Witnessing the Dismantling of the Mid Major and Other Programs

[Go_Braves]

With the larger NIL deals and the Transfer Portal and coaches skipping town - we are witnessing the Dismantling of the Mid Majors
and other smaller programs and some P5 schools. Loyalty today means nothing. Each new season each basketball coach gets to
access what he has to work with. I believe others are making similar comments. The NCAA is the cause of all of this - allowing all
these new rules and the rich teams to cherry pick their players. We at Bradley are spoiled having Brian Wardle as our coach -
enjoy him while it lasts. I was and am a HUGE Bradley fan - but my interest is beginning to wane.

[Da Coach]

Yup... Mid-major coaches now need to change their style of recruiting to utilize the portal themselves to replace players every year, plus re-recruit their own players to stay.

[Mikovio]

In fairness the NCAA fought against this. It was a unanimous US Supreme Court decision that unleashed this.

As I mentioned elsewhere it can be to Bradley's benefit if we just outperform the rest of the Valley. The rest of the conference (excepting Indiana State which is still playing in the NIT) is getting hurt way worse than we are, which makes our title and postseason prospects that much better.

[tomahawk chop]

In fairness the NCAA fought against this. It was a unanimous US Supreme Court decision that unleashed this.

As I mentioned elsewhere it can be to Bradley's benefit if we just outperform the rest of the Valley. The rest of the conference (excepting Indiana State which is still playing in the NIT) is getting hurt way worse than we are, which makes our title and postseason prospects that much better.

Agree there is definitely a huge opportunity here but it only works well for us if we are able to find the right type of players to dominate the league.

[BraveSince09]

Honestly, I hate to say this because I love the MVC and don’t want to see it fail, but I think Creighton got it right leaving for the Big East when they did. They’ve been able to build themselves from scrappy mid-major to a power program constantly in the top 30 of the NCAA. Now there are dangers of trying to move up. Wichita State is a huge example of it not going right. They went from Mid-Major power to mostly irrelevance. You have to make the right move. But if Bradley can position itself to be among the top teams in the Valley for the next 5+ seasons, it may be worth exploring if a conference like the Big East (which is the one conference more focused on basketball than football) looks to expand, even if I’d personally miss the heck out of the MVC. Bradley is would have to become pretty dominant for a big conference to have any interest, but if we can keep Wardle and Home of the Brave keeps doing their thing, Bradley is positioned well to remain near the top of the league year in and year out.

[Mikovio]

We're pretty far off the Big East's radar because, even if we become an MVC powerhouse, our market size is well below the other programs'. The BE is a media rights deal-driven league which is why DePaul is nice and secure even if they suck forever. Omaha is at their lower end and has a 500K city pop and 1M metro, while Peoria is 110K city and 400K metro. If Gonzaga were in Seattle it would be far more attractive, but Spokane is pretty comparable to Peoria. The A10 would at least be interested in BU if we were to become a Valley powerhouse but even that's not that great of a step up IMO.

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

I think you would have to make the move to the A-10 if it was offered. Big East would be a dream. But ticket sales alone would jump just from being able to host the likes of Dayton/SLU/Richmond. Could still schedule ISU in the non con to keep the rivalry alive I guess.

Would be cool if the Valley/A10 would get a challenge set up. Problem is half the A10 would be left out, or they just let a few teams like Bradley play 2. I'd be ok with hosting Dayton/SLU

[Fetz86]

We are missing the strong catholic affiliation I think it would take for us not being UConn to get in. I know Butler isn’t but they are in a much bigger city, in what is probably the most basketball obsessed state, and was coming off two title games.

[BraveSince09]

We're pretty far off the Big East's radar because, even if we become an MVC powerhouse, our market size is well below the other programs'. The BE is a media rights deal-driven league which is why DePaul is nice and secure even if they suck forever. Omaha is at their lower end and has a 500K city pop and 1M metro, while Peoria is 110K city and 400K metro. If Gonzaga were in Seattle it would be far more attractive, but Spokane is pretty comparable to Peoria. The A10 would at least be interested in BU if we were to become a Valley powerhouse but even that's not that great of a step up IMO.

The reason I said the Big East instead of the A-10 is I don’t think the A-10 is that much better of a league than the MVC. I’d argue it’s comparable, maybe it’s slightly better, but you lose all the history of the MVC. The Big East is the only big conference that would make any sense considering we don’t have football, and you’re right from a geographic standpoint, they probably wouldn’t be too interested. I guess instead of moving to a bigger conference, we just have to become the MVC’s version of Gonzaga.

[Mikovio]

Bingo. Just dominate your conference like the Zags. The A10 jump made sense for Loyola institutionally because it has so many likeminded Catholic schools, but from a pure basketball standpoint it’s maybe a half step up. We just beat their champ in the NIT.

[CarolinaBrave]

I wonder if this new world might allow Bradley and schools like them to get some better players as freshman? The P5 schools are going to continue to use other schools are minor leagues and poach proven, experienced talent from them. They only have so many available roster spots so something has to give. Of course the top rated HS players will still go P5 but I'm thinking some strong second tier players may start falling a bit more often to mid majors. Of course if they excel they'll be gone after a year or 2 to a P5.

[Stryker]

I wonder if this new world might allow Bradley and schools like them to get some better players as freshman? The P5 schools are going to continue to use other schools are minor leagues and poach proven, experienced talent from them. They only have so many available roster spots so something has to give. Of course the top rated HS players will still go P5 but I'm thinking some strong second tier players may start falling a bit more often to mid majors. Of course if they excel they'll be gone after a year or 2 to a P5.

I theorized this as well a year or two ago, but now I am thinking it is unlikely to work out this way. There are enough power schools to soak up the talent. Between players not working out on their roster, if they were freshmen or transfers that just didn't have what the program thought, or players graduating etc, there will be enough roster spots to take most of the top talent imo.

I think there may still be a chance with NIL in play, some players are definitely making more money than they would if they would leave school and go pro overseas, but it is a very small number overall and probably not material enough to make any noticeable changes apparent.