Butler to move to the A-10?

[valpo84]

We should not even look at IPFW or Oakland. You gain nothing in TV/tradition/history/media. We already have Detroit covered. IPFW is another mediocre state school. IUPUI might give you a small measure of media in Indy, but you'd be fighting Butler. We need to think bigger and broader. Poach a good program from a lesser conference -- Belmont/Nashville comes to mind. 

[valporun]

I believe Belmont is moving to the Ohio Valley Conference next season?

[DMvalpo18]

If Butler leaves (hope so) it will be because we drove them out. 4 in a row in MBB, and 2-0 in WBB this year. Now, a win in the PFL would be the icing on the cake,or the slobber on the Bulldog. GO VALPO!

Yeah, not to tread on you man, but the all time series is still WAY in favor of Butler. As much as I love seeing them lose to us, you can't just say that a few losses did them in. I also don't think that you are being totally serious, but if you are then that is what I have to say.

[valporun]

If Butler leaves (hope so) it will be because we drove them out. 4 in a row in MBB, and 2-0 in WBB this year. Now, a win in the PFL would be the icing on the cake,or the slobber on the Bulldog. GO VALPO!

Yeah, not to tread on you man, but the all time series is still WAY in favor of Butler. As much as I love seeing them lose to us, you can't just say that a few losses did them in. I also don't think that you are being totally serious, but if you are then that is what I have to say.

Don't forget, setshot is the same guy who was begging Mark LaBarbara to "Drop football", so you can only take him so seriously, or keep humoring him.

[wh]

Big East?  Really?  No mature poster on the Butler Board EVER proposed such a thing.

Are you calling Title a child? 

[StlVUFan]

Stax, I just couldn't help noticing the juxtaposition of the first Big Dance absence in quite awhile coupled with this latest story.  I threw it out there, but I am by no means ready to level the charge, so to speak.  I would certainly assume that it would not be out of fear, that's for sure.

I guess I would hate to see Butler go, in part because as someone who has rooted for Butler in March I would probably feel a little betrayed   I know, that's probably irrational on my part.  I can certainly see how the A-10 would be attractive, and certainly we abandoned the Mid-Con so who am I crappin'

I think I had gotten used to the idea that Butler wasn't going anywhere and this story kinda came out of nowhere.  I know it's not a new story, but I was lulled into thinking it wasn't going to happen for awhile, if ever.

[valpotx]

Yes, Belmont is moving to the OVC next season.  We had some good games with them a few years back while in school!  That would be a fun series each year, but they seem content with their more local OVC.

I really don't know who else we could poach outside of Oakland, that we may want (if this happens of course).  I doubt anyone from the A-10, MAC, or MVC would be stolen away.  There really aren't that many options out there that figure into the geographic footprint, while still providing competitive athletics.

[staxawax]

Big East?  Really?  No mature poster on the Butler Board EVER proposed such a thing.

Are you calling Title a child? 

LOL!   No.  But he is not a realist.  He looks at numbers and ratings and instantly declares Butler has far and away the best talent in the league and will win it easily.  He often forgets the game is played on the court by 18-21 year olds.

[FWalum]

Hope and pray that Butler stays in the HL.  If they leave the conference we might as well have stayed in the Summit League.  Conference RPI will drop dramatically and any hope of becoming a 2 bid league is gone.  Lets call a  spade a  spade, this is still Butler's league and if they leave any residuals from their spectacular runs that still give us so much current press will be gone.  (I may be overstating it but not much)

[milldew72]

I could see interest from a Northern Illinois, or maybe a Bradley or an Illinois State.
And here's a wild card ... does anyone think Ball State would be interested in the move?

[IndyValpo]

One sensible post in this entire thread.

Big East?  Really?  No mature poster on the Butler Board EVER proposed such a thing.  The only thought about Big East schools were the basketball only schools around the midwest forming a BBL only league........ Dayton, X, Marquette, Butler, St. Louis, Depaul among others.  It makes too much sense so it will never happen.  I'm not even going to acknowledge the rest of the self-serving ignorant posts on this thread.  You guys are embarrassing yourselves.

As far as the A-10, if it happens then fine.  Barry Collier has been the orchestrator of many positive changes for Butler's athletic program.  I'm sure if this happens it's been in the plans for awhile.  If not, I'm fine with staying in the Horizon.  And, I enjoy playing Valpo every year, even when you guys win. 

Please don't turn in to most of the other schools message boards in this league and declare supremacy just because you have recent success against the benchmark team.  Finish the deal first and win the dang tournament........ or else you'll end up in the NIT seeded BEHIND Cleveland State.  Yeah, that just happened.

OK, my rant is done.  Most of you know I'm usually pretty even keeled and complimentary of Valpo's program, coaches, team and most of these posters.......... not this time!

I would venture to guess most of these posts are simply digs at the always on display superior attitude of the typical Butler poster perfectly displayed here by Stax.

[valporun]

I could see interest from a Northern Illinois, or maybe a Bradley or an Illinois State.
And here's a wild card ... does anyone think Ball State would be interested in the move?

NIU is a football school, and the MAC is a perfect fit for that draw for the Huskies.

Bradley doesn't have football, but do they really want to leave the Missouri Valley Conference?

Illinois State is also a football school, and they probably don't want to take the same hit that Bradley or NIU would in RPI.

Ball State would be an academic hit, wouldn't it? Haven't some of their athletes had issues with grades over the years, and cost their programs postseason opportunities?

While thoughtful to consider any of these four schools, I don't see any of them really wanting to leave the conferences they are currently in.

[covufan]

We should not even look at IPFW or Oakland. You gain nothing in TV/tradition/history/media. We already have Detroit covered. IPFW is another mediocre state school. IUPUI might give you a small measure of media in Indy, but you'd be fighting Butler. We need to think bigger and broader. Poach a good program from a lesser conference -- Belmont/Nashville comes to mind. 

This is outside the box, but if Minnesota State were to upgrade their programs to Division I, should the Horizon League stay 9 teams until then?

[StlVUFan]

One thing would improve if HL stayed at 9:  3 seed would get bye to quarterfinal.

[BigDWSU]

The HL can't stay at 9 teams.  We need to add a school with a baseball team or the HL will lose it's automatic bid. 

[zvillehaze]

And all along I thought they were moving to the Big 10!!! 

Seriously, not withstanding their great performance in men's basketball (other than a 5th seed this year), can they really compete in the A-10?

Let's look at their recent record in the Horizon in revenue sports:

Men's basketball:          5th seed
Women's basketball:     5th
Men's soccer:               8th
Women's soocer:          6th
Baseball:                     5th
Softball:                      3rd

Valpo's record is better in all of these sports other than women's basketball.

Now throw on the added travel and time away from the classroom to travel to St. Bonnie, or U Mass or Charlotte, plus long bus rides ro Duquene and others? Ask Rick Mejurus at St. Louis how he feels about the travel in the A-10.

Their egos may say GO, but does it really make sense?  What about the exit fee from the Horizon? 

We all know they don't have a football team  but of course they have a really good cross country traditon.  Makes all the sense in the world to fly kids from tennis and swimming all over the place.  Huh?   

Since I arrived at Butler in 1981, they've been in the same conference/league, so I don't know a lot about this stuff.  My preference would be to stay put, but I also understand the reasons why a move might make sense.

As for vu72's "ego" comment, I'll put it back to him.  Valpo has made two conference moves since 1981, so were those driven by Valpo's "ego"?  I think they were, since they were basically looking out for their own best interest.  If Butler leaves, it will be for the same reason.

I may be a bit naive, but I assume that Barry Collier didn't start looking into this 4 days ago when ESPN.com ran the report.  I also trust that he's not going to suggest a move that puts Butler in a worse position financially or competitively.

As for travel, the A-10 plays an unbalanced schedule, so mid-west teams only play at roughly half of the east coast teams each year, while playing the closer teams (SLU, X, Dayton) home and home.  Since Butler already charters to CSU/YSU and UWM/UWGB, there isn't a huge change in terms of travel for MBB.

It would impact travel for some other teams.  However, several non-revenue sports (golf, tennis, swimming, track, cross country) do not play round robin schedules within the conference.  Instead, they play a regional schedule and the conference championship is determined at the conference tournament.

Butler may be walking away from some $ due them from their NCAA tournament wins, but I assume that Temple may be leaving a few $ in the coffers when they leave the A-10 that could be offered up to offset anything that Butler loses (same for any exit fees).

[BigMoSmithFan]

The HL can't stay at 9 teams.  We need to add a school with a baseball team or the HL will lose it's automatic bid. 

You need 8 teams to maintain your auto bid, not 10.

[BigMoSmithFan]

I've seen it theorized on Twitter that Butler is also using this to extract a better $ deal (a la Texas in the Big 12) from or better teams into the HL. Don't discount that as a possibility.

(I actually would like it if it were the second case... wouldn't it be something if the HL pulled a switcheroo for the 2nd time and SLU, X, etc. ended up in the HL?)

[valporun]

The HL can't stay at 9 teams.  We need to add a school with a baseball team or the HL will lose it's automatic bid. 

You need 8 teams to maintain your auto bid, not 10.

Not every team in the HL has a baseball team, so to lose one of the 6 teams would take away the auto-bid for baseball. (Green Bay, Cleveland State, Loyola, and Detroit don't sponsor baseball.) If Butler did leave, baseball, and proverbially softball, would lose their NCAA bids.

[vusupporter]

The HL can't stay at 9 teams.  We need to add a school with a baseball team or the HL will lose it's automatic bid. 

You need 8 teams to maintain your auto bid, not 10.

Not every team in the HL has a baseball team, so to lose one of the 6 teams would take away the auto-bid for baseball. (Green Bay, Cleveland State, Loyola, and Detroit don't sponsor baseball.) If Butler did leave, baseball, and proverbially softball, would lose their NCAA bids.

Not sure why softball would be affected - there's currently 9 teams with softball.

[valporun]

The HL can't stay at 9 teams.  We need to add a school with a baseball team or the HL will lose it's automatic bid. 

You need 8 teams to maintain your auto bid, not 10.

Not every team in the HL has a baseball team, so to lose one of the 6 teams would take away the auto-bid for baseball. (Green Bay, Cleveland State, Loyola, and Detroit don't sponsor baseball.) If Butler did leave, baseball, and proverbially softball, would lose their NCAA bids.

Not sure why softball would be affected - there's currently 9 teams with softball.

You are correct about softball. I just didn't check before I posted. Dislike all this mess with schools not sponsoring certain sports, or all sports that the conference has championships/tournaments for.

[valpotx]

Yes, with CSU having done away with baseball after this last year, it would really affect my favorite sport if Butler left!  Whether that means we would add an associate member for the sport, or an all-sports team, would need to be determined.

[valporun]

I'm actually surprised that Loyola and Detroit don't have baseball teams, considering they are both located in cities with MLB teams. valpotx, from your baseball days in the Mid-Con, would it be a good consideration, at least to have six baseball teams, should Butler leave in all sports, to maybe talk with Chicago State about becoming an associate member in baseball?

[valpotx]

Definitely not worth it.  They would be an absolute last resort in my opinion, even though their head coach of a few years is a former VU teammate, Michael Caston.  They usually win (at most) 10-12 games each year out of 55-60, and would only serve to be a punching bag for the rest of the teams in conference.  I really wish Loyola/Detroit would pick up baseball.  I believe that Detroit has a baseball field from a team they used to field, and there have been talks on-and-off for years about starting it up again.  I would much prefer the HL trying to convince either of the 4 schools to pick up baseball, than to go with Chicago State. 

We routinely beat Chicago State by 10+ runs each game, and they were lucky to win 1-2 conference games when in the Mid-Con.  Nothing has changed unfortunately, as much as I root for Mike.

[valporun]

I see what you're saying there. Don't need to add a team that doesn't bring much to the plate. I did see their roster has a lot of Northwest Indiana and Chicago guys, and some JUCO or smaller college transfers, but at a commuter school, what can you do? I also saw that the Great West has 7 teams in the conference, not that they get an NCAA bid right now, but if they ever do, losing a team puts them in the same boat we could be in. I was only thinking of them because they could bus to conference games a lot cheaper than the budget-breaking flights and hotel stays in Utah, New York, New Jersey, Houston, and such.