Dansen wrote:
To add to Go’s point:
I’ll miss Arch Madness too, but hopefully in the A10 we’ll get to a point that I won’t miss having to win the conference tournament to get in the dance. Fordham might not be a big chicago draw, but consistent tourney appearances will be. Also have to imagine it will allow us to schedule more P5+Big East games OOC, the A10 seems to schedule well
To add to both of your points:
I really appreciate the Valley's foresight in choosing LUC over UIC 10 years ago. It was a risk but ended up being the right move and very beneficial for both sides. However, I was a walk-on during the Horizon League years and don't feel much connection to the Valley nor do I think LUC as a school has much in common with the rest of the Valley schools. I think for Loyola to reach its potential, our rivalries should be with schools like SLU, DePaul, Northwestern, and Marquette. The A-10 move gives us the SLU rivalry and makes it much more likely that the other 3 will schedule us regularly.
We're a better fit in the A-10. It will boost our conference SOS, give us rivalries with other urban Catholic schools, and also increase the profile of Loyola so that we can schedule better out of conference. The only good argument I see for staying in the Valley would be IF we could guarantee a really strong non-conference schedule every year and then pull away from the rest of the conference like Gonzaga did. I just don't think we can rely on getting 5 P6 non-conference games a year like we did this year.
I feel for MVC fans in Chicago losing their local game, but I think UIC is an easy replacement for that. I also don't care about selling out Gentile bc a bunch of ISU or Bradley fans show up...I care about continuing to build interest in LUC basketball so that we sell out Gentile with all LUC fans every night. I think games against SLU, Dayton, VCU, Bona, and better non-conference games are much more likely to get us to that point.