Valpo to the MVC!

[KL31NY]

http://www.mvc-sports.com/commissionerscorner/

MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin does regular interviews for the league. On this week's video (currently the big one embedded on the page) go to 5:00 to hear him talk about adding Dallas Baptist for baseball, or just listen to the whole thing. A lot of good things are happening in the MVC right now, definitely not a bad conference to work with in some way...

[vu72]

As I read many of these posts I smile at how so many accept Valpo being poor or mediocre in SO Many of the sports. Such a great school this should not be the case, I don't get it.

I don't think Mark L. is accepting these results, it is a matter of money for scholarships (this seems to be improving for some sports) and if it continues you will see a better performance.  The other factor is facilities and although we "built it" for tennis with limited results, no doubt a new track, or an old one for that matter, would improve track and cc performances and a new pool would also help.  All these things boil down to money and as the fund raising gets rolling the results will improve as well.

[zvillehaze]

Butler will get killed in non-basketball sports as well.  It didn't stop them for one second in jumping conferences.  In their case however, it was a bad decision for the student athlete with all the travel involved.  Sure, they will make more money, that is understood.

I know I won't change your mind, but here are a few things to consider regarding your comments.  You can judge if any of these are relevant to Valpo as they consider future moves:

1.  Several sports are either not impacted or impacted minimally.  Cross country, track and field, Golf, Tennis and Swimming teams continue to play regional opponents throughout the year ... the only change is they will now participate in the A-10 champsionship instead of the Horizon Championship.  That could mean travelling further for ONE event, but in most cases, that will be a short flight instead of the 2 to 5 hour bus ride they had in the Horizon.

2.  It does mean farther travel for Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer and Baseball/Softball as those sports do have some aspect of round robin play within the conference.  For men's basketball, the change is actually beneficial to the student athletes as they will spend significantly less time on the road and miss less class with the A-10 schedule.  Again, the move means that in many cases, long bus rides are being replaced by flights that result in less class time missed.  The athletic department expects impact on student athletes to be minimal, and in some cases like basketball, actually an improvement.

One undeniable impact is that parents used to driving to away games will either miss more games or incur additional costs.

Early on, Butler has not been "getting killed" in the A-10.  Both cross country teams won the conference, volleyball finished mid-pack at .500, women's soccer was upper division at 5-1-3 and men's near the middle at 3-5-1.  Not great, but also nothing to be embarrassed about.  We'll see what happens going forward.

[vu72]

Butler will get killed in non-basketball sports as well.  It didn't stop them for one second in jumping conferences.  In their case however, it was a bad decision for the student athlete with all the travel involved.  Sure, they will make more money, that is understood.

I know I won't change your mind, but here are a few things to consider regarding your comments.  You can judge if any of these are relevant to Valpo as they consider future moves:

1.  Several sports are either not impacted or impacted minimally.  Cross country, track and field, Golf, Tennis and Swimming teams continue to play regional opponents throughout the year ... the only change is they will now participate in the A-10 champsionship instead of the Horizon Championship.  That could mean travelling further for ONE event, but in most cases, that will be a short flight instead of the 2 to 5 hour bus ride they had in the Horizon.

2.  It does mean farther travel for Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer and Baseball/Softball as those sports do have some aspect of round robin play within the conference.  For men's basketball, the change is actually beneficial to the student athletes as they will spend significantly less time on the road and miss less class with the A-10 schedule.  Again, the move means that in many cases, long bus rides are being replaced by flights that result in less class time missed.  The athletic department expects impact on student athletes to be minimal, and in some cases like basketball, actually an improvement.

One undeniable impact is that parents used to driving to away games will either miss more games or incur additional costs.

Early on, Butler has not been "getting killed" in the A-10.  Both cross country teams won the conference, volleyball finished mid-pack at .500, women's soccer was upper division at 5-1-3 and men's near the middle at 3-5-1.  Not great, but also nothing to be embarrassed about.  We'll see what happens going forward.

You have in fact changed my opinion which, I'll admit, was done based on just the distances involved.  Good, fair analysis.  Thanks

[jetz]

Also, factor into the baseball equation the fact that the HL has only five baseball schools right now.  I am sure there have been discussions about who to add to get to the auto bid minimum of six, but I'm actually surprised there hasn't been a move made already.  We have this season and next season to operate with five and still get an NCAA bid.  (And maybe that's why there's been no real urgency.)  But if a baseball team isn't added for whatever reason, players and coaches will be shopping around for other opportunities.  Again, I firmly believe that ML has a plan in place to prevent this, but the dying HL is another factor to consider when possibly moving conferences, especially for baseball.

[milanmiracle]

As I read many of these posts I smile at how so many accept Valpo being poor or mediocre in SO Many of the sports. Such a great school this should not be the case, I don't get it.

Valpo has a track team and no track...that should pretty much sum it up.

[Valposter]

Here's a link to an "alternative" method to RPI of ranking college baseball teams. It's called the Nolan Power Index (NPI) and it weights a team's record against Division 1 teams, and it's Strength of Schedule. In 2012, Valpo's baseball team had a record against Division 1 teams of 33-25 (ranked 92nd), and a Strength os Schedule of .4741 (ranked 208th) for an NPI of 91. Valpo baseball is ranked more favorably in this method, than the traditional RPI of 145. Thought it was interesting.....here's the link if anyone would like to take a look......... http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2012/npi

Here is the Massey Ratings baseball rankings, which include all baseball teams. You can also sort for NCAA, NCAA division I, etc. http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cbase&yr=2012&sub=180556

Wow, never seen this one. Interesting to see how they compared the different levels, with us at 185 in their format

Valpotx, keep in mind this site included ALL levels of NCAA college baseball (D1, D2, D3).  Very different.  I've never seen a site that attempts to rate different levels of baseball together.  So Valpo is 185 out of 1,000 rated college teams.  You can sort by just D1 programs.  Valpo comes in at 154 of 297 D1 baseball programs with Massey.  I've attached the link below with the D1 sort.  These ratings seem to be all over the board for Valpo last year:

Valpo RPI:       145
Valpo NPI:         91
Valpo Massey:  154 

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cbase&sub=NCAA I

Massey also has a comparison ranking, using several other baseball ranking systems:

http://www.masseyratings.com/cbase/compare.htm

If you go to www.masseyratings.com you can also find volleyball, tennis, etc.  If you click on the valpo link, it will go to the current season.  You can look up previous Valpo rankings from previous years as well.

[blackpantheruwm]

Men's basketball is the only sport that will drive the MVC to add a school. That is clear, given the only good school they stand to possibly lose would be Crieghton, and they need a good basketball school to replace that.

Neither Milwaukee nor Valpo would be the best addition at the moment. The best addition would be North Dakota State, with their new basketball arena just $6 million away from the money needed for completion and construction already underway, the Bison look more attractive to me if I'm the MVC.  That would change as soon as Milwaukee or Valpo fixes their facilities situation, but right now neither are going there.

I know we're raising money right now to build a basketball practice facility. Our eyes may be bigger than our stomachs - they want to blow away Wright State's Setzer Pavilion, which I think is an outstanding facility - but the good news is we're on track.

What is the planning at Valpo? Is the ARC the home indefinitely? What about a practice facility?  What's the plan, folks?

[usc4valpo]

If Valpo would ever commit to the MVC, it would have to be becasue of deciding uopn a strong committment to basketball.  Other sports would likely be secondary (maybe not baseball or soccer.  Also, they would need more funding for basketball (better arena facilities, primarily).  Thus, they would have to remove football, as you cannot dilute yourself if you want to compete in an overall tougher basketball conference.