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The pipe dream would be at least Wichita State and SLU to the MVC, making it easily the best conference outside of the Top 6. Or…the Big East goes all in to expand to 16, and you have to think we’d be on the list of potential schools mentioned (Depaul be damned).
Another option is Dayton to join a beefed up MVC. If Dayton jumped from the A-10 to an MVC with Loyola, St. Louis, Wichita State, UNI, a revitalized Drake, a revitalized Missouri State, and SIU coming on.... it would instantly be a better conference than the Mountain West, A-10, WCC, or the remaining AAC. It would rival the Big East and Pac 12 in their down years.
The MVC is going to have to make a choice.... either bump up all the budgets to around where the A10 is now (about $4.3 million per year men's basketball only) or be content to remain a good mid-major league. The biggest impediment to the league attracting region-friendly baskeball only schools like Dayton, Wichita State, and St. Louis is the fact that the cheapskates in our league (the two ISUs, SIU, and Valpo) are not in a position to spend $2.8 million on men's basketball (about the lowest in the A-10). What that really means in raw terms is the advanced scouting, travel, game prep expenses, scheduling power, marketing, and other opportunities to win non-con games is limited. That's why so many higher budget teams beat lower budget teams in non-con games, why mid-majors can't get games with P5s, etc.
If Loyola keeps their budget where it is now (or where I think it is, about $4.2 million), it will only have to bump it up a million or so to be comfortably in the Big East budget range. I don't want to jinx it, but Loyola has done just about everything right in the athletic department since 2016, and in men's basketball since 2014. I think there's a lot of admiration for what the athletic department has done, and there's a chance for our AD to assertively and proactively lead us, this league, other leagues, other teams, to where we want to be at the end of this scramble.