Evansville Courier Press : Loyola to Missouri Valley

[ysuindy]

The Evansville Courier Press is reporting Loyola will be joining the Missouri Valley to replace Creighton.

http://www.courierpressblogs.com/sports/ue/?p=4295

Of course, a few weeks ago the Green Bay paper was saying UIC to the Valley was a done deal.

Evansville paper has no mention of UIC.

On a very simplistic level, prefer losing Loyola than UIC as Loyola does not play baseball - leaves the Horizon needing to add only one baseball school.

That said, I don't think the shuffling is done, particularly if the Big East / Catholic 7 + Butler raids the A-10 for Dayton and St. Louis in a year.  The A-10 may well look for at some Horizon schools

[ysuindy]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-loyola-missouri-valley-conference-20130413,0,2427164.story

Chicago Tribune claims the school has confirmed the move, effective July 1, 2013.

[YsuPride]

Loyola no big loss.  I'm surprised the MVC couldn't get anyone better.  Loyola sucks.  Now the Horizon League will need two teams to join asap.

[southbeach]

It's fairly obvious what the MVC was looking for! They needed a Jesuit school to replace a Jesuit school!

[Wick250]

If this is true, it makes some sense.  The MVC has three teams in Illinois but has no presence in the Chicago media market.  This adds Chicago to their league footprint and also makes the MVC more visible to Chicago recruits.

As Indy suggested, it is better for us since UIC plays baseball.  I guess now we will have to take the thugs from Oakland (who plays baseball and that gets us back to the required six.)  I agree with Pride and would want two new teams, as a buffer to anybody else that bolts.  I would suggest Northern Kentucky.  They play baseball and have that large, brand new arena.  Despite the name, they are located in the Cincinnati metro area, right across the river.  That would also reduce travel costs for all league teams.  You would have five logical geographical pairings: YSU and CSU, Detroit and Oakland, WSU and NKU, Valpo and UIC, and the Wisconsin schools.

[YsuPride]

Northern Kentucky would be a great addition.   I think we used to play them back in the day.  As for Oakland they have a solid program and we have a history with them. 

[IAA Fan]

NKU is too strong of a program. When they join the Summit, they will dominate. The would dominate in the Horizon as well. How long has it taken Valpo? not long. I would easily say the NKU is stronger now than Valpo was when they came into the HL a few years ago. They are a better program than Loyola ...at least in recent years.

[ysuindy]

Wright State fans say NKU is not a strong enough program for the HL.

What I find really amusing is the large number of fans at HL schools who think Murray State should be willing to come to the Horizon League.  Not sure where they expect Murray to take their football team - I expect the OVC isn't going to let them stay for football and leave for everything else.

Most MVC fans can't understand Loyola.  I'm probably in that camp as well.  Does a school that is at best the #5 college program in a pro town really get you much media coverage?  I don't see the Chicago papers covering Loyola any more in the MVC than they did in the HL.  The media coverage is still going to Northwestern, Illinois, Notre Dame and DePaul over Loyola.

As for NKU, if I recall the former Wright State AD is the interim AD at NKU - thanks to the former AD having affairs with at least three staffers.  I don't know that it matters in the long run, but he would certainly have the contacts to get NKU in the conversation if they wanted to be.   They were 11-16 this year, 9-9 in the Atlantic Sun.

[Wick250]

Fans at Horizon League schools want the strongest possible additions for basketball.  That is perfectly understandable; basketball is THE sport at those institutions.  At YSU, our goals should be different.  We need a stable and geographically compact conference for basketball and our Olympic sports.  That is why Oakland (who I can't stand,) Northern Kentucky, and even Fort Wayne make perfect sense for us.  Furthermore, a weaker basketball conference would be a good thing for us.  Right now, with Butler gone, we are a 12-14 RPI mid-major who gets one bid and a bad seed.  If we dropped to about 18-20 RPI we would be a one bid conference with a bad seed.  We would also have a better chance of contending on a consistent basis.