No way.
Why would you want to watch a less talented team?
I would rather be the worst team in the conference for decades than be the best team in D2. I want to watch talented players, even if they transfer.
A Division 2 team coach and 4 players on that team transferred to Division 1 and won the conference championship in a good D1 conference - the MVC - and not only went to the dance, but won a game in its first year as division 1. There are some very good D2 players.
The low mid-majors will be at risk of going out of business, so the St. Francis (PA) move is not surprising. Valpo would be wise to keep tabs on how these situations develop, to see if they can poach some students. However, moving to D-3 is not likely to save most schools, as unless you are MIT and/or Johns Hopkins, you really don't get much national name recognition.
I would not say never and I would wait and see if NIL and transfer portal rules have some level of control in the next few years. With the NCAA is charge, which is inept and third in corruption totem pole compared to FIBA and the IOC, I am not optimistic.
mid majors have a G League role for the P5 does not make the college basketball product better.
Lots of strong opinions for staying MVC, changing to a lower DI, or dropping to DII. DIII doesn’t seem to be moving the needle much. Most arguments are more emotional than based on things factually proven. That’s okay, I guess, cuz this is emotionally charged. So I have two questions……..
Speaking of factually proven, we are experiencing a mass defection to the portal after some improvement over the previous season. What if we had actually had been in the top 4 fight all season instead and then duplicated that at Arch Madness as well. Would the plausible prospects of maybe fighting for the #1 spot next year have weighed in our favor in keeping players? Or would they still have left?
And…
There is some sentiment here for dropping down within DI to a leagues like the Summit, Horizon, or OVC. Has anyone studied those leagues this year to determine if those leagues are being poached as bad as the MVC? I haven’t tried researching that, but I also haven’t seen much news on that front either. Say that the poaching was not as bad as what VU is experiencing, could being less in the crosshairs allow for better program growth and development?
Did some research. Horizon has 52 transfers so far. OVC has at least 48. Summit has 33. MVC has 46. It would be pointless to join Summit, too much travel and the same could be said of the OVC. By the way according to warren Nolan rating service the MVC is 10th overall conference. Horizon 19th. Summit is 23rd and OVC is 28th
Doing so would save me a couple grand a year as there would be no way I'd renew season tickets. At that point, VU would be similar to what ... IUN & PNW? Yikes.
