Are you an MVC fan?

[wh]

As long as we're just standing around waiting to hear about another addition, let me lightheartedly ask, "Do you consider yourself a Missouri Valley Conference fan?"

I don't. In fact, the whole concept of conference fandom is foreign to me. I'm a Valpo fan. I'm a conference supporter. I see the Missouri Valley Conference the same way I see my credit union. I want it to do well, because the better it does, the better I do. But the only "fan" I have over there is me. The MVC is a means to an end for Valpo. The credit union is a means to an end for me.

Does that make sense?

[justducky]

As long as we're just standing around waiting to hear about another addition, let me lightheartedly ask, "Do you consider yourself a Missouri Valley Conference fan?"

I don't. In fact, the whole concept of conference fandom is foreign to me. I'm a Valpo fan. I'm a conference supporter. I see the Missouri Valley Conference the same way I see my credit union. I want it to do well, because the better it does, the better I do. But the only "fan" I have over there is me. The MVC is a means to an end for Valpo. The credit union is a means to an end for me.

Does that make sense?

It does make sense and your position was my position for decades. Today in the ESPN3, ESPN+, etc world where almost any game can be watched; I'm finding myself catching all or portions of several non VU key Valley games almost every week. It adds up to a lot of hours because good basketball is addictive.    Some of this viewing falls into a coaching curiosity category (not my profession) but I think that it also may define me as a MVC fan.

[elephtheria47]

Yes.

[VU2014]

I am 100% a Valley fan. I root for all our conference members in the non-conference, because we rise and fall together. When Loyola and Drake do well it's good for us as well.

WH, I understand where you are coming from to a degree because when we were in the Horizon League I had the mindset of I didn't like Butler, Oakland or Detroit-Mercy (in the Ray McCallum years) or Green Bay in the Keifer Sykes years and I really didn't cheer for them in the Non-Conference. I knew the HL was a one-bid league with almost no potential for an at-large. I sort of evolved my opinion towards the end of the AP years, but didn't feel any conference loyalty to the HL. Lecrone (HL Commish) was a bozo and hated letting little old Valpo host the Conference Tournaments in the post-Butler era. The HL always favored Butler and that played into my dislike and annoyance with HL.

But with the Missouri Valley Conference, I am proud to be in this Conference. It is a great and historical Conference with great Schools, fan-bases, great mid-major basketball, Arch Madness is great and there is a comradery to this league that Valpo Fans have never felt in the Mid-Con or the Horizon League. There is a great community of Missouri Valley Fans on twitter and they are super passionate about their Teams and the League. Do I get annoyed that we get some heat from time to time for not playing up to our potential or that the facilities are sub-par? Yes, I do, but it's also true. We need to be better than we've been, across the board.

We are in a Conference that has potential to have legit multi-bids most years and particularly now with Belmont and Murray State coming in and adding to the Strength of schedule every year. The Valley is a unique and great conference! Embrace it! All 10 (soon to be 12 schools) school get a boost when the others succeed. Do I think some Loyola fans are little cocky after those tourney runs? you bet yeah I get a little annoyed but they earned that run and it makes me want Valpo to beat them even more when we play them. That feeling of passion and "want" is a beautiful thing. Loyola's runs and Drake beating Wichita State (former top dog in the Valley) made me proud and happy to see. It brings prestige to the Valley which is a community that Valparaiso is apart of.

Embrace the Valley!!!

[VUGrad1314]

My answer is probably one of the most obvious of anyone on this board and it is an unequivocable yes. I am a Valley fan and have been for a long time even before Valpo joined the conference. I grew up in Valpo and my passion for the NCAA Tournament goes back to Valpo's run in 1998. (I was actually living an hour away at the time as I spent a year living in Winamac as a child in between two stints in Valpo) but I remember being so thrilled to see a school from a town I had lived in (and was likely to go back to as my family had decided to move back after just a few months) do well and win games in the tournament. It made  me fall in love with the  stories of little schools taking down the big schools which helped me later become a Gonzaga fan (as that city is where I was born) and a fan of mid majors in general a passion that has never left me. In particular my passion fell on two leagues both of which Valpo has had the honor of calling itself a member either previously or presently: The Horizon League and the Missouri Valley Conference.

So after adopting Valpo and a year later Gonzaga thanks to their Elite 8 run in 1999 I began to take a very strong interest in the tournament particularly schools from the midwest where I had lived most of my life with Gonzaga of course being the main exception to that . I gleefully watched the rise of Butler (the rivalry didn't dawn on me too much until we united in conference and especially after I became a student at Valpo) and remember the wins by Milwaukee and Cleveland State which made me super excited to join and be a part of the HL at the time. But through it all there was this conference full of schools with strange names many of whose locations I had to look up because I had never heard of them that was constantly--and I mean CONSTANTLY--a thorn in the big schools' sides: The Missouri Valley conference. Not only were they ALWAYS getting 2+ bids they were doing well. And unlike the HL it wasn't just one program or even a few programs winning one game it was like EVERYBODY. And what's more They were all making DEEP runs. "Wow look at Creighton!" "Whoa! Wichita State!" "What a run by Bradley!" "Oh my Gosh Northern Iowa!" "This Southern Illinois team is GOOD!" "What is this conference? It's AMAZING!" It got to the point where whenever I saw a team from this conference matched up against some power 5 school in the first round I knew that school was going down and probably the next one was too. My friends and I used to guess which team from the MVC was going to go to the Sweet 16 in a given year. That's how common it was. Just as I had hoped before to play in the HL, I also hoped we could reach even a little higher still into the MVC. Then when I found out that it wasn't just good at men's basketball it was good at so many other things like women's basketball and baseball and volleyball (I had some idea of this beforehand but it really got reinforced once we got in and I started researching our new opponents and conference history beyond the things I already knew). It made me fall in love with it even more. It is also the most stable and institutionally friendly conference we've ever been a part of BY FAR and the fanbases are passionate. I had a strong feeling that when we got in we had found our forever conference home and I was and still am overjoyed to be a part of the MVC. There is no conference that I've grown to love more than this one: the school from small and mid sized cities (pre-Loyola and Belmont that is) with the big tournament that was always one of the first ones to tell me that March had arrived and had such a cool name: Arch Madness! I was and forever will be a fan and even moreso because Valpo is now a part of this conference. The only thing that could make it even better (outside of seeing it grow even stronger and more prominent over the years)would be to see Valpo be one of the teams really stepping up and contributing to that growth. And I want to see that through the toughest and strongest the conference can be because that's how you are well-prepared to win in March. Go Valpo! Go MVC!

[Valpower]

As long as we're just standing around waiting to hear about another addition, let me lightheartedly ask, "Do you consider yourself a Missouri Valley Conference fan?"

I don't. In fact, the whole concept of conference fandom is foreign to me. I'm a Valpo fan. I'm a conference supporter. I see the Missouri Valley Conference the same way I see my credit union. I want it to do well, because the better it does, the better I do. But the only "fan" I have over there is me. The MVC is a means to an end for Valpo. The credit union is a means to an end for me.

Does that make sense?

Of course it makes sense in terms of understanding the sentiment. It's tribalism, right? That kind of thinking is a little too provincial for me, but nobody is required to root for the well-being of those outside their own narrowly-defined membership.

[Just Sayin]

Much ado about nothing. Why should it matter at all whether one is or is not an MVC fan?

[usc4valpo]

I am certainly more of a Valpo fan than a MVC fan, but I support the MVC. I am more concerned about Valpo being successful and contributing to the success of the MVC than the overall success of the MVC. I feel the same way about my support of the Pac12, especially with those ripping the Pac12 Conference of Champions as if they are lower than Steinbrenner's MAC conference...

This is a critical year for Lottich and Valpo basketball to be successful, and excuses should be limited. I'm tired of mediocrity.

[JD24]

I can understand fans of teams which have been in conferences for many years such as those in the SEC, ACC PAC12, etc being tied to concerning themselves with how the conference does as a whole but I don't get rooting for a conference as a whole in Valpo's situation.

So, for me at least, it is Valpo and then I could care less with what other teams in the conference do.

[wh]

Much ado about nothing. Why should it matter at all whether one is or is not an MVC fan?

It provides an opportunity for lighthearted discussion about an interest we all have in common with no right or wrong answers. Just call it a stress break. 

[valpo64]

With the pending changes coming in the MVC, there will be even more pressure on Valpo to increase attention on the men's basketball  program, facilities improvements, etc. in order to keep up...and that is good.  As I have said earlier, "be careful what you wish for", especially when it comes to expansion in "The Valley".  As we slowly improve in competing in "The Valley" there now will be even more schools to battle.  For a new, small fish in the pond(VU)  it takes longer to build up to the higher level MVC and now with the additional schools already competing on a high level, the road gets even tougher.  It will take patience, something that many members on this board often forget or don't have.  In any event, GO VALPO!

[bb33]

I am a fan of the Valley, who's attention was augmented when Valpo joined.  If Valpo was not in the Valley, I doubt I would give it more than a passing glance. I would like the teams because they geographically close to where I live.  I would always root for them during the NCAA tourney as I like to cheer against the big powers.  So my allegiance is directly tied to the benefits to Valpo -- both the financial benefit and the status of being in a strong league. 

[bbtds]

they are lower than Steinbrenner's MAC conference...

I didn't realize the Yankees invested in the Mid-American Conference.

I think you meant Jon Steinbrecher, a Valpo grad.

[usc4valpo]

Yep, indeed. The master smoozer.

[may know]

Yes, I have loved the league since the day we joined. This is our dream conference.