More conference realignment talk

[The Sultan]

Not only that but UIC is heading into a league that all Horizon schools aspire to join - the Missouri Valley.  How much are could this hurt other Horizon schools that are up for MVC membership? 

Also, if you are a school like Bellarmine, who is rumored to be on the Horizon short list, how much does this make you want to jump to the Horizon versus stay in the A-Sun?  Or wait out a possible Ohio Valley invite?

[Scoop Snoop]

Not only that but UIC is heading into a league that all Horizon schools aspire to join - the Missouri Valley.  How much are could this hurt other Horizon schools that are up for MVC membership? 

Also, if you are a school like Bellarmine, who is rumored to be on the Horizon short list, how much does this make you want to jump to the Horizon versus stay in the A-Sun?  Or wait out a possible Ohio Valley invite?

Exactly! And just what does the conference hope to gain by being petty? It gains nothing but a bad reputation for the way they handle departing schools. 

[Herman Cain]

Looks like the MVC Commissioner is looking to continue to grow their league.

This article points out that one of the reasons that Loyola went to A-10 was to be with more Jesuit Institutions.

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2022-01-28/missouri-valley-conference-grows-to-12-schools-and-it-may-not-be-done-with-expansion

[f/k/a humanlung]

All I know is that I think it's going to be fun watching the Texas and OU alumni completely lose their collective...stuff...when their football teams are getting their heads handed to them every year in the SEC.

[MU82]

Queens University of Charlotte, now in D2, is meeting this week to decide if they will seriously explore a move to D1.

According to NCAA statistics, Queens would have the third-smallest enrollment (1,670) of any D1, larger than only Presbyterian (1,172) in South Carolina and St. Francis (1,658) in Pennsylvania.

[WhiteTrash]

Queens University of Charlotte, now in D2, is meeting this week to decide if they will seriously explore a move to D1.

According to NCAA statistics, Queens would have the third-smallest enrollment (1,670) of any D1, larger than only Presbyterian (1,172) in South Carolina and St. Francis (1,658) in Pennsylvania.

I feel like America has been begging for Queens to go D1 for years. I think the BE could swap Georgetown for Queens. That would be a homerun.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I feel like America has been begging for Queens to go D1 for years. I think the BE could swap Georgetown for Queens. That would be a homerun.

Going to join a conference with St. Thomas?

[WhiteTrash]

Going to join a conference with St. Thomas?

I thought St. Thomas to the Big East was a "Done Deal".

[StillAWarrior]

I thought St. Thomas to the Big East was a "Done Deal".

I doubt it.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I thought St. Thomas to the Big East was a "Done Deal".

I thought they were behind the Quinnipiac Bobcats?

[WhiteTrash]

I though they were behind the Quinnipiac Bobcats?

I think if the Big East can't get Chicago State, then its Quinnipiac.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I thought they were behind the Quinnipiac Bobcats?

They've run local articles indicating QU's "aspirations for higher status league for their sports programs".

Quinnipiac's hockey team is ranked 2nd in the country right now behind Minnesota State with Denver ranked 3rd.

[🏀]

Saw a bunch of new posts.

1. Ctrl-F
2. D-A-Y-T
3. "No results"
4. We're good.

[Dr. Blackheart]

They've run local articles indicating QU's "aspirations for higher status league for their sports programs".

Quinnipiac's hockey team is ranked 2nd in the country right now behind Minnesota State with Denver ranked 3rd.

When Q and St. Thomas bumped up to D1, they both stated they were planning to jump up to the Big East, like it was easy and within years rather than decades.

[MDMU04]

Saw a bunch of new posts.

1. Ctrl-F
2. D-A-Y-T
3. "No results"
4. We're good.

[JWags85]

They've run local articles indicating QU's "aspirations for higher status league for their sports programs".

Quinnipiac's hockey team is ranked 2nd in the country right now behind Minnesota State with Denver ranked 3rd.

Thats kind of amusing.  I wonder what their pitch would be. 

Their mens BB STINKS.  1 NIT appearance all time.
Mens LAX had 1 decent season making the NCAAs in the last 20+ years.
Same with Mens Soccer
Mens Baseball basically the same as well.

Womens basketball is easily their most successful program, basically the best in the MAAC.

They moved from the Northeast to the MAAC which was a step up.  I don't know where they think they could/should belong from here?  The A10?  They'd be cannon fodder in most any larger/better conference.

Their hockey is a nice story but they're already in the best non-Hockey East conference out there, but hockey isn't really a bargaining chip for the other sports.

[🏀]

My man.

[tower912]

Probably a $5k car in today's market.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Thats kind of amusing.  I wonder what their pitch would be. 

Their mens BB STINKS.  1 NIT appearance all time.
Mens LAX had 1 decent season making the NCAAs in the last 20+ years.
Same with Mens Soccer
Mens Baseball basically the same as well.

Womens basketball is easily their most successful program, basically the best in the MAAC.

They moved from the Northeast to the MAAC which was a step up.  I don't know where they think they could/should belong from here?  The A10?  They'd be cannon fodder in most any larger/better conference.

Their hockey is a nice story but they're already in the best non-Hockey East conference out there, but hockey isn't really a bargaining chip for the other sports.

NCAA hockey is definitely not a bargaining chip.  Their hockey team has been good for some time.  They were NCAA runner-up to Yale in 2013 and have one or two other hockey Final 4's.

[The Sultan]

So the three schools who are leaving Conference USA for the Sun Belt, Marshall, Southern Miss and ODU, have been attempting to negotiate an early departure from their 2023 date.  The conference has basically refused, so the three have said that they are out anyway.  No word if they will be joining the Sun Belt early though they are trying.

Wonder if we will see something similar with Texas and Oklahoma.

[WhiteTrash]

Wonder if we will see something similar with Texas and Oklahoma.

I think they would have done so already if their contracts allow or if the penalties were deemed reasonable. My guess is the Big XII contracts are iron clad and pricey. Just an uninformed opinion. I suppose the fact that the current Big XII is a very good conference with good (but not SEC) payouts may give them comfort in waiting it out.

[The Sultan]

I should have been more clear.  Oklahoma and Texas are slated to leave the Big 12 in 2025.  The four new schools are slated to join in 2023, so there would be two years of a 14 team league, which apparently the conference seems to be planning for.

Of course there is no reason NOW to negotiate, but what happens a year from now?

[MU82]

Given the enthusiastic reaction to yesterday's post about Queens University in Charlotte, I know y'all were eagerly anticipating news of what was gonna happen at the meeting of the school's board of trustees.

Well, hang on to your hats, here it is ...

Queens University of Charlotte's trustees on Friday unanimously approved a plan to explore a possible move to NCAA's Division I.

Queens currently is a member of Division II and competes in the South Atlantic Conference. The decision by the board, which includes 29 members, comes "after careful and thoughtful consideration" of the school's academic and athletic successes in its 26 NCAA-sponsored sports, according to a statement released by the university.

A move to Division I remains contingent upon a formal conference invitation and pending financial feasibility, the school said.

Wheee!

I can't wait for Marquette to start playing every year in Charlotte against their new Big East opponent. It's been too long since MU and UNC-Charlotte ended up in different conferences.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Horizon league reversed course and will let UIC compete in the postseason tournaments. Think they got more backlash than they expected

[The Sultan]

Horizon league reversed course and will let UIC compete in the postseason tournaments. Think they got more backlash than they expected

I subscribe to Matt Brown's Extra Points column, and he does a lot of stuff on conference realignment.  He believe that this kind of stuff actually harms the conference and the schools that remain.

https://www.extrapointsmb.com/uic-stony-brook-caa-ae-horizon-league-ban/

"In covering conference realignment over the last two years, multiple people at multiple schools, conferences and businesses have told me that how leagues handle the transition process is absolutely a factor when other schools decide which league to join.

As one industry source told me, "If you're thinking about dating somebody, and you know their last three relationships ended in huge fights and they're always talking about how crazy their exes are...that has to raise a red flag, right? It's a similar factor in conference realignment. It may not be enough of a red flag to keep a school from joining a league, but it's certainly a factor."

Officials at both UIC and Stony Brook told me that while they're not completely ruling anything out, both schools are likely to consider how their transitions from the Horizon and AE went when setting up out of conference schedules in the future. If you're a school that wants to play games in Chicago or Long Island for recruiting purposes, do you really want to burn a relationship that could make that happen?"