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Just made official. They'll start this year.

Now the HL really looks like the old Mid-Con.

Our old friend Chuck A from UIC had this to say on the MVC board

We the fans of the Horizon League would like to thank The Valley for taking Loyola off our hands, which allowed the HL to invite a program that's leaps and bounds ahead of LU. We finished 3 spots behind the MVC. With our respective additions, The HL has just closed the gap further.

http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=10102

Sour grapes much?

I was reading the Detroit message board yesterday after this news was confirmed, and man, do I feel sorry for those guys. Detroit is now the only school in the conference that didn't come from the Mid-Con/Summit. Detroit and Valpo are the only two private schools in the 9-member conference. They now have to share the Detroit market with another team within the conference-- with a rival has been elevated to their level, has a much higher enrollment, and caters to the suburbs.

Apparently, UDM's financial problems are such that they don't really have a hope of escaping the HL anytime soon. If they had the money, I'd suggest they'd be a great school to replace one of the departing A-10 schools, but their budget, endowment, and enrollment numbers won't really allow it.

GoRamblers wrote:Our old friend Chuck A from UIC had this to say on the MVC board

We the fans of the Horizon League would like to thank The Valley for taking Loyola off our hands, which allowed the HL to invite a program that's leaps and bounds ahead of LU. We finished 3 spots behind the MVC. With our respective additions, The HL has just closed the gap further.

http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=10102

Sour grapes much?

Makes perfect sense....

Of course, the HL really has traded Butler and Loyola for Oakland. Not quite as great of a move. Also, leaps and bounds ahead? I know Oakland was in the tournament two years ago, but our Kenpom rating was 167, compared to Oakland's 210.

GoRamblers wrote:Our old friend Chuck A from UIC had this to say on the MVC board

We the fans of the Horizon League would like to thank The Valley for taking Loyola off our hands, which allowed the HL to invite a program that's leaps and bounds ahead of LU. We finished 3 spots behind the MVC. With our respective additions, The HL has just closed the gap further.

http://www.oakland.edu/view_news.aspx?sid=34&nid=10102

Sour grapes much?

Does anyone know if Chuck A is the fan also known as "Stompy?"

Too bad the MVC is going to miss out on "The Lighting of the Flame."


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That was Stomper. He seems to have disappeared from that board.

Oh Stompy. He's poor knees.

As I speculated five weeks ago. I think this works out well for LU, the Horizon League and Oakland.

Loyola gets to play in a conference they want to play in, that has had very good success the last decade. The HL gets a comparable basketball program, plus a coveted baseball program and Oakland gets to join a better conference. Everybody wins and that is rare in these conference re-alignment changes.

Cigar's first post is an on topic, basketball post?

This is my reaction:

When the MVC toured UIC the school did the lighting of the flame ceremony with the corny song and it's scared the Valley away.