I know that Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Indiana State, and any other Missouri Valley Basketball fan will deny that South Dakota State and North Dakota State have zero chance of joining the Missouri Valley for all sports. Personally, I would love that. But I will have to agree, it won't happen. Only under specific circumstances would the MVC take on more teams.
However, leaving all that out of it I would like to see this happen in the future of the Missouri Valley Football. Twelve teams. Two divisions. The MVFC couldn't play a Championship Game because of NCAA FCS rules, but it would allow for more teams to become playoff eligible. Currently the Missouri Valley has five teams that have playoff talent (NDSU, YSU, ISU(r), ISU(b), UNI), possibly even seven if you add dark-horses SDSU and SIU.
It wasn't too long ago when the CAA was dominating the playoff scene with their two-division set-up. The MVFC could do the same. Two teams need to be added to get to twelve teams. Here are some possibilities:
Enrollment: 5,221
Location: Des Moines, IA
Stadium: Drake Stadium (14,557)
Pros:
- In MVC for all sports
- Geographically located in the middle of the conference
- Big media market
- Already has a D-1 Football program
Cons:
- D-1 Football program is non-scholarship
- Might have difficultly funding the football program
- Would have to balance football scholarships with Title IX policies; would have to add a women's sport or cut a couple mens sports.
Enrollment: 11,651
Location: Charleston, IL
Stadium: O'Brien Stadium (10,000)
Pros:
- Already has a D-1 Football Program
- Geographically located in the middle of the conference
- Was one of the founding members of the Gateway Football Conference
Cons:
- Would be hard to pry them away from the Ohio Valley Conference
Enrollment: 14,903
Location: Omaha, NE
Stadium: Al F. Caniglia Field (9,500)
Pros:
- Making the transition to D-1
- Close proximity to many MVFC teams
- Big media market in Omaha
Cons:
- Will always be overshadowed by UNL and Creighton; won't have the greatest support
- Shutting the program down obviously signified financial stress; adding the sport would bring it back- would be unstable for years.
Enrollment: 14,806
Location: Wichita, KS
Stadium: Cessna Stadium (31,500)
Pros:
- Already in D-1; has the support
- Has a big stadium ready for football (would they fill it?)
- Already in Missouri Valley Conference.
- Might tap into a large media market for the MVFC to get some exposure.
Cons:
- Might consider by-passing FCS to move to FBS
- Travel would get more difficult; Kansas spreads the conference further southwest
- Might struggle with recruiting (like Missouri State)
Enrollment: 1,745
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Stadium: Kirkeby-Over Stadium (6,500)
Pros:
- Has had some strong years in D-II since the big publics left the NCC. They've built a new (very nice) stadium and had created very fun to watch football program.
- Would allow travel relief for western MVFC schools.
Cons:
- Small private school would have a hard time financing a D-1 program and would likely hurt the program moving forward.
- Would struggle to recruit against SDSU, NDSU, and USD; just like in D-II.
In any circumstance, if two teams were added to the MVFC the divisions would be split East/West. Here is how I envision the Divisions if Eastern Illinois and Drake were added.
Great Lakes:
Youngstown State
Indiana State
Eastern Illinois
Illinois State
Southern Illinois
Western Illinois
Great Plains:
North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Northern Iowa
Drake
Missouri State
South Dakota
Again, I'm just dreaming. But this setup would almost certainly ensure five 7-win+ teams a year; meaning more playoffs for the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
Regarding the MVC admitting other members, I think the bigger hurdle would be the non-football schools (Creighton, Wichita St, Evansville) allowing other members in.
ReplyDeleteBut back to MVFC and football, I think the most likely addition would be EIU. They were part of the conference once, they're close geographically, and they already play FCS-level scholarship football. Drake is a remote possibility. I think the rest of them probably have too large of hurdles to overcome to make the move:
UNO - just killed football and the Cornhuskers are just an hour down the road
WSU - probably FBS or bust for them
Augustana - just too small
If we're speculating, you could also include possibly Central Arkansas (FCS, Southland), Southeast Missouri State (FCS, Ohio Valley), and if we're looking at potential Div. II schools moving up, there's Northwest Missouri St. (7 Div. II national title games since 1994, won 3 of them, larger school than Augustana) or even Lindenwood (private, just moved to Div. II from NAIA but growing very quickly, 17k+ students, has had success against other Div. II and occasionally FCS teams).
I do like your Great Lakes/Great Plains possible split, good names.
I liked the names too. I was just looking at a league map and thinking Drake and EIU would be good additions. I think USD was added to serve both potentialities: 12 teams 2 divisions or somebody leaving, maybe YSU.
ReplyDeleteYea, YSU is kinda the "odd one out" with them being quite a ways out of the rest of the footprint (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/MissouriValleyFootballLocations.png) and they've frequently talked about moving over to a more "east coast oriented" conference. Plus they're the only MVFC team that's not in either the Summit League or MVC for the other sports.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd love to see Eastern join back up for football and probably the Summit for other sports.
Grand Valley State would be a sweet addition for a move up school. Adding the Grand Rapids media market would be nice as well. This would also help appease Youngstown State a little with the travel concerns.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why is there no collegiate football in Milwaukee? They don't have an NFL team either. That is a pretty large city to have no football to watch in the immediate area (I realize that Madison and Green Bay aren't far)
How about Cleveland State? They are considering football there and would be a great fit in that Great Lakes division of yours. They would give Youngstown an eastern partner and would add a large market. I would prefer them over Eastern Ill, already have 3 schools from Illinois.
ReplyDeleteU M S L - University of Missouri St. Louis. They'd have to build a stadium first, 30k sounds right. There's a large alumni base in St. Louis and enrollment is about 16k. There's a lot of new construction on their campus, hopefully a football stadium is next.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to see MVFC strike a deal with youtube to broadcast games. Get on that bandwagon now!