Anyone else miss the drive down 55 to Arch Madness? I do, went almost every year...was always a great celebration of LU basketball. Was great to run in to past Ramblers. Jerry Harkness almost always showed up and hung out and would talk to everyone....what a great guy. and you would run into the parents who were wonderful down to a tee. and you would run into the players as well. Remember running into Tate Hall the year he sat out and talking with him about how he was itching to play....and Custer and how his family beat us in the golf outing. and the after parties were great..with LU taking over the bars...and ST.Louis was great always a trip to LIttle Italy, and lots of other spots...Im probably the only one that hit Kaskaskia ,first Illinois Capital, now in Missouri....DC and NY just seem like a long way.....
I wonder how you evaluate whether or not the move to the A-10 is an over all plus or minus?

Miss it. A lot. Just a great excuse to have a getaway weekend, have fun, and hope you'd win. Met a lot of great people too. Losing and going home early is the brutality of Arch Madness. Unfortunately watched it for UNI last night. Sucks for them. Really wanted UNI to win the whole thing because of our two friends over there.

The Wheelhouse was an awesome venue for pregame and postgame W's.

The thing that sucks about the A10 is we no longer have this convenience and advantage like STL provided us. I think we took it for granted and didn't take full advantage of it some tournament years.


Our move to the A10 was validated to me last night from a TV standpoint. I watched Dayton/VCU side by side with Arch Madness Quarterfinal games. The difference between a regular season rivalry A10 game versus an important MVC tournament game was drastic. I know which league I'd want to be in... Despite its faults and collection of poor(er) quality teams, the A10 is a very quality league and basketball-centric conference. The only one of its kind alongside of the Big East. Watching Arch Madness TV coverage this week versus what we get from the A10 the TV deal and coverage of league games is incredibly better. More $$$$ in LUC's pockets. Games on ESPN, CBS, CBS Sports, and USA Network is pretty good. MVC can't even put together a quality broadcast to showcase its big event this week, or find it on any network, which is the first conference tournament of the month. Just dismal. MVC cannot survive by this much longer. However, today's semifinal games are carried on CBS Sports Network and on CBS tomorrow so that's a winner for them.

Athletes and talent - A10 blows away MVC players by several miles too.

A10 is undoubtedly a better overall conference. Arch Madness is undoubtedly a better conference tournament, and one of the best in the country. I miss it too!

Miss Arch Madness a lot, for multiple reasons. Having been at SIU 20 years ago, and then Loyola joining the crowd down there, it was always a great time knowing so many people in different crowds. Also a really easy drive for me. But on that note, I believe next years A10 Tournament is in Pittsburgh, which will hopefully make it a much easier trip for a lot more people in the central time zone.

No doubt television availability is the biggest factor...if I was president of the NCAA however, I would focus on fans availability to attend.and say you could not be in a conference where at least half of away games were with in a 6 hour drive....focus on in person experiences as well as tv availability. Road trips are always a blast....

Bradley had the last shot in the first half with a chance to go into halftime tied and since then is falling apart like a cheap suit

Today was Drake’s third straight MVC Championship and 5th straight champ game appearance. Beyond impressive what they’re doing there. They own the league now. This McCollum team is so much more better than those DeVries teams.

They’re gonna win some games this month.

Any recruit looking at Drake should know by now that by potentially going there they’ll have a great shot at tournament bids and competing in March each year. Right now it’s Drake…… and then there’s everyone else.

It’s kinda funny looking back over the years and some Bradley fans I’ve heard say that they’re positioned to “take over the Valley”…they thought it’d be them after they had that Sweet 16 run in 2006. But the years that followed were void of NCAA bids while SIU, Creighton, Witchita State, and others took those spots and WSU and Creighton emerged as the real big dogs. Then Creighton leaves in 2013, so obviously Bradley is going to fill that spot…nope. It was WSU’s conference. Then WSU leaves, so of course now it has to be Bradley, right? I think we know who took over the conference then. So we leave, and NOW it HAS to be Bradley…right? Cue Drake.

Definitely miss Arch Madness. It's one of the better conference tournaments. The big conference tournaments are meaningless because they put multiple teams in the tourney. The mid-major conferences live and die for the tournament title and Arch Madness is very well organized by the MVC.

That's interesting. Never thought of it that way. They really did miss an opportunity. They seem to be able to recruit good talent.