BU and Valley reviewing options - maybe drop out of BracketBuster

[tornado]

We just saw one top mid-major conference drop out..

now the Valley is thinking over their options...

http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/13/2296815/valley-espn-have-to-ponder-future.html

[bradleybraves1]

This format is all but irrelevant now. The Valley MUST find a way to get out ASAP before their reputation gets tarnished as well.

[Da Coach]

This format is all but irrelevant now. The Valley MUST find a way to get out ASAP before their reputation gets tarnished as well.

I agree. I have said this for the last 3 years- there is simply no advantage for any MVC school to play in this concocted series.

[TheAsianSensation]

There is no more value whatsoever. At least the CAA brought some value in the past - we got good value out of VCU and Drexel. But between the CAA leaving and all the good WAC schools evacuating to the MWC, everyone should be done with it.

[Bravesfan]

There is no more value whatsoever. At least the CAA brought some value in the past - we got good value out of VCU and Drexel. But between the CAA leaving and all the good WAC schools evacuating to the MWC, everyone should be done with it.

I agree.

[TheAsianSensation]

The more you think about it, the more Elgin has to be careful. BB is really, really dead without the Valley. And if you're an OVC or Big West or Summit League or...you get the idea....you want to keep your yearly chance to play the MVC/St Mary's/plus a couple other stragglers. You get a yearly chance to play a top MVC team if you're a top mid-major. Most of the other 15 or so conferences will be begging Elgin to keep this together. ESPN might even have to offer a sweetheart deal to him to keep the MVC invested.

Whether it's relevant to us or not, the fact is the death of BB would be a major blow to every year's Murray State. And I bet you all the OVCs out there fight this to the death.

[TheGuy]

The more you think about it, the more Elgin has to be careful. BB is really, really dead without the Valley. And if you're an OVC or Big West or Summit League or...you get the idea....you want to keep your yearly chance to play the MVC/St Mary's/plus a couple other stragglers. You get a yearly chance to play a top MVC team if you're a top mid-major. Most of the other 15 or so conferences will be begging Elgin to keep this together. ESPN might even have to offer a sweetheart deal to him to keep the MVC invested.

Whether it's relevant to us or not, the fact is the death of BB would be a major blow to every year's Murray State. And I bet you all the OVCs out there fight this to the death.

Those other conferences will be begging ESPN to keep it together, not Elgin. Not sure ESPN would offer up anything in good faith. They don't have to. The MVC and its members are contractually obligated to participate in bracketbusters for the next 4 years as part of our ESPN TV deal with them. If ESPN wants to keep it going, then we are obligated to play in it. If they don't want to keep it going, then we don't play in it.

I doubt we would do anything about it, but if ESPN sets these deals up with all conferences (similar to ours) where it forces them to play the bracketbuster as part of their conferences TV deal and ESPN chooses no longer to provide it, could that be a breach of contract? In otherwords, could these smaller conferences who want to keep this go after ESPN for not providing it as part of their contract? Again, with how much power ESPN has, I highly doubt any conference would do anything unless it were to say get out of their ESPN contract to go over to another network (NBC-SN, CBS-SN).