Loyola Leaving for A-10

[IllinoisState]

The UIC potential is obvious and anyone here who doesn't put a school with a $2B endowment on the top of this list (along with Murray) is delusional. We all know what talks so stop fooling yourselves.

UIC would be the highest ranked program in the MVC if added, but most of the foundation's $2.4 billion is U of I's. UIC's is a few hundred million.

[Campbellproud]

The UIC potential is obvious and anyone here who doesn't put a school with a $2B endowment on the top of this list (along with Murray) is delusional. We all know what talks so stop fooling yourselves.

UIC would be the highest ranked program in the MVC if added, but most of the foundation's $2.4 billion is U of I's. UIC's is a few hundred million.

Important distinction to make. I’m not wild about adding a branch school—UIC, UALR, UMKC, Milwaukee. The reason being that these schools don’t have the last word on important investments. The system flagship does. So the league is actually dealing with sort of phantom administrations that have no real power to determine the level of buy-in to the league. It’s shadow boxing the flagship university the whole time. You think trustees at U Missouri want to authorize millions of dollars for a new arena, which they sorely need?

Those types of universities aren’t particularly stable largely because they are dependent on the larger systems. When enrollment starts declining as, these schools are the first on the chopping block. None of these schools are going to disappear, but the next adds absolutely must be up to snuff facilities wise.

A lot of large branch schools like UIC, Milwaukee, UTA are commuter schools that probably have a lot of online students, non traditional students, what have you. So they don’t have campus cultures that care about basketball or really any school related activities. I’d like to see programs that care, like Murray.

[RacerJoeD]

Important distinction to make. I’m not wild about adding a branch school—UIC, UALR, UMKC, Milwaukee. The reason being that these schools don’t have the last word on important investments. The system flagship does. So the league is actually dealing with sort of phantom administrations that have no real power to determine the level of buy-in to the league. It’s shadow boxing the flagship university the whole time. You think trustees at U Missouri want to authorize millions of dollars for a new arena, which they sorely need?

Those types of universities aren’t particularly stable largely because they are dependent on the larger systems. When enrollment starts declining as, these schools are the first on the chopping block. None of these schools are going to disappear, but the next adds absolutely must be up to snuff facilities wise.

A lot of large branch schools like UIC, Milwaukee, UTA are commuter schools that probably have a lot of online students, non traditional students, what have you. So they don’t have campus cultures that care about basketball or really any school related activities. I’d like to see programs that care, like Murray.

All you would need to do to see this in action is look at University of Alabama Birmingham and their football program in 2014.

All that said, I think of the programs mentioned, my Racers and UIC would be the best adds.

[TylerDurden]

It seems inevitable that the size of a school's endowment is mentioned any time there is a discussion around athletics finances and a lot of people seem to think that a school can dip into its endowment to support some athletic endeavor. But the reality is that the total value of a university's endowment doesn't mean much for athletics or, as others have mentioned, when speaking about branch/extension schools without far more detailed information.

Endowments are an aggregation of donated funds with specifications for their use. A school might have a $2 billion endowment, but those funds were donated with specific instructions for their use. It may be for the physics department, the law school, the art department, the engineering school, and maybe athletics.

Endowments can show something, for sure, but you have to be cautious when using them as an indicator of support of athletics without knowing more.

As an example, I looked at the Wichita State Foundation report for FY 2021. It has $360 million in total assets (expendable and non-expendable) for the fiscal year. Of that, $454,000 was designated for athletics. By comparison, the library has $3.2m.

If you looked at the endowment numbers, you'd think WSU is broke, which we all know isn't true. They do a great job fundraising in the athletics department, but those numbers won't show up on the university endowment report.

Be cautious when looking at endowments. Decent snapshot of university financial health, mediocre indicator of support for athletics.

[mjs]

Important distinction to make. I’m not wild about adding a branch school—UIC, UALR, UMKC, Milwaukee. The reason being that these schools don’t have the last word on important investments. The system flagship does. So the league is actually dealing with sort of phantom administrations that have no real power to determine the level of buy-in to the league. It’s shadow boxing the flagship university the whole time. You think trustees at U Missouri want to authorize millions of dollars for a new arena, which they sorely need?

Those types of universities aren’t particularly stable largely because they are dependent on the larger systems. When enrollment starts declining as, these schools are the first on the chopping block. None of these schools are going to disappear, but the next adds absolutely must be up to snuff facilities wise.

A lot of large branch schools like UIC, Milwaukee, UTA are commuter schools that probably have a lot of online students, non traditional students, what have you. So they don’t have campus cultures that care about basketball or really any school related activities. I’d like to see programs that care, like Murray.[/quote]

While I hate to admit it, you make some excellent points. Many of us in Little Rock would love to break away from the University of Arkansas system. But, it is not going to happen, at least, not in the foreseeable future. Luckily, the Stephens family donated 25 million dollars for us to build an on-campus arena about 15 years ago. It really is a beautiful, top of the line facility that seats 5600 (perfect for us) and still looks brand new. The U of A system Board of Trustees would never have given us the money to build it. So our problems are certainly very similar to UTA and UMKC. I just believe that if they are in the conversation, we should be as well. I know our hardcore fans would be really excited to join the MoValley. Not sure about the average person, in Central Arkansas, who seem much more interested in watching the Hogs on television.

[OfPantherandMan]

Omaha in the mix. Arlington and Murray State are "front runners"

https://www.cbssports.com/college-baske ... -a-decade/

[BCPanther]

Go to 13 and let Kansas City and Omaha duke it out for who gets to be 14?

I'm 1000% on board with that idea.

If any building ever looked like a Valley arena, it's Baxter Arena in Omaha.

[Loyola_Fan]

UIC is very much a commuter school but at 30k there's still plenty of people who care about athletics and MBB. Even before the Great Loyola Renaissance fans would show up in big numbers when they played at Gentile. Yak seems to be a good coach and if they start to win consistently they would be a great Valley school. I don't think they get yanked around by UIUC too much. I'm not sure how many other "branch" schools have a medical school, dental school, and pharmacy school as nice as theirs.

[letsgoAces]

What would Omaha offer that Northern Kentucky would not?

[BCPanther]

What would Omaha offer that Northern Kentucky would not?

A larger athletic budget and an actual bus trip for the Western Schools for once.