Omaha Forums

Just read a breaking headline from ESPN that the conference has voted unanimously to add Wichita State.

This will start the next round of moved by the smaller Conf schools. In some of the speculation i have read leading up to this UNO has been one of the potential targets for the Mo Valley.

Would this be a good move for them if it was an option?

I was all in on the Mo Valley, but now I'll say that it depends. Does it remain a stable conference after Wichita St. leaves? Are there more members looking to jump ship? I would need to know what kind of league UNO would be joining. If SIU, Missiouri St. and Illinois St. are also considering leaving, UNO would be looking at a league no better than the Summit. Make no mistake, this isn't the Mo Valley that we remember when CU was there.

Are we reaching a point where a merger of the Mo Valley and the Summit makes sense? Just wondering out loud. Both leagues are in a somewhat weak position in terms of the ability to recruit new members. I like UNO has the old conference rivals from the Dakota Schools involved along with Denver. But, there has been talk for years that IPFW and IUPUI have wanted to leave. There has been talk of them bolting to the Horizon League.

I think this is why UNO is looking closely at the Horizon League. I've questioned this on this and other forums. In and of itself, the move to the Horizon League makes little sense for UNO. The basketball profile of the Horizon and the Summit are almost identical...but the Horizon could be a more secure league. Still, the travel costs in the Horizon would be high for cash strapped UNO. There would be no quick bus drive or cheap flight destinations like USD, SDSU, Denver, and ORU provide UNO now.

UNO needs to do what's best for them and, most importantly, what provides the most conference security and competitive balance while maintaining fiscal responsibility. If the rest of the Mo Valley will remain intact, I think that is the league for them if they choose to leave the Summit or it looks like that league may implode. They would have decent rivalry possibilities with UNI, Mo St., and Drake. These are trips UNO fans can reasonably make. UNO fans won't be able to travel to any road games easily in the Horizon and that would be disappointing.

If all leagues remain stable, my choice would be...

1. Mo Valley
2. Summit
3. Horizon

Good move for Wichita State. AAC is a much better basketball conference with the likes of UConn, Memphis, Cincinnati, SMU, etc. It will be interesting to see if WSU is still considering adding football with the impeding move. Who knows, that could be one of the driving factors for the move.

I'm not sure the MVC is a good move for UNO. The one thing it does have (provided it still does after Wichita State leaving) is that it's games are on Fox Sports Midwest.

The Summit has schools that have a long history with UNO (from the NCC days), plus the conference tournament is less than 3 hours away for basketball.

Greg

If UNO got an offer from the MVC(big if, MVC would be wanting to get back into the Omaha market rather than based on success) you have to say yes. The Summit is always going to be a one bid league and while the Valley is looking to be that as well there are still programs with a history of solid basketball.

I think one fear too of sticking in the Summit is that if the Valley tried to consolidate their football members into the league UNO could be left in the wilderness of an even weaker Summit w/o some of the Dakota schools.

How, if at all, would a move the the MVC impact Omaha Hockey?

nebugeater wrote:How, if at all, would a move the the MVC impact Omaha Hockey?

None... UNO would remain in the NCHC for hockey...

UNO would almost be better off staying in the Summit, the Dakota schools have been ramping up their facilities to the point this might become a multiple bid league whereas the MVC is kind of dying.

I think it may be better for UNO to stay in the Summitt league. With Wichita leaving there just isn't a dominating school left. Sure geographically it would be nice to have the teams from IA but UNO will be like Creighton (on the western fringe).

If the Summit League could come up with a tv deal with a national network, it would remain the perfect league for UNO. Even if it was just one game per week like the Horizon, it would be better than nothing. ESPN3 has done a decent job of carrying games of late though. still, it's a perception factor. Even if UNO could get 2-3 games per year on the big network that would be huge.