UIC to join the Missouri Valley

[TheAsianSensation]

There's reports out there now that Oral Bob, Denver, and Belmont are receiving visits from MVC officials.

If we go to 12 teams, I could see UIC being one just because their sports are compatible with the MVC's offerings. Therefore, you can make pickups based solely on basketball strength, and then use UIC to round things out elsewhere.

And that's the only scenario in which I would be happy with UIC. Only.

Except then it only means 1 automatic bid for 16-20 schools. I'm amazed the big shots of the BCS haven't thought of this and forced a low and mid major shuffle into only about 10 conferences so they have about 16 automatic qualifiers in the field.

Alas, the NCAA has basically said they're out on the entire process of conference realignment, leaving everyone to fend for itself. They won't interfere.

[wizard1]

UIC to join the Missouri Valley

UIC joining the MVC could be much bigger as time goes by assuming that Wichita did not leave and the conference stays together.

Having an MVC school in Chicago puts the conference into a major media market, could help TV coverage, and it could help recruiting in Chicago. It also gives BU fans a shorter road trip to an major city to see their team play.

[Mikovio]

About Bradley's only option is leaving with a few other midwestern schools for the A-10 and forming an 18- or 20-team midmajor superconference. Say Bradley jumps along with Drake, Evansville, Valpo and Detroit.

West Division
SLU
Dayton
Bradley
Valpo
Detroit
Drake
Evansville
Duquesne
St. Bonaventure

East Division
UMass
Rhode Island
La Salle
Fordham
St. Joe's
George Washington
VCU
Richmond
George Mason

Play home-and-home's against your division and 4 or 6 games against the other division. That's very workable and doesn't break the bank. But if SLU and Dayton get Big East invites, you're looking at Loyola, Cleveland State and UW-M as replacements, and it becomes less attractive (but still possibly more attractive than the MVC sans Wichita).

[TheAsianSensation]

The more and more the situation deteriorates for the A-10, the less and less options Bradley has. The move to an A-10 like described above would be fine if the MVC completely fell apart, but probably only then at this point. I'm not sure we should proactively seek it anymore. The Big East going silent on Richmond/Dayton/StL scares me.

[Da Coach]

I am also hearing that the Valley would like to expand to Milwaukee in the near future.

And, I also heard a rumor that the Horizon League is looking to add Oakland from the Summit League as a replacement.

As rumored early last month, the Horizon League will officially add Oakland University, formerly of the Summit League.