future opponent from PFL

[vufan75]

Posters have mentioned developing a basketball series with for example the MVC. Interesting article below that talks about the MVC philosophy on scheduling. It sounds like the Drake is looking to establish home and home series in basketball with schools who also are PFL members.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120304/NEWS/303040024/Missouri-Valley-tells-its-schools-Schedule-good-opponents-and-win-

[lowposter]

The Valley would be a great conference for HL to establish a December battle, similar to Big 10/ACC.  We seem to have drifted to the MAC the past few years, and while that is a good conference, I believe the Valley is a slightly better matchup. 

A VU - Drake, Creighton, Bradley, Evansville matchup would match good private schools. I have always enjoyed VU matching up with other Indiana schools.  VU - Indiana State would be great, as would the Evansville game.

A rotation of VU vs Evansville, Indiana State, Ball State, IUPUI, IUPUFW would help with in state recruiting, etc.  They have seemed to gravitate to those teams, but even a mid major Hoosier holiday tournament would be great.  probably never happen in this day.

lowposter

[valporun]

A tourney with the MAC would be good for travel's sake, but the MAC is a 12-team league, and I think they would want to have all of their teams involved yearly, so it would have a situation where every two years, two MAC teams would rotate out, and it might not be the lowest two teams that would rotate out for RPI sake.

The Missouri Valley would give a nice travel change, with games in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana.

[covufan]

If we could pick up a few games like Drake and other PFL teams, we could move our schedule up to just Division I.  Along with PFL teams, the MVC, OVC, MAC and Summit have teams we could be facing in home-and-home series.

[StlVUFan]

A tourney with the MAC would be good for travel's sake, but the MAC is a 12-team league, and I think they would want to have all of their teams involved yearly, so it would have a situation where every two years, two MAC teams would rotate out, and it might not be the lowest two teams that would rotate out for RPI sake.

The Missouri Valley would give a nice travel change, with games in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana.

Doesn't the Valley have 11 teams?

[valporun]

A tourney with the MAC would be good for travel's sake, but the MAC is a 12-team league, and I think they would want to have all of their teams involved yearly, so it would have a situation where every two years, two MAC teams would rotate out, and it might not be the lowest two teams that would rotate out for RPI sake.

The Missouri Valley would give a nice travel change, with games in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana.

Doesn't the Valley have 11 teams?

Nope, the Valley has 10 teams, so it would be a good fit for home-at-home, then a new team to rotate to every two years.

[drewsaders11]

I love this idea.  I think it would be a win-win for all involved. 

The MVC really solved the scheduling pattern that got them to have great RPIs across the board earlier this decade.  From 99-07, they had multiple bids, maxing out in 3 in 05 and an amazing 4 in 06, with several sweet 16 runs, if I'm not mistaken.  From 2008-2011, the MVC has only had one bid each year.  This was due heavily to the fact that no larger conferences would schedule them, so their RPIs took a hit from that.  The MVC also had more money from their recent playoff experiences (ncaa appearances and wins each generate a pool of money to split amongst conf teams), so they took that money and bought wins from lesser conferences, like SWAC and MEAC teams.  This really hurt their RPI in general. 

Having a series with MVC teams would definitely help scheduling for HL teams, too.  Travel wouldn't be too drastic, especially for western teams like Valpo, UIC, Butler, and Loyola.  I like the idea, and hope something like it springs up in the next 5-10 years.