Missouri Valley Expansion Questions

Will They – Won’t They – With Whom?

(St. Louis, MO) – Loyola Chicago’s departure from the Missouri Valley Conference didn’t begin a new round of expansion questions, but it did intensify them. There are so many Missouri Valley expansion questions.

While Loyola is leaving, Belmont is on the way and the league can just settle in with the same schedule formats and ten-team programming it had before. That is a simple move for the league as it will head into its 116^th season in existence.

But will they stand pat? If they’re bent on expanding, who are the likely targets? How quickly will we know the answers to these questions? There have been national stories, regional follow ups and ‘leaked information’.

How do we cut through the clutter.

Does the MVC Want to Expand?

The simple answer seems to be a qualified yes. The Belmont announcement caught everyone off guard as expansion/realignment seemed to be off the table this early into the new Commissioner’s regime. Jeff Jackson said repeatedly that the league was more than willing to expand and wanted to be viewed as a good landing place for other programs.

He also noted, his major focus was going to be on getting to know the programs, administrators and student athletes.

However, it seems he was immediately involved with the Belmont conversations and the result was that one of college basketball’s premier mid-major program was joining the Valley.

There are threats on all sides and the league wants to shore up its borders and work towards sustainable success. Rumors about Missouri State looking for a better football situation are worrisome, so continuing to work with MSU while looking at other possibilities are both important.

I admit that I’m not following college football closely, but I don’t understand Missouri State’ chest pounding on the football front. Prior to this season, they had exactly NO WINNING RECORDS in the past five years, but now, after one winning season, there is this sense that Bear Nation doesn’t believe the nation’s best FBS conference isn’t good enough for them anymore. This seems a bit out of touch with reality.

Don’t @ me, I’m just stating the obvious to the uninitiated. I count myself in the uninitiated.

Who Wants to Expand?

It seems the Valley’s Presidents’ Council and its expansion committee has a keen interest in bolstering the league and growing its national brand. Bringing in Jackson was a great move. He is innovative, well connected and sees the bigger picture.

One quote from the Belmont press conferences claimed he was talking to Belmont President Dr. Gregory Jones in June before he was even officially the league Commissioner. He is an initiator and knows how to move situations forward.

Other published reports had MSU President Clifford Smart as one of the prime movers in the Belmont efforts. Missouri State is the largest university in the Valley and Smart has been a leader on the expansion committee.

Several reporters have claimed the Presidents primary expansion interests involve larger markets. Matt Norlander’s reporting indicated that UT Arlington (Dallas) and Kansas City were two of the three universities with which the league is in ‘deep discussions’ with. Murray State is the other.

Is that a good idea? Chicago, Omaha and Wichita based universities have left the MVC for leagues with even bigger markets. It makes this writer wonder, if the niche the league should be looking for, are programs more like the seven schools that have been consistent in the league over the past 20 years, rather than ones more dissimilar.

What Schools Are Likely?

We’ve reached out to the rumored universities and clearly the one that makes the most sense is Murray State. The Racer athletic program is basketball centric, has experienced immense amount of success and has a rabid fan base.

Murray apparently finished second to Valparaiso the last time the league expanded. This is not a knock on Valpo, but how differently would the Valley had been viewed if Ja Morant and the Racers were in the league during Morant’s all-American sophomore season. Like when Creighton left the Valley right before Doug McDermott’s senior season, the MVC missed out on some historic things. Timing is sometimes everything.

Racer Director of Athletics Kevin Saal’s statement during the Belmont move (and other Ohio Valley Conference departures), indicated the program is very willing to engage in conversations and explorations in the realignment arena.

“Murray State University remains actively engaged in a thoughtful and thorough vetting process as it relates to conference realignment. Murray State is a nationally recognized brand and promising discussions about the future of Racer Athletics are ongoing. Whether within or outside the Ohio Valley Conference, Murray State University is considering all options in order to position our Athletics program in a thriving environment and offer a first-class student-athlete and fan experience.”

People inside the Murray ‘family’ have privately indicated there is a desire for Racer athletics to make the move to the Valley. I have been told by several sources that some of the road-blocks inside the Valley, that kept Murray out of the mix last time, have been removed.

UT Arlington and Kansas City are completely different animals and not just because they are Mavericks and Kangaroos.

The Big City Options

UT Arlington has been on a gentle down slope since Scott Cross left the Maverick’s head coaching position and Kansas City has never been a basketball power, but has been improving in recent seasons. Neither basketball program makes you shout ‘hallelujah’ as a Valley basketball fan. But to be fair, Loyola’s history didn’t suggest anything great when they joined the league.

Would they fit in the Valley?

Certainly Kansas City (formerly UMKC) makes geographical sense. The Kangaroos would be a very reasonable trip for Missouri State and for Drake and Northern Iowa. Billy Donlon is doing a good job in his third year and recently the Roos knocked off Missouri! They’ve played Minnesota and Iowa this season too.

They could be a program ‘on-the-rise’. Like Loyola, they are in an urban center. Their facilities are lacking, but Municipal Auditorium has seen a lot of great NCAA basketball history. Financial questions and student body engagement would be questions to investigate, but there are worse possibilities than Kansas City.

Kansas City athletics department officials kindly rejected my offer of an interview on the subject, saying “any discussion of rumors would be just that,” but left the door open for future conversations.

Clearly the allure to UT Arlington is to a MAJOR market. Geography is clearly a problem with this university, but flights into the area are clearly available with large airports abounding near Arlington.

The Mavericks have a nationally known coed cheerleading team and they play basketball (men’s and women’s) in the relatively new (2012) College Park Center (7,000 capacity). UTA won the conference’s all-round athletics award three times while in the Southland Conference.

The women’s basketball team has played in two NCAA Tournaments (2005 and 2007) and the men’s team reached March Madness once (2008).

As of this writing, our efforts to speak to UTA officials have not netted a response.

Who Else Makes Sense?

With so much shake up in college athletics, it is difficult to even know which teams are in what conference, but here are some of our thoughts.

Horizon League members have joined the Valley before. Both Valparaiso and Loyola were Horizon transplants and Northern Kentucky, Milwaukee and UIC all make some sense. It was widely reported during the Valpo joining period that Milwaukee was under consideration.

All three of these teams make sense geographically and fall in the ‘larger market’ category. Northern Kentucky is twelve miles from Cincinnati. After losing Loyola, another Chicago market school could be beneficial. IUPUI would fit too.

Kansas City plays in the Summit League and some of its fellow league members play in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. South Dakota State, North Dakota and South Dakota are all familiar with the Valley. Omaha was rumored to be in the ‘possible’ category several years ago.

Oral Roberts is in Tulsa and thus not far from Missouri State.

The possibilities are endless and it all comes down to the Presidents’ Council. What do they want the Valley to look like in five years. If they want to look more like Conference USA or the A-Ten with larger markets spread around the map, they can do that and it could be amazingly successful.

Or do they want to be a league that stays true to its geography and current niche and find basketball centric, regional schools with history and cohesiveness. That could be amazingly successful too.

Missouri Valley expansion questions are more about what the league Presidents want the conference to be, than who they may be recruiting right now.

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