***Shamelessly stolen from the cfb subreddit - comments must begin with "From my point of view..."***

From my point of view, Missouri State athletics should do everything in its power to join a south central focused conference (south central meaning Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas) and abandon the midwest.

The Ozarks have never had particularly strong ties to the midwest. We've been lumped in by default because of the I-70 corridor and its inhabitants, who are all unquestionably midwestern. The MVFC accentuates this, with four (soon to be five) members next to Minnesota and another by Pennsylvania. The Gateway days were tolerable because it was more of a bus league. Essentially, we became stuck in a conference that grew away from us.

The Ozarks have always been culturally skewed toward the south and west. These patterns have emerged economically in modern times. Southwest Missouri residents who leave the state tend to end up in northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma City or Dallas/Fort Worth instead of St Louis and Chicago in the 21st century. Imagine my surprise when I found honest to God cashew chicken in OKC a couple of years ago.

Our football program, after decades of play has nothing to show for it, and I don't mean silverware. This university has no traditions it can point to, no rivalries for fans to look forward to every year even when the team is crap. Missouri State football might as well have been started last year. It means we would not have to worry about losing anything by making a big move like this. We could also preemptively strike against The Death Sentence, a term I use to describe a possible future "MVFC west" division containing us, UNI and the Dakota schools, a group with which we have nothing whatsoever in common, and no hope to ever compete in this sport if we end up in that situation.

We prolong a hopeless future by continuing to squat in a conference we do not belong in. We've tinkered on the margins, we've tried the moderate shifts. Nothing has worked. We need to take a big rip, shatter the status quo and this is a way to ensure a better long term future. I have nothing against the other schools or fans in the MVFC, it just does not make sense for our university to be here any longer.