Texas-Arlington to Missouri Valley story

[bbtds]

https://www.midmajormadness.com/platform/amp/2021/6/9/22521709/rumor-ut-arlington-could-join-the-missouri-valley-conference-drake-loyloa-chicago-sun-belt

"Put bluntly, the league is surely smitten with UTA geographic location. While the addition of a Texas school could be burdensome for the travel costs of some of the other MVC schools, Arlington would bring a significant new market to the conference. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country, so the MVC would be tapping into an enormous new market. UTA would also be the conference's first Texas school, which could be meaningful for establishing recruiting pipelines in a state that is plush with talent."

Please don't shoot the messenger. If the MVC is truly looking at UTA then Valpo must acknowledge the true possibility of it happening whether we, as Valpo fans, like it or not.

[NotBryceDrew]

Unless there is massive financial incentive that I am unable to see here this is a hard no.

I do not want any none flagship state schools in the conference.

[valpotx]

UTA is a commuter school, and hardly anyone follows their Athletics program, outside of a usually stout Baseball team.  Maybe it is a play to keep DBU as an affiliate member in a sport they kick a$$?  DBU is into the Super Regional round, after winning the TCU Regional.

[VUGrad1314]

This is a bad idea for many reasons chief among them that it dilutes the league and balloons the travel budget for not much gain on or off the court. How many students from Texas would this honestly bring to the MVC member institutions who weren't already going to come anyway? The MVC can do better than UTA if it chooses to expand. If we want good baseball we can get Oral Roberts or Wright State who are just as good as UTA if not better while both having better overall athletic departments to boot.

[bbtds]

This is a bad idea for many reasons chief among them that it dilutes the league and balloons the travel budget for not much gain on or off the court. How many students from Texas would this honestly bring to the MVC member institutions who weren't already going to come anyway? The MVC can do better than UTA if it chooses to expand. If we want good baseball we can get Oral Roberts or Wright State who are just as good as UTA if not better while both having better overall athletic departments to boot.

I do believe many of the same things were said about Loyola before they were invited to the Missouri Valley over Valpo.

[VUGrad1314]

This is a bad idea for many reasons chief among them that it dilutes the league and balloons the travel budget for not much gain on or off the court. How many students from Texas would this honestly bring to the MVC member institutions who weren't already going to come anyway? The MVC can do better than UTA if it chooses to expand. If we want good baseball we can get Oral Roberts or Wright State who are just as good as UTA if not better while both having better overall athletic departments to boot.

I do believe many of the same things were said about Loyola before they were invited to the Missouri Valley over Valpo.

I don't think comparing UTA to Loyola is wise. Loyola at least had some distant tradition in basketball prior to being added and was clearly just commitment and money away from being great again. They also delivered a valuable market within the footprint and filled an important role as a private school for a league that had few options if they wanted to keep things balanced between public and private. I don't see the same potential in UTA at all. They appear to have money but there is no tradition to speak of. They might end up being great but I'd take a more proven brand over stretching the footprint like this. If we were seriously thinking about going into Texas I would much rather have had Stephen F Austin or perhaps even Abeline Christian (though they are a recent addition to this list I would not have said that this time last year) but there are options that don't stretch the footprint as badly as UTA that are better for the MVC in my opinion.

[oklahomamick]

no to ORU, it's not even a real academic institution.