Reason: Go to DII and feed a kid or two upward to the underside of this lopsided cluster. Yeah, you might lose a kid or two along the way but you can at least BUILD A FRIGGIN PROGRAM at that level.
Dropping down to D2 will be the death of Valpo. We lose national media exposure. People don’t care about anything other than D1.
If we drop down, it would be back to the Horizon League.
We are making the best of a very bad situation.
Our problem of a limited NIL budget is magnified because the MVC is a AAA league to the P5 conferences. Our players are good enough to move up and also have the national media exposure. Other mid majors have that problem on a lesser scale.
Because of that there are players that will want to come to Valpo and the MVC. We’re higher up on the basketball food chain than say, the Patriot League.
Players come and go. We’re fans of the name on the front of the uniform.
I’m going to trust Roger that he can still put together a good team. There’s a lot of basketball talent out there. It seems like he has a plan and is carving out a niche.
I did a thumbs up your post. But here’s my qualification regarding what I bolded: that team has to be a 6 or better in the MVC or we are absolutely cooked. And unless Roger can sign a 6’10” rim protector that plays 30 minutes and defends all-comers in the paint, we ain’t gonna do that. Yeah, I’m talking a Vashil clone.
Our biggest weakness is not our shooting. It is that we offer every opponent a free expressway onramp to the inside game (which we don’t have, but might have had if Coop stayed and added 15#).
Wuddah, cuddah, shuddah.
When will we recognize that, right now, and I repeat “right now”, we are way in over our heads. Back off. Regroup. Rebuild (if that is what the Uni wants to do). But do not continue this downward spiral “hoping” for a miracle.
Just thinking. How would Valpo students, alums, faculty, and the Valparaiso community feel about Valpo playing for a DII National Championship? Ya think they’d be psyched?
Reason: Go to DII and feed a kid or two upward to the underside of this lopsided cluster. Yeah, you might lose a kid or two along the way but you can at least BUILD A FRIGGIN PROGRAM at that level.
Dropping down to D2 will be the death of Valpo. We lose national media exposure. People don’t care about anything other than D1.
If we drop down, it would be back to the Horizon League.
OK, stay in DI. Go to the Horizon. OK, go to the Summit. OK, go to the OVC…. But get the hell out of a conference that 1) does not want us and 2) that we cannot compete in. E’ville can stay cuz they have an arena that still gets 3-4,000 even in a bad season.
But, ask yourselves, what would get more people excited about Valpo athletics: a program with mediocre or less standings in a DI program that continually loses talent to upper level DI programs, or a more stable lower level program that kicks ass in all sports…. And is also a March Madness Auto Qualifier [The MVC is now a one team qualifier along with al the ones mentioned above]?
Ah…….. Remember our crowds in the HL?
Face it, right now our entire athletic program💥 offers very little to be excited about-except for recruits who hear “hey, we’re DI.” And for the last few years all I’ve heard is “the crowds will return when we win.” But hey haven’t. Why? Simple, duh, we are in over our heads. [HOWEVER, I will acknowledge that had Valpo gone to the MVC ahead of Loyola, perhaps, we’d be in a different discussion and we’d now be in A-10].
💥 apologies to our non-major sports who have managed to grow like golf, soccer, swimming, T&F, etc.
OK, stay in DI. Go to the Horizon. OK, go to the Summit. OK, go to the OVC…. But get the hell out of a conference that 1) does not want us and 2) that we cannot compete in. E’ville can stay cuz they have an arena that still gets 3-4,000 even in a bad season.
To be clear, I would only advocate for dropping down conference, NOT division. As I would agree that dropping to D-II would hasten the demise of VU (if it's not already an imminent outcome). But definitely WINS matter, particularly for our basketball program. We would get far more exposure winning a lower D-I league, than finishing 11th in a middling D-I league.
Either way, I agree. But we have to be in a position, given our size and resources, to have a legit chance of winning. Think about it. Where would we be if we were still in the HL - probably fighting for a conference title or, as a consolation prize, an NIT bid or another post season gig. I’d rather have Valpo hated like we were in the HL than merely dismissed as we are in the MVC.
• For the record, only 3 MM conferences received multiple tournament bids.
• 2024-25 is the 3rd year with 12 member programs. MVC was a 1-bid conference all 3 years. 1 tournament share with 2 more mouths to feed.
• I wonder if Belmont and Murray have buyer’s remorse yet. I would by now.
There were actually only 2 mid-major leagues with multiple bids: MWC, WCC. And both those leagues are being raided of their top members effective 2026. So that 2 mid-major leagues with multiple bids will soon be 0.
The other 25 leagues were one-bid leagues, including the 7th-ranked A-10 and 10th-ranked MVC.
VU’s only path to national exposure will be through March Madness appearances. And the only path to March Madness appearances will be through a conference where our NIL is in the upper half - not at the bottom as it is in the MVC.
Matt Brown has said the Horizon League isn’t done expanding. Our board/president have to be realistic, realize we can only consistently make March Madness through the Horizon or OVC, and get on top of it ASAP. I don’t think our program can ever recover to sustained excellence in the MVC - NIL changed EVERYTHING.
