St. Louis, MO – It’s official. The Creighton Bluejays are leaving the Missouri Valley Conference for the new Big East Conference. The Jays, Butler and Xavier (both of the Atlantic 10 Conference) will be joining the so-called ‘Catholic 7’ in the re-packaged league.
Creighton leaves behind great conference rivalries with Wichita State, the ability to bring 4,000 fans to the conference tournament, and adds millions of dollars, and a road schedule that will be murder.
MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin said, “As communicated during the Big East press conference earlier this morning, Creighton University will resign from the Missouri Valley Conference membership effective June 30, 2013.
Creighton has been a valued member of the Conference for many years. We respect the decision by the University to resign from the MVC, and we wish them well in their future athletic endeavors.
I want to be clear in stating that the Missouri Valley Conference is not defined by any one institution. The Valley’s history has shown, time and again, that it finds the strength, resources, competitive determination, and leadership to rise to higher levels at times of change. We will continue to be a great basketball and all-sports league, as we have been since our founding in 1907.
The MVC Presidents Council will continue to chart the future course of the Conference and has been proactively engaged in evaluating membership options.”
Northern Iowa Head Coach and long time friend of Creighton Coach Greg McDermott, Ben Jacobson says the league will miss standard bearing Bluejays.
Creighton will officially leave the MVC June 30th and the new Big East will officially launch on July 1.
Wichita State Head Coach Gregg Marshall says he hopes the Shockers and Jays continue their rivalry.
Now the down town St. Louis offices of the Missouri Valley Conference have to focus on replacing Creighton, while the league runs the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in Kansas City. A tough chore for Doug Elgin’s very capable crew.
Indiana State Head Coach Greg Lansing says it will be very difficult to replace Creighton.
Who is the Valley looking at to replace the Jays? I’m heading to Kansas City tomorrow to attempt to find out.
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