Missouri State Athletic Director Kyle Moats has heard all of the reports and rumblings that Wichita State is headed to the American Athletic Conference.
“I certainly can’t confirm it,” he said. But he did confirm that presidents and athletic directors from the Missouri Valley Conference’s nine other basketball schools will meet in St. Louis Sunday to game plan for a potential Shocker defection.
He said he doesn’t know when Wichita State will make a decision.
Shock to the System
If the Shockers do leave, Missouri State will feel the loss at the gate. An average of 8,011 fans have come to see the last six Wichita State games at JQH Arena – the most of any MSU conference opponent in that stretch.
“[Wichita State is]Â everyone’s best draw,” Moats said. “It’s going to be a hit to our conference because of their success. It’s certainly going to be a hit during our conference tournament when they bring thousands of people there to help our conference tournament. It’ll be a financial hit for all of our schools.
“Anytime you lose a Creighton or a Wichita State that’s impactful.”
The Valley has had relative stability from the mid-1980’s until this decade. Tulsa was the last school to leave the conference before Creighton, and that came in 1996. Creighton left in 2013.
Losing Creighton and Wichita State in four years would do damage to the league’s reputation as the country’s premiere mid-major conference. The Shockers (16) and Bluejays (six) combined for 22 wins in NCAA tournament appearances representing the Valley. The leftover nine schools only have 30 combined tournament wins.
“Drake was good 15 or 20 years ago; Bradley was good 15 or 20 years ago; we’ve all kind of had our time in the sun,” Moats said. “I fully expect that that’s going to come back. We’re not a league that is not capable of winning in the NCAAÂ Tournament – we are [capable]. We’re just going to have to get better collectively.”
Moats believes that the conference would act quickly to replace Wichita State if they left, but says that the longer the Shockers drag this out, the harder it will be to get a new team in the fold in time for next season. Four years ago the conference added Loyola-Chicago to get a bite of the country’s third largest media market. He says basketball and geography are the biggest criteria this time around.
“When Creighton left we certainly had some of those schools that were listed, and I think some of those same schools will still be there,” Moats said. “I don’t know what those are, but I think we have to get prepared to make a decision here sooner rather than later.”
End of a 75-year-old Rivalry?
The MSU-WSU rivalry dates back to 1941-42 season, but Wichita State has used a 14-game surge to take a 41-30 lead in the overall series. Missouri State’s last win against the Shockers came in a memorable February tilt in 2011 that gave the Bears the regular season conference title.
If Wichita State does leave, it’s likely that signature win will be the last Missouri State tallies over them for quite a while.
“I don’t know necessarily we could get Wichita State to come back [out of conference],” Moats said. “I’m not sure they’d come to our place. That’s probably not what they would do. They’re in a situation where you’d have to go to them at this point.”
All the sudden, Wichita State would vault away from a problem that’s been plaguing current Valley schools for years – scheduling big enough schools to improve their NCAA Tournament resume’s and RPI standings. Illinois State head coach Dan Muller’s tweet lobbying for a power-five conference team to play his squad went viral after his Redbirds were snubbed from the NCAA Tournament this spring.
ACC BIG 10 BIG 12 SEC PAC 12 BIG EAST. It’s me again. Looking 4 home & home next year. Pls call me 4 chance 4 QUALITY road win, top 33 RPI pic.twitter.com/zYAZpR3kJn
— Dan Muller (@DanMuller) March 13, 2017
Wichita State finished 32nd in RPI this season, Illinois State was 33rd. The next highest Valley school was Southern Illinois at 145th.
“I know people want to have BCS schools here,” Moats said. “They want good games here and we want good games here. It’s just tough sometimes to make those match-ups work.”
Even if a 75-year-old rivalry fades away, Missouri State could benefit most from the power vacuum that a Wichita State departure could leave behind.
“Someone’s got to step up, and I hope it would be Missouri State that would step up to be more of a dominant figure in getting to the NCAA tournament,” Moats said.
MSU hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1999, although they’ve been infamously snubbed since then. First thing’s first. The Shockers have to make their move.
