TG: Unless something crazy happens, Indiana State isn’t going anywhere, and if Creighton leaves, and with the caveat that you never say never in the current landscape, I doubt anyone else is going anywhere either.
Losing Creighton would hurt the MVC, the Bluejays are a great program (in several MVC sports) with name-recognition in a vibrant city. I know I’d miss them, though I understand the move completely if it were to happen.
But would a Creighton exit be a fatal blow to the MVC? No way. Allow me to rant for a moment.
I read a lot of fan reaction to the MVC and it amazes me how there’s a significant portion who think so low of a league that’s never been out of the RPI top 10 in my nine seasons in covering it.
Fans see a Xavier in another conference, such as the Atlantic 10, and get excited about the possibility of joining them, but forget there’s a St. Bonaventure, Duquesne and Fordham there too that make the A-10 comparable to the MVC in most seasons, and sometimes, inferior to it.
The bain of conference realignment is that it’s made everyone think the grass is greener on the other side. There are fans of some schools who have their bags packed and have one foot out the door because the MVC doesn’t live up to their perception of where their school is and should be because their knee-jerk reaction is to think less of it.
The truth is much harsher than that … but with an upshot.
For all of the fan hysteria about what conference their school is going to jump to if the MVC were to implode, I’ve never seen a single reputable source that has any of the MVC schools — aside from Creighton — going anywhere.
A scientific study could be done on the group-think it takes among some on a message board fanbase like, say, Wichita State’s, to speculate amongst themselves about moving to the Mountain West Conference, then collectively convince themselves it could happen, and then think it’s a distinct possibility it will happen.
This despite the fact that WSU doesn’t play football, which drives the vast majority of these moves, and that it’s never once been mentioned as an expansion candidate for that conference, or any other that I’m aware of, by anyone other than people speculating on message boards or blogs. It’s pie-in-the-sky.
Same goes for the assumption among some that Northern Iowa and Illinois State will move up to FBS football.
Though both schools have talked about the possibility of exploring a move, neither is immediately ready for it, nor are there any FBS conferences knocking down the door to get them. A school can’t just move up from FCS football to FBS on a whim, it has to be invited by a conference, and that’s not a gimme for either school by any stretch because neither brings the all-important market to the equation.
The upshot in all of this is that there’s a lot in the MVC that all 10 schools have built and should be collectively proud of despite their differences in budget, institutional outlook, etc.
As I mentioned earlier, the conference has balance that gets overlooked, which speaks to the collective quality of programs within it. The teams that are down at present, Missouri State and Southern Illinois, have both won regular season MVC championships in the last decade. Every team, save Illinois State and Missouri State, has been in the NCAA Tournament in the last 10 years, many several times over.
The MVC makes geographic sense. It has long-time rivalries. It has a storied history. It is respected nationally, in some ways, more than it is by some of its own fans.
It has a conference tournament that gets panned by fans who take it for granted, who haven’t attended other conference tournaments (as I have), and who fail to realize how vibrant and fun it is. There are conferences perceived to be “better” than the MVC that would kill for the Arch Madness turnout and atmosphere.
Conference realignment has conditioned fans to tear down what they have and look elsewhere instead of looking within themselves and realizing how good they have it.
The MVC will be strong without Creighton. It’ll be even stronger if Creighton stays. It’s time for that to be said by someone.
