Valpo to Horizon League?

[Moser316J]

Hey all:

I just discovered this board over the weekend, and as a UWM alumnus (c/o 2001 BS, 2003 MS) who's getting sick of all the arrogance associated with Marquette (specifically regarding playing UWM), it's nice to see a place for the Panther faithful to discuss Milwaukee's "real" college basketball program

Anyways, I thought I saw something the other day about Valparaiso wanting to join the Horizon League. I think it would be a good move for the conference, but would it mean that the vultures are finally going to pick apart the loose conglomeration of teams that is the Mid-Continent Conference?

[Hack]

uwmfreak.proboards5.com/index.cgi?board=cool&action=display&n=1&thread=1076179483

We tossed that thought around a few weeks ago. Seems like a logical choice now that their AD (who was pretty much at the foundation of the Mid-Con) is retiring.

Out of all the available options ... Valpo probably brings the most to the table, basketball-wise.

Wouldn't mind seeing UWM jump ship to the Missouri Valley one day, either.

[pnthr30]

Welcome to the board Moser316J. ;D

[fineshot2000]

Valpo has been the class of the Mid-Continent for many years now, is this like their 8th appearance in the NCAA tourney in 10 years? They could jump ship to the Horizon, which I think is a stronger conference than the Mid-Con. They'd get more competition for sure other than IUPUI and Oakland.

[Moser316J]

fineshot2000 said:

Valpo has been the class of the Mid-Continent for many years now, is this like their 8th appearance in the NCAA tourney in 10 years? They could jump ship to the Horizon, which I think is a stronger conference than the Mid-Con. They'd get more competition for sure other than IUPUI and Oakland.

Yeah, they really got decimated when all their original teams left, and if the mid-major vultures pick apart a conference, this one is going to be it. Here's how I think it would go down (remember, this is utter speculation on my part)...

HORIZON LEAGUE
Eastern Division
Butler
Cleveland State
Detroit
IUPUI
Oakland
Wright State

Western Diviison
Illinois-Chicago
IPFW
Loyola
Valparaiso
Wisconsin-Green Bay
Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Of the four new teams, Valparaiso would clearly help out the most right away in terms of competitiveness and arena size. IUPUI would be close to Horizon League-level in terms of competition, but their home gym (2,500 capacity) would currently be too small for the conference. IPFW and Oakland probably wouldn't contribute much right away (although Oakland is fairly decent), but they would round out travel partnerships (UWM-UWGB, UIC-Loyola, Valpo-IPFW, Butler-IUPUI, Detroit-Oakland, CSU-WSU). IPFW may provide more benefit long-term if they grow into D-1 in the way UWM has, and the preliminary pieces are there (home games at the 9,000-seat War Memorial Coliseum, good-sized Midwestern market in a basketball-crazed state). In addition, the conference would be getting rid of Youngstown State, which would join the MVC because of the MVC-Gateway Football partnership.

GREAT WEST
Denver
Missouri-Kansas City
North Dakota State
Northern Colorado
Oral Roberts
South Dakota State
Southern Utah
Utah Valley State

This new conference was recently created for football, and will probably end up becoming an all-sport conference because of the inability of the four all-sport teams (three of which are new to D-1) to find an all-sport conference. The four teams mentioned earlier(NDSU, SDSU, SUU, and UNC) would be all-sport members, the other four teams (Denver, ORU, UMKC, and UVSC) would be non-football members. Denver would get a chance to move into a conference that is more logical for them from a geographic and competitive standpoint (although they did hold their own in the Sun Belt last year). Although Utah Valley State is a D-1 provisional school that became the first college to move up to this level from the NJCAA, they have a brand new 8,500-seat on-campus arena and has apparently played well against D-1 competition. The travel partnerships for this conference would be SUU-UVSC, Denver-UNC, NDSU-SDSU, and ORU-UMKC.

MISSOURI VALLEY
Eastern Division
Bradley
Evansville
Illinois State
Indiana State
Southern Illinois
Youngstown State

Western Division
Creighton
Drake
Northern Iowa
Southwest Missouri State
Western Illinois
Wichita State

This one's pretty much a no-brainer, with Gateway Football Conference members Western Illinois and Youngstown State joining the Valley-Gateway alliance in all sports. Travel partnerships would be Bradley-ILST, Creighton-WSU, Drake-UNI, Evansville-SIU, INST-YSU, and SMS-WIU.

Centenary would probably join with the Atlantic Sun Conference, and Chicago State would probably become an independent...