Loyola Joins The Missouri Valley Conference: UPDATE
It’s been a busy couple of weeks at Loyola. We opened our awesome new Damen Student Center and started construction to revamp our on student gym, Halas.
But perhaps the busiest office on campus was the Athletics. They did two majors things over the past week. First, they hired a new women’s basketball coach, Sheryl Swoopes. For those of you who don’t know, Swoopes is regarded as one of the best athletes (women’s basketball) of all time. Her accolades include a NCAA title, 4-WNBA titles and 3 Olympic gold medals.CRAZY!
The second move athletics made was even bigger than hiring Swoopes. Loyola announced hat Loyola was leaving the Horizon League to join The Missouri Valley Conference. Loyola held a press conference today announcing the move which is affective July 1 2013.
I was hoping to write more about the move today, but it’s been busy in the office. I’ll provide a more in depth look at the move early next week. Check back then!
UPDATE:
As promised, I’m back to write more about Loyola’s move to the Missouri Valley Conference. To make it a littler easier to understand, I’m going to break down my analysis into a couple different section: who, what, when, where and why.
Who- A majority of Loyola University Chicago’s Division 1 athletic teams
Most of Loyola’s teams will make the jump the the MVC. The only team that won’t is Men’s Volleyball.
What- Missouri Valley Conference
Loyola was one of the founding members of the Horizon league and has seen the league gain attention over the last couple of years. But, change is good. Especially when you’re making the jump to the second oldest conference in the NCAA and a conference that has some serious basketball powerhouses (e.i. Wichita State and formerly Creighton). A new (and not to mention strong) conference, and one known for hoops, will help Loyola improve it’s level of competition and attract new recruits across all the sports.
When- July 1, 2013
As I wrote above, LU fans won’t have to wait long for the school to make the jump to the MVC. The switch is affective this summer and teams starting officially playing MVC teams in the Fall.
Where- All through the Mid-West and Arch-Madness
True to the name. MVC’s teams are all located through out the mid-west. Which mean, our teams don’t have to travel to far for games. Each year the MVC hosts it’s annual conference basketball tournament in St. Louis, thus calling it “Arch-Madness.” The MVC hoops tournament is one of the first events that marks the start of March Madness and has had some impressive crowd turnouts over the last couple of seasons.
Why- Fit and Chicago
Last, but not least, is the why. There were a number of reasons given at the press conference as to why Loyola accepted the bid to join the MVC. The word that came up over and over again was “fit.” The league felt Loyola fit well with the league is trying to do now and what it wants to accomplish in the future. The MVC’s commissioner, Doug Elgin commented on how impressed he was Loyola’s facilities and commitment to the ‘student’ part of student athlete. Beyond fit, one of the bigger reasons the MVC looked at Loyola was our location, Chicago. Having a school in the nation’s third largest media market, allows the MVC greater exposure for not only the conference, but it’s teams.
Pretty exciting move, through and through.