Belmont had no interest in the MVC. Loyola was chosen over three other finalists: Valparaiso, Illinois-Chicago, and UMKC.
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Lol. Valpo may not have to wait long.
As for Loyola...not a bad choice. They have one more national title in mbb than the rest of the conference. All they really need is football in the PFL.
Loyola hasn't made the NCAA tournament since before the FCS had auto bids for the playoffs for each conference that wanted to participate.
Drake has a Final Four and 3 straight sweet 16s. Granted, those were before color tv was a real thing. They have one NCAA tournament bid since then, and have had about 40 losing seasons out of their last 45 seasons.
I suppose you'd call them not a bad choice for someone trying to strengthen a conference too?
What about Loyola wasn't a bad choice?
Can we take up funds to help pay for the moving van? Rather have all members play football.
Tradition and Chicago location account for something. You know they were up against UMKC, right?
There is too much competition from pro teams, B1G0 teams and others so the Chicago location means almost nothing from a market share / TV sets perspective. It might help with recruiting since family and friends would have a better chance to get to a game. But Valpo isn't far from Chicago either and brings more modern name recognition and success. Valpo would have been a better choice.
What tradition?
Loyola has played 97 seasons of D1 basketball. They have 5 NCAA tournament appearances. None since 1985. The other 4 appearances came between 1961-1968. They have just 7 seasons over .500 since 1985.
Chicago market? We already had it as much as we were going to get it. The MVC is on Comcast Sports Chicago, has been for years. We have a handful of illinois schools. Loyola is in a city of 10 million people and they can't get 2,500 people to a basketball game. That market share is just awful.
The same story plays out for Drake. Hurray, they were good in the late 60s. They have been complete **** since. They are actually at 45% for their all time win % over 111 seasons. They have just 4 NCAA trips in 111 years. 2008 and then 3 in a row between 1968-1971. Since 1971 they have just 11 seasons over .500. They have more seasons with a win % less than .200 than they do over .500.
Want to try again as to why a program like Loyola, UMKC, etc.. should have ever even been considered?
Don't shoot the messenger. With all due respect to the Horizon's second place basketball team, the MVC didn't - and won't - have superstar candidates from which to choose.