Majerus's comments about moving to MVC

[JMM28]

even with that great tourney, the A10 gets the better recruits, has more tourney bids, and puts more players in the NBA. I would assume Porter is probably smarter than you and doesn't bring up any actual or perceived negatives of the A10 when he's recruiting. He does seem to know what he's doing based upon his recruiting the last few years. Btw .... Willie called his best trip the trip to Atlantic City. I would guess that would be a good thing for the A10 tourney. Many of the MVC players are from the midwest, and have probably been to St. Louis many times. I wonder how many chances they get to go to Atlantic City?

One big problem with the MVC islack of upward mobility. The A10 is viewed as some sort of tweener league, not really a mid major, but not a power conference either. The MVC is the king of the midmajors and that is not good for eventually wanting to get into a BE split thing. No way does a conference like that look to the MVC for teams.

[slufanskip]

Wow. This is pretty funny. Actually theres 3 schools(30%) in college towns.(UNI, InSt and SIUC.)

Why don't you go back to your 7th grade geography book and learn that Wichita proper is bigger than St Louis proper. Proper means the city limits, by the way.

The Peoria metro area (350k) is also bigger than St Louis proper.

Des Moines proper has 200,000 people. Metro area (500k) also bigger than St Louis proper.

Evansville is 125,000 or so with a metro area of 350k

Springfield proper is 156,000 with 425,000 metro area.

Normal is about the only place that's on the bubble, but doubtful again with a metro area of 160,000 people.

Get out of St Louis once inawhile. Wichita and Omaha are actually much nicer areas. Peoria is like a younger brother to St Louis.

The rest of the breathing thinking billikens.com population, don't mistake this for my support of SLU to MVC. I am off that bandwagon.

While he's getting out his geography book, why don't you utilize that time to grab your old English book.

Nice job of comparing the Des Moines metro area to St. Louis proper. We all know the size of the city of St. Louis, you may not know this but SLU draws from the entire metro area, which is much, much larger than any city you named.

The A10 has better teams with more history of success, gets more tourney bids, and puts more players in the NBA.

The MVC is a nice league, but why does it have to bother MVC supporters if SLU supporters don't feel it's a good fit?

[JMM28]

The A10 has better teams with more history of success, gets more tourney bids, and puts more players in the NBA.

The MVC is a nice league, but why does it have to bother MVC supporters if SLU supporters don't feel it's a good fit?

As i spelled out, im not advocating for the mvc. im educating a st louis native on some fellow midwestern areas and their sizes compared to his idea of "podunk". i dont think the mvc and slu are a good fit for reasoning ive already stated.

[bonwich]

Why don't you go back to your 7th grade geography book and learn that Wichita proper is bigger than St Louis proper. Proper means the city limits, by the way.

The Peoria metro area (350k) is also bigger than St Louis proper.

Des Moines proper has 200,000 people. Metro area (500k) also bigger than St Louis proper.

Evansville is 125,000 or so with a metro area of 350k

Springfield proper is 156,000 with 425,000 metro area.

Normal is about the only place that's on the bubble, but doubtful again with a metro area of 160,000 people.

Get out of St Louis once inawhile. Wichita and Omaha are actually much nicer areas. Peoria is like a younger brother to St Louis.

The rest of the breathing thinking billikens.com population, don't mistake this for my support of SLU to MVC. I am off that bandwagon.

If you're so worried about "proper," why do you quote "metro" for all the others (which, if you made the full comparison, would be at most 1/5 the size of St. Louis, including Wichita).

[JMM28]

If you're so worried about "proper," why do you quote "metro" for all the others (which, if you made the full comparison, would be at most 1/5 the size of St. Louis, including Wichita).

Sorry to get the great st louis defenders out, just using it as a point of reference since its apparntly the only place he's ever been.

[TJHawk]

If you're so worried about "proper," why do you quote "metro" for all the others (which, if you made the full comparison, would be at most 1/5 the size of St. Louis, including Wichita).

Was SLU asked to leave CUSA or did they want out when everything fell apart? CUSA may want to rethink their football only stratagy. If they add Xavier, Dayton and SLU it could only increase it's exposure during basketball season.

[slufanskip]

Sorry to get the great st louis defenders out, just using it as a point of reference since its apparntly the only place he's ever been.

but it wasn't a point of reference as you quoted the just the metro area for some, the metro and the proper for others. However, for St. Louis you only talked about the proper. It was obviously and intentionally misleading.

It's like considering a 2 million dollar 5,000 sq. ft house small because there are a lot of entire blocks of $250,00 dollar houses that are bigger.

The point you were trying to make is that St. Louis isn't much bigger than the MVC cities, and that's just silly.

[billiken_roy]

Was SLU asked to leave CUSA or did they want out when everything fell apart? CUSA may want to rethink their football only stratagy. If they add Xavier, Dayton and SLU it could only increase it's exposure during basketball season.

that makes no sense. why would the three of us take the step down to rejoin conference usa when it is typically not even a top 10 conference per the rpi? take memphis out of the picture they wouldnt even be top 15 likely.

and if you want to talk about a geographic nightmare, you might want to plot out the locations of conference usa on a map sometime. it makes the atlantic 10 look cozy.

i do like your thinking of always aligning with dayton and xavier. i assume we learned our lesson on that and are always thinking protecting that alliance now on virtually any conference decisions about anything.

[Cowboy]

-i have looked at this thread for the last time

[Hawk]

-i have looked at this thread for the last time

+1

[cheeseman]

To be fair Cincy football has taken off over the past couple of years. The school is going to side with the team that brings in the most income.

I was not saying they were wrong just that before basketball pulled that wagon for them but now it is football.

[cheeseman]

One big problem with the MVC islack of upward mobility. The A10 is viewed as some sort of tweener league, not really a mid major, but not a power conference either. The MVC is the king of the midmajors and that is not good for eventually wanting to get into a BE split thing. No way does a conference like that look to the MVC for teams.

Bingo - that is the point that most have been trying to make - it has nothing to do with small towns, attendance, travel or whatever else - it this point and this point only that is important.

[cheeseman]

Was SLU asked to leave CUSA or did they want out when everything fell apart? CUSA may want to rethink their football only stratagy. If they add Xavier, Dayton and SLU it could only increase it's exposure during basketball season.

Yes the four basketball only schools ( SLU, UNCC, DePaul, and Marquette) were asked to leave and were given a free ticket - no exit fee as required in the by-laws. We also were allowed two years to find another conference to play in. CUSA made a decision that they only want schools who play football at the D1 level.

[troutangler]

1. I don't care if SLU joins the Valley. In fact, I don't even want them in the Valley. What I get tired of hearing is how prestigious the A10 is and how "podunk" the Valley is.

2. Whatever Porter Moser said is probably motivated by the fact that he was a sh*tty coach in the Valley and got pathetic results out of the talent he had. Barry Hinson outcoached that guy for Christ's sake. It can't get much worse than that.

oh was this about actual performance? since you included rhodey which has been a decent team for the entire time that the billikens have been a part of the a-10 i assumed you were talking about out of the way or unexciting cities. or are you saying you are so ignorant about the a-10 you didnt know that rhode island has consistently ben a better team over the last five years than either illinois state or northern iowa.

Huh...that's funny.

UNI NCAA appearances this decade: 04, 05, 06, 09

Rhode Island NCAA appearances this decade: None (Last was in 99)

And I'm the ignorant one here? Tell me again how much better Rhode Island has been than UNI the last five years.....

I had a hunch that you clowns didn't follow anything outside of St. Louis and the A10, but this just confirmed it for me. Thanks!

i've been to every siu game at carbondale since larry hughes was here. i would bet the most slu fans we have ever had at the game there is 40. most games there is about 10 blue shirts or jackets in the stands.

Then it looks like your fan base sucks. If we had an opponent an hour away in Joplin or Rolla that we played every year the place would be crawling with MSU fans.

[Box and Won]

Then it looks like your fan base sucks. If we had an opponent an hour away in Joplin or Rolla that we played every year the place would be crawling with MSU fans.

Dude, we're talking 'bout Carbondale though. Ugh.

[GoBills]

1. I don't care if SLU joins the Valley. In fact, I don't even want them in the Valley. What I get tired of hearing is how prestigious the A10 is and how "podunk" the Valley is.

2. Whatever Porter Moser said is probably motivated by the fact that he was a sh*tty coach in the Valley and got pathetic results out of the talent he had. Barry Hinson outcoached that guy for Christ's sake. It can't get much worse than that.

Huh...that's funny.

UNI NCAA appearances this decade: 04, 05, 06, 09

Rhode Island NCAA appearances this decade: None (Last was in 99)

And I'm the ignorant one here? Tell me again how much better Rhode Island has been than UNI the last five years.....

I had a hunch that you clowns didn't follow anything outside of St. Louis and the A10, but this just confirmed it for me. Thanks!

Then it looks like your fan base sucks. If we had an opponent an hour away in Joplin or Rolla that we played every year the place would be crawling with MSU fans.

All people need to remember is that Spoon left Southwest for SLU. A SLU coach would never leave here for there. With that being said, Martin was an outstanding hire.

[GOSLU68]

If you're so worried about "proper," why do you quote "metro" for all the others (which, if you made the full comparison, would be at most 1/5 the size of St. Louis, including Wichita).

Houston is bigger than LA and NYC with this logic

[RickMRules]

for me it has nothing to do with the cities, it's the stature of the programs whether real or perceived. Here is what I think about playing MVC teams and A10 teams.

+ = I look forward to the game

X = I like the game but don't really look forward to it.

- = couldn't care less.

The number is the order of preference I would have seeing them play overall

MVC

SMS + -8

SIU + - 3

Creighton + -7

Bradley X

Ill St -

Wichita St -

Drake -

Ind. St -

Evansville -

North Iowa -

A10

Xavier + -1

Dayton + -2

St. Joe's + - 4

UMass + -5

Temple + -6

Charlotte + -9

GW + -10

RI X

Duq X

Richm X

La Salle -

Ford -

Bonnies -

Out of the 9 teams in the MVC, 3 I look forward to, 1 other I like, 5 I couldn't care less

Out of 13 in the A10, 7 I look forward to, 3 others I like and 3 I couldn't care less.

But see thats the problem. Its what you would care for, what about the rest of the A10 fans? Think of this way. Besides Dayton & Xavier, the rest of the A-10 could give a rats ass about St. Louis. Heck, I'd bet half don't even know where St. Louis is. Why do we want to play in a sandbox of a league that doesn't care about us?

We keep drawing 4-5,000 fans at our conference tourney. Its not going to take to long before the better recruits realize what a cesspool of a league this is (the fordham kid already did). Good god again the Valley drew 10,000 a session in a down year last year. Check their rosters my friends - they have reloaded and have some young talent.

The Valley fans in Ill State, Bradley, heck even the dreggs Ind State and Evansville would draw big Home Crowds vs St. Louis which in turn would make the Valley more attractive. I'm sorry that sell-out at Fordham of 2,500 people keeps blurring everyone's vision here.

This is a Midwest school, with midwestern values. The East Coast could give a crap about what happens here in St. Louis.

Next time go on an A-10 board and ask how many people treaure their rivalry with us.

[Hawk]

We keep drawing 4-5,000 fans at our conference tourney. Its not going to take to long before the better recruits realize what a cesspool of a league this is (the fordham kid already did).

Nice cheap shot. Too bad that has nothing to do with it.

[RickMRules]

Nice cheap shot. Too bad that has nothing to do with it.

You're right it was a cheap shot.

When Porter Mosier states he's getting the kids the MVC isn't. You don't think they will be

using crap like this? Its one thing to get 4star recruits. Its another to keep them.

Its a dying league and RM knows this.

Kudos to him for keep bringing the MVC up.

[Majerus Magic]

You're right it was a cheap shot.

When Porter Mosier states he's getting the kids the MVC isn't. You don't think they will be

using crap like this? Its one thing to get 4star recruits. Its another to keep them.

Its a dying league and RM knows this.

Kudos to him for keep bringing the MVC up.

Wait, so if it is a dying league why is it trending up and the MVC is trending down?

[courtside]

But see thats the problem. Its what you would care for, what about the rest of the A10 fans? Think of this way. Besides Dayton & Xavier, the rest of the A-10 could give a rats ass about St. Louis. Heck, I'd bet half don't even know where St. Louis is. Why do we want to play in a sandbox of a league that doesn't care about us?

We keep drawing 4-5,000 fans at our conference tourney. Its not going to take to long before the better recruits realize what a cesspool of a league this is (the fordham kid already did). Good god again the Valley drew 10,000 a session in a down year last year. Check their rosters my friends - they have reloaded and have some young talent.

The Valley fans in Ill State, Bradley, heck even the dreggs Ind State and Evansville would draw big Home Crowds vs St. Louis which in turn would make the Valley more attractive. I'm sorry that sell-out at Fordham of 2,500 people keeps blurring everyone's vision here.

This is a Midwest school, with midwestern values. The East Coast could give a crap about what happens here in St. Louis.

Next time go on an A-10 board and ask how many people treaure their rivalry with us.

No they don't. The Valley doesn't draw extra for SLU and SLU doesn't draw extra for the Valley. Go back the past decade plus and look up the Missouri St and SIUC games v SLU. These are two of the marquee MVC teams. SLU has played them often. The attendance is not exceptional at either place. There are even some 5k attendance figures at MO St during the time vs SLU. SIUC couldn't come close to selling out it's Arena. SLU was getting half filled Savvis Center attendance figures. And this has been during the stronger years for those MVC teams.

This greater attendance because of rivalry and regional proximity is a big myth. Try facts. You just assume, incorrectly that because of closer geographic proximity in some, not all cases, that there would be more interest. That has proven to not be the case, even during the best time period for the MVC as a league.

This is not too difficult. SLU has more interest in Xavier, Dayton, etc...than any of the MVC teams. It isn't personal. Enjoy the MVC. SLU also correctly realizes that the MVC is not as well respected as the A-10, not to mention sends less teams to the NCAA's than the A-10 on the whole. The MVC is a good league that should be respected more, but it is not the best fit for SLU, and many people who are capable of looking past the word "Missouri" in the name Missouri Valley Conference get that.

[joe_davola]

As i spelled out, im not advocating for the mvc. im educating a st louis native on some fellow midwestern areas and their sizes compared to his idea of "podunk". i dont think the mvc and slu are a good fit for reasoning ive already stated.

You're a moron and a complete joke if you want to compare those areas to St. Louis...you're not even worth arguing with. Most people here have been outside of STL and been to those areas you mention. They are a joke...comparing those areas to STL is like comparing STL to Chicago...give me a break...

[RickMRules]

No they don't. The Valley doesn't draw extra for SLU and SLU doesn't draw extra for the Valley. Go back the past decade plus and look up the Missouri St and SIUC games v SLU. These are two of the marquee MVC teams. SLU has played them often. The attendance is not exceptional at either place. There are even some 5k attendance figures at MO St during the time vs SLU. SIUC couldn't come close to selling out it's Arena. SLU was getting half filled Savvis Center attendance figures. And this has been during the stronger years for those MVC teams.

This greater attendance because of rivalry and regional proximity is a big myth. Try facts. You just assume, incorrectly that because of closer geographic proximity in some, not all cases, that there would be more interest. That has proven to not be the case, even during the best time period for the MVC as a league.

This is not too difficult. SLU has more interest in Xavier, Dayton, etc...than any of the MVC teams. It isn't personal. Enjoy the MVC. SLU also correctly realizes that the MVC is not as well respected as the A-10, not to mention sends less teams to the NCAA's than the A-10 on the whole. The MVC is a good league that should be respected more, but it is not the best fit for SLU, and many people who are capable of looking past the word "Missouri" in the name Missouri Valley Conference get that.

They would though if they were in a league together (We don't have the answer because they haven't played in a league together)

BTW< which team drew the biggest at Chavitz this year? Oh yeah, not Nebraska, it was SIU. Think MO State won't bring a big crowd? They aren't even the top teams in the Valley. Lets say St. Louis was in first playing a first place Creighton - that wouldn't draw fans? Imagine home and home series. Don't think the SIU/SLU rematch would be off the charts because of the push.

I thnk if Fordham was in first place you'd be lucky to draw 6000 fans. Can't wait to see what those figures are this year, we play Fordham on a Wed, and St. Bonnie on a Wednesday. 4000?, 5000?

I guarantee if you had a Bradley/St. Louis match-up you'd have more fans from Bradley show up as well as the casual St. Louis fan than you would for a Lasalle, a Duquenese, a Fordham, a St. Bonnie, etc. Especially if it was in league play (the alumni alone in the St. Louis area not to mention the casual fan they've gained from the MVC Tourney held here)

Again and again - the dreggs of the MVC - Evansville - (new arena on the way) , Ind State - they would double the attendance we currently have when we go on the road and play - St. Bonnie, Lasalle, Duquesne, Fordham & a couple of other A10 teams - You can't argue that.

Look - I love the top A-10 teams. But the league is as only strong as the weak links and unfortunately the A10 has some very feeble programs at the bottom, more so than the MVC.

Finally whats funny is you say

-

" SLU has more interest in Xavier, Dayton, etc"

You specify Xavier and Dayton - yet use etc for the rest. Thats because you know as well as I do, nobody besides those two care about SLU and we don't care about anyone else & that is the problem.

[Majerus Magic]

They would though if they were in a league together (We don't have the answer because they haven't played in a league together)

BTW< which team drew the biggest at Chavitz this year? Oh yeah, not Nebraska, it was SIU. Think MO State won't bring a big crowd? They aren't even the top teams in the Valley. Lets say St. Louis was in first playing a first place Creighton - that wouldn't draw fans? Imagine home and home series. Don't think the SIU/SLU rematch would be off the charts because of the push.

I thnk if Fordham was in first place you'd be lucky to draw 6000 fans. Can't wait to see what those figures are this year, we play Fordham on a Wed, and St. Bonnie on a Wednesday. 4000?, 5000?

I guarantee if you had a Bradley/St. Louis match-up you'd have more fans from Bradley show up as well as the casual St. Louis fan than you would for a Lasalle, a Duquenese, a Fordham, a St. Bonnie, etc. Especially if it was in league play (the alumni alone in the St. Louis area not to mention the casual fan they've gained from the MVC Tourney held here)

Again and again - the dreggs of the MVC - Evansville - (new arena on the way) , Ind State - they would double the attendance we currently have when we go on the road and play - St. Bonnie, Lasalle, Duquesne, Fordham & a couple of other A10 teams - You can't argue that.

Look - I love the top A-10 teams. But the league is as only strong as the weak links and unfortunately the A10 has some very feeble programs at the bottom, more so than the MVC.

Finally whats funny is you say

-

" SLU has more interest in Xavier, Dayton, etc"

You specify Xavier and Dayton - yet use etc for the rest. Thats because you know as well as I do, nobody besides those two care about SLU and we don't care about anyone else & that is the problem.

You are trying to justify that you know what is best for SLU, yet you don't even know how to spell Chaifetz Arena. This leads me to believe you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Home attendance is not the determining factor is which conference is best for SLU.