|
Post by thetulsawarrior on Apr 26, 2016 8:48:44 GMT -6
NKU is a good travel partner for teams playing Wright State. EMU is essentially suburban Detroit. Not a bad fit. There's a program on the rise that might not be a bad geographic addition, IPFW. Ideally a Chicago school or IUPUI (Indianapolis) would fit into a more compact geographic footprint. I don't think other Horizon League fans would be excited about the additional three I outlined but in terms of economics they work.
|
|
|
Post by phearthephoenix on Apr 26, 2016 12:26:49 GMT -6
I would absolutely swap Eastern Michigan for Youngstown State. If it was up to me I'd boot YSU from the league right now and sit tight at 9 until EMU or Belmont want to join, if ever.
Yes, 10 is a good number for scheduling purposes but I'd rather be at 9 than have YSU anchor down our league season after season. At least the anchors this year - UIC, NKU, Cleveland St - could conceivably climb out of the cellar and have some hope for the future. Youngstown is a football school and has no business being in a league where men's basketball is really all that matters.
There is absolutely no need for the Horizon to think about adding schools unless it's for a program that is a top 100 RPI men's basketball program year after year to help get more than 1 team in the NCAA Tournament. Otherwise we are just splitting the money pie more ways which means less for everyone
|
|
|
Post by GBPhoenix1 on Apr 27, 2016 5:33:26 GMT -6
The HL is down and not looking good right now. I have a hard time believing Belmont is going to see it as a big upgrade at this point.
YSU is pathetic, the fact that they don't fire Sloan tells me all I need to know about their interest in improving the HL for men's hoops.
Any iupui, IPFW or emu move can only be to replace ysu. Otherwise adding them to go to 12 teams doesn't move the needle and just dilutes the money and opportunity for the other teams.
|
|
|
Post by phoenixphan87 on Apr 27, 2016 7:56:42 GMT -6
I would be all for the EMU/YSU swap. YSU would have their entry into the MAC for football and EMU would be a better fit for the league. Does this make the league much better....no. It would kick out some dead weight and boost the RPI a bit most years. EMU has a great facility but lacks fan support for basketball too. Playing Detroit and Oakland and having that be their main sport may increase interest.
|
|
|
Post by bayballer on Apr 27, 2016 9:32:59 GMT -6
Another school to keep an eye on would be SIU-Edwardsville. I've heard that the Horizon League has been wanting to break into the St. Louis market and SIU-E is one of the few schools to do that with. Also LeCrone (Horizon League commish) was in attendance at the GB-SIUE game, possibly to check out their facilities?? Don't know why else he would choose to attend that game. Obviously their basketball team wouldn't add much to the conference, finished 6-22 this season, but they would definitely expand the conference to a new area. Not saying this would be a good move or anything, just seems that the Horizon League showed some interest in adding them.
|
|
|
Post by phoenixphan87 on Apr 27, 2016 18:20:43 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by GBPhoenix1 on Apr 27, 2016 19:42:28 GMT -6
Edwardsville is 30 minutes from St Louis so I wouldn't consider it accessing the market.
The gym is small but decently remodeled and could be loud.
I would stay away from SIUE, it wouldn't advance the league in my opinion.
|
|
|
Post by PantherU on Apr 28, 2016 13:39:31 GMT -6
I've been to SIUe, my sister used to live in STL. Stay away. The town is small, and SLU games are plenty cheap and in a real gym so no one is going to go 20 minutes over the River to go to a low-major basketball game.
The Vadalabene Center is a really nice D-III gym. It's structure is high school - two grandstands on either side - and they have a small student bleacher setup on the baseline. There's a cafeteria-like thing with some real small windows that overlook the court, I'm sure with a couple hundred grand they could take out the walls and office-like windows and make them floor-to-ceiling windows all the way down. But they'd have to actually have something cool in there to see, and like I said it's basically a cafeteria.
The coolest thing about the gym is the ticket office out front. It's an old-school outdoor ticket window, like a kiosk - anyone know the movie theater in South Park? They've got one of those stands. Besides that the gym is bland on the outside, spiced up a tiny bit by the fact that they have a 20-foot banner with the team schedules and a player on them (that was in 2009 or 2010, last time I was there).
The seating in the lower level is actually nice - all plastic chairback with the end sections turned to face center court. There's a main 'concourse' walkway above there and bleachers above.
All in all SIUe is a team I'd schedule a 2-for-1 with, or maybe even 1-for-1 if we're recruiting a kid in STL - we had Tony Meier on the team and were recruiting the Boga brothers when we signed the first series with them.
I wouldn't add them to the League.
|
|
|
Post by phoenixphan87 on May 4, 2016 15:32:51 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by yayphoenixyay on May 4, 2016 15:40:13 GMT -6
That would be a disaster, I don't understand why a move to the horizon would even make sense since it would be lateral at best
|
|
|
Post by GBPhoenix1 on May 5, 2016 9:15:00 GMT -6
From a men's basketball perspective New Mexico State is is the right kind of team and program for Horizon League men's basketball. From a geography perspective I am not sure this is the right fit. The league would need to really expand to add members in that direction to have sensible geographic footprint. Some of the UMKC, Denver, Grand Canyon, Oral Roberts, Little Rock and Texas Arlington's of the world would need to come in. I don't see that happening or necessarily helping.
|
|
|
Post by phoenixphan87 on May 5, 2016 12:14:57 GMT -6
NMSU would be a terrible fit geographically. Only scenario I see where this would have any legs would be to get Grand Canyon to join with them. They are not eligible for the tournament yet but have a large budget(for profit school) and have high aspirations for men's basketball. Even adding those two teams would be hard to justify sending your tennis, volleyball, soccer programs down there every season for games.
|
|
|
Post by phearthephoenix on May 5, 2016 12:23:31 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by gbbrl97 on May 9, 2016 22:05:06 GMT -6
NMSU in the HL makes as much sense as Chicago State in the WAC. This would be a bad move. Better to keep the HL at 10 unless they can get a top 150ish RPI team in the HL's geographic area or an adjacent area to move to the HL.
|
|
|
Post by phearthephoenix on Jan 23, 2017 13:10:44 GMT -6
|
|