense as they don't have football.
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I really wish some Midwest schools could put their egos aside and stop trying to align with either the East Coast or a coast to coast conference trying to gather up markets. The MVC could be the premier mid-major conference if midwest schools just kept together.

A very realistic MVC could look like: All Non or FCS football

Wichita State
St. Louis
Loyola
Butler
Indiana State
Illinois State
Southern Illinois
Bradley
Drake
Northern Iowa
Belmont
Murray State

If you have that conference then adding schools like these become a VERY real possibility:
Dayton
maybe Memphis
Western Kentucky
Tulsa
If Creighton wasn't that successful I'd say they'd come back but they've done vey well in the Big East

Then you always have these schools to fill in gaps if they happen:
Evansville
Northern Kentucky
Valparaiso

I guess it's a pipe dream but geographically speaking the MVC could easily be a premier conference on the level of the Mountain West. A ton of natural rivals and Arch Madness would feed generations and be truly special again.
 
How Ohio State can beat Kentucky on a neutral court and then turn around and struggle to score against a horrible Minnesota team is a mystery to me
 

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MovingScreenOfDeath said:
It was undoubtedly a step up when they were in a conference that included UConn, Houston, and Cincinnati. If they knew within a decade those teams would be replaced by Rice, Charlotte, and UTSA, they probably would have pushed for the Mountain West instead.
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Yep, but you're an absolutely braindead President and AD if you didn't realize those schools would eventually be moving up. I mean, realignment has been going on for a decade plus and you could always see what the end result was going to be.
 
treeman said:
Just turned on the TV and it's South Florida @ Wichita State. SF is beating them 40-26. WSU doesn't appear horrible this year as they are 10-4. What I can't help but notice is there looks to be about 3,000 scattered around the round house. no atmosphere and just nothing of intrigue to draw a casual viewer in. Feels like you stumbled upon a Tuesday night MACtion football game. Crazy what that program has turned into
Click to expand...
It’s amazing what’s happened to their attendance. They announce 5k but it’s very obvious on tv it’s about 3k.

When they were here, every game was an 11k sellout. That fan base is completely unrecognizable.
 
Conference realignment is killing college athletics, and the WSU situation is an obvious example. Sure, you can sell out any arena when your team is competing for championships. That's easy. Most teams aren't doing that, though, which means regional and historical rivalries are extremely important for fan engagement. If you take those away and have an average to below average team, you'll have dwindling attendance.

And those less passionate fans eventually have kids, and the fandom that once was is not going to be passed down to future generations. They'll just be old stories of the past.
 
BrokerZ said:
Conference realignment is killing college athletics, and the WSU situation is an obvious example. Sure, you can sell out any arena when your team is competing for championships. That's easy. Most teams aren't doing that, though, which means regional and historical rivalries are extremely important for fan engagement. If you take those away and have an average to below average team, you'll have dwindling attendance.
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This is spot on^

About 20%-30% of teams will be competing for a championship (either regular season or tournament) that means 70%-80% of the time you are middling or at the bottom. Neither is good for a program, but chances are you are going to be there at some point. I love the Valley and think it works very well because the teams naturally fit with one another and are all regional. Shockers sold their souls and now they are finding out. Look at who is coming to Koch arena:

Great games:
Memphis - This is literally the only bright spot in the AAC these days.

Good games:
Temple - old school Big East fans appreciate the owls
Florida Atlantic - a lot of recency bias here
Tulsa - they are horrible but it makes sense for Shockers to pair up with them
UAB - Solid basketball school

No-interest games:
Tulane - Not a horrible program but not sure the interest it brings
UTSA - This is bad
North Texas - solid basketball but I don't think it moves any needle
South Florida - yuck
Rice - yuck
East Carolina - double yuck
Charlotte - no interest

At the end of the day Shockers are trying to cash in being with Memphis. UAB & Tulsa seem to "fit" WSU and I could see natural interest with those programs. Temple is kind of fun for old school basketball fans and FAU is a sexy new name (we will see how long it lasts). But outside of that there is hardly any fan interest or engagement with the other 7 programs in that league. That's 14 games a year of just "blah", that's enough to kill a fanbase if you are aren't winning championships
 
All I know is Shocker Nation was a force in StL every year. Probably brought more fans to that than are currently attending home games.
 

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Huff77 said:
All I know is Shocker Nation was a force in StL every year. Probably brought more fans to that than are currently attending home games.
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Typically to see them lose in the semi finals and then come up with every conspiracy they could think of regarding how the league office screwed them
 
I miss having the Shockers in the MVC. They had (HAD) an athletic department that understood how to succeed at our level, they had great history and tradition, and they had rabid fan support. Yeah, some of their fans were delusional mouth breathers, but did you see who came out of the woodwork last year when we were good? Same people, different address. :ROFLMAO:

I’d love to have them back in the Valley. I know, I’m in the minority. But I’d take ‘em back in a heartbeat.
 
treeman said:
This is spot on^

About 20%-30% of teams will be competing for a championship (either regular season or tournament) that means 70%-80% of the time you are middling or at the bottom. Neither is good for a program, but chances are you are going to be there at some point. I love the Valley and think it works very well because the teams naturally fit with one another and are all regional. Shockers sold their souls and now they are finding out. Look at who is coming to Koch arena:

Great games:
Memphis - This is literally the only bright spot in the AAC these days.

Good games:
Temple - old school Big East fans appreciate the owls
Florida Atlantic - a lot of recency bias here
Tulsa - they are horrible but it makes sense for Shockers to pair up with them
UAB - Solid basketball school

No-interest games:
Tulane - Not a horrible program but not sure the interest it brings
UTSA - This is bad
North Texas - solid basketball but I don't think it moves any needle
South Florida - yuck
Rice - yuck
East Carolina - double yuck
Charlotte - no interest

At the end of the day Shockers are trying to cash in being with Memphis. UAB & Tulsa seem to "fit" WSU and I could see natural interest with those programs. Temple is kind of fun for old school basketball fans and FAU is a sexy new name (we will see how long it lasts). But outside of that there is hardly any fan interest or engagement with the other 7 programs in that league. That's 14 games a year of just "blah", that's enough to kill a fanbase if you are aren't winning championships
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I'll try this with ISU for my personal views in order.

High interest games:
1) Ill St- the battle of the ISU's
2) SIU- When I started following ISU as a little kid they were one of the top dogs in the MVC and made a Sweet 16.
3) Bradley- see SIU above
4) Murray State- At least in my lifetime they've always had a very solid program more times than not.

Medium Interest Games:
5) N Iowa- Used to be high for me, but they haven't been quite as good in recent years.
6) Drake- Recency bias since they've been good lately. Normally they'd be on the lower end for me. I still remember when it was called "Drake Night".
7) Evansville- On the lower end of my medium interest due to how awful they've been lately.

Low interest games:
8) Valpo- See Evansville, except in my lifetime there hasn't been a whole lot of history there.
9) Belmont- Quality program, but haven't followed them long enough to really care a whole lot about them yet.
10) UIC- At least until this season they've been a lousy program that doesn't have any fans. They'll be last for the foreseeable future on my interest list unless they turn into Loyola 2.0.
*11) Mo State- They're leaving the league. Simple as that. My only interest is that they don't win any kind of conference title on the way out and that we don't lose to them again.
 
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