Loyola of Chicago joins MVC

[Tugg Speedman]

Loyola of Chicago joins MVC

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9190516/loyola-chicago-joining-missouri-valley

The Loyola Ramblers are on the move.

The school made it official Friday and announced it will move from the Horizon League to the Missouri Valley Conference, changing affiliations for the first time since 1979. Loyola will replace Creighton, which announced a move to the Big East in March.

"I think our brand will raise the profile of the institution and the fact that we're in the Chicago marketplace is going to do wonders for the Missouri Valley," Missouri Valley commissioner Doug Elgin said at Loyola.

Elgin called it a good marriage in terms of natural rivalries, pointing out Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Bradley and Indiana State all are in proximity.

"We have alumni fans up here who have been bugging me for years to bring in one of the local schools as a member," Elgin said. "We're going to help Loyola as much as Loyola is going to help us."

An original member of the Midwestern City Conference, forerunner of the Horizon League, Loyola last made the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1985 and is the only Illinois school ever to win an NCAA tournament (1963). Its men's basketball team is coming off a 7-23 season under second-year coach Porter Moser, who coached in the MVC for Illinois State from 2003-2007.

Moser said there is no doubt a new affiliation with a conference that includes Final Four team Wichita State will help in recruiting.

"The Valley is just one more powerful brand that's behind us when we recruit," he said.

The school's emphasis will still be on recruiting in Chicago.

"There's been no secret since I took over here two years ago that the No. 1 priority is Chicago and ... surrounding areas of Illinois," Moser said.

Moser said next year's team will have its first Chicago Public School player in a decade, Milton Doyle, a redshirt transfer from Kansas who played high school ball at Chicago Marshall.

Elgin said he expects Loyola teams to initially have "tough sledding" against Missouri Valley competition. Chicago in particular is a recruiting hotbed not just for elite Division I programs but local universities like DePaul, Northwestern and University of Illinois-Chicago.

Two years ago, Loyola remodeled the Gentile Arena and other athletic facilities as part of a $300 million project to help address its image. Earlier this month, Olympic gold medalist and three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes was hired as the new women's basketball coach.

Athletic director Grace Calhoun said the challenge for the school in its continued renovations is fitting in practice facilities for other sports. The 10,000-student school located on Chicago's lakefront competes in golf, cross country, track, soccer, softball and volleyball.

"Of course, the challenge of being in Chicago, we're an urban, land-locked university so space is at a premium, but we're going to work those issues and get some great training spaces as well," she said.

[Dawson Rental]

Great move for Loyola and the MVC.

[Nukem2]

Great move for Loyola and the MVC.

Good for Loyola...not so good for MVC...?

[bradley center bat]

It opens the door more for other MVC schools for recruits in Chicago.

[Nukem2]

It opens the door more for other MVC schools for recruits in Chicago.

Understand that, but it also adds a probable doormat...

[Galway Eagle]

Hope they get teir stuff together it'd be fun to revive that old rivalry if they became good again

[Dawson Rental]

Hopefully, this puts more pressure on DePaul to up its game.

[GGGG]

It opens the door more for other MVC schools for recruits in Chicago.

Just like adding Fordham opened the doors for the A10 in New York.

[source?]

If Loyola can't get any (good) Chicago kids, what makes the MVC think it will attract any to their schools? Great for Loyola, but the MVC will probably get screwed. Loyola is probably the 2nd worst ball school in Chicago, with no real indication that they will improve. I know they updated the Gentile, but that still won't matter if they don't draw.

[Jet915]

Unfortunately, the Valley didn't have many great options.  Alot of MVC alumni live in Chicago and Loyola is like Creighton academically, just not very good at basketball.  They have put alot of money into their sports programs though and they probably made some promises to the MVC to continue to do that.  Seems like the MVC was going to target a school in a big market no matter what (they were even considering UMKC!).

[Mr. Nielsen]

Who should the MVC have picked? Denver, Oral Roberts, UMKC, NDST, SDST, UIC, Milwaukee?  It's very tough to replace Creighton.

[GGGG]

Who should the MVC have picked? Denver, Oral Roberts, UMKC, NDST, SDST, UIC, Milwaukee?  It's very tough to replace Creighton.

I would have picked UIC long before Loyola. 

[Galway Eagle]

If Loyola can't get any (good) Chicago kids, what makes the MVC think it will attract any to their schools? Great for Loyola, but the MVC will probably get screwed. Loyola is probably the 2nd worst ball school in Chicago, with no real indication that they will improve. I know they updated the Gentile, but that still won't matter if they don't draw.

Debatable, UIC split with them this year, Depaul lost to them, and Chicago State is definitely the worst program.