Horizon League Expansion

[ysuindy]

I understand the desire of Loyola, Detroit and Valpo to want to add a few private schools to the mix.  Way back when this was primarily a private school league.  Problem is I don't know where they are going to find them.

Oakland makes all the sense in the world as we have often discussed.

I could see Evansville - even without Butler the Horizon doesn't seem as far flung as the Valley.   the only way I could see it would be for financial purposes - and I truly don't know the state of their program.  I know they opened a brand new arena last year.

Belmont would bring the Nashville market, a strong basketball program the last few years and a baseball program that has qualified for the NCAAs the last few years.   It would also be more than 300 miles from the nearest Horizon League school (Wright State). 

[HorizonLeagueFan]

Evansville makes sense for many reasons.  They have been in the MVC for 18 years and haven't been competitive.  They have been 138-188 overall with only 3 winning seasons.  They currently don't recruit against other MVC schools.  They recruit the midwest against HL and MAC schools.  They don't have a very large budget compared to other MVC schools, but that budget is very comparable to HL teams.  Most importantly, the MVC is somewhat unstable.  The A-10 is going after Creighton.  Many of the other schools in the conference are looking at other football conferences.  Evansville might be afraid of being left out in the dark if the MVC starts to break up.  We are a good geographic and financial fit for them and they think they can be competitive in the HL.  In regards to the article quoting their AD, go back and read some of the articles over the past year about Butler.  Their AD denied they were going anywhere until a week before the announcement was made. 

Belmont also makes sense for many reasons.  They have been very good in basketball even thought they were in a really bad conference.  Move them up to the HL and they can make the next step as a program.   Being in Nashville isn't as bad as most people think.  The HL will split into 2 divisions if we go to 12 teams, so only 1/2 the conference will have to make that trip regularly.  Airfare to/from Nashville is also very inexpensive.  Even if it wasn't, HL schools would rather take on that extra travel expense in order to add another NCAA caliber team. 

[lakesbison]

Why not NDSU/SDSU if you are taking Oakland?

god knows the summit league will suck without oral roberts and oakland, PUKE!



personally, i'd rather see NDSU in the MVC.

[IAA Fan]

Why not NDSU/SDSU if you are taking Oakland?

god knows the summit league will suck without oral roberts and oakland, PUKE!



personally, i'd rather see NDSU in the MVC.

It is going the wrong direction Lake. Nothing personal, but it is very hard for us to draw fans to the home football games (vs. the Dakota schools) as it is ...let alone a sport that has even less of a draw ..in a football town. When you have some free time, take a simple child's compass, and stretch it from Youngstown to Terre Haute (our closest conference rival) ...then make your circle. You will find 16 I-AA/FCS colleges (probably more now, with all the new east coast teams since the last time I did this myself. Of those 16 colleges, none of them are in the MVFC. The circle encompasses schools from the CAA, OVC, NEC, Pioneer & Patriot in I-AA ...and schools from the Big-10, Big East, ACC, CUSA, and MAC in IA.

Now we realize that it takes time to develop knowledge and rivals. We also realize that we are a very isolated city ...in terms of full-scholarship I-AA/FCS. It is easy to put people in the stands for NDSU in 2012, as you have a national championship ...but that enthusiasm will fade in another year (assuming no repeat). People in Youngstown consider this the northeast ..maybe Midwest; but certainly not the plains.

I do agree that ORU and Oakland are the top team in the post-Valpo Summit League.