PEORIA — Missouri State will soon start its basketball farewell tour in the Missouri Valley Conference as it exits next spring at the end of the 2024-25 season to join Conference USA.
What should the Valley do next? Stay at 11 teams? Go back to 12? Bring in several teams and dramatically raise its numbers with an eye on the day when the music stops in the conference re-alignment boom and someone gets left without a chair?
From Valley commissioner Jeff Jackson to athletic directors and head coaches with prominent teams like Bradley University, Belmont and Northern Iowa, opinions vary.
MVC candidates: Missouri State is gone. 11 schools that could replace them in the Missouri Valley Conference
“We wish Missouri State the best, they’ve been a great partner of the Missouri Valley Conference,” Valley commissioner Jeff Jackson said. “(But) … I don’t think we feel any need to fill the spot. I don’t think between myself and my board room — the presidents and chancellors who make the decisions on who we bring into the Valley — I don’t think we feel the need to do anything or change anything in our approach to how we look at membership realignment.”
Jackson went on to say if the right fit comes along and can “enhance the overall value” of the Valley, the league would certainly take a look — but they have not changed their approach. Valley basketball sits at 12 teams headed into the 2024-25 season and will drop to 11 after Missouri State’s departure.
“I don’t think even number, odd number, matter. It’s math,” Jackson said. “In most of our sports, not all of our institutions participate.
“We have not had any serious conversations with anyone about expansion. None.”
One thing was clear in talking to those in the league office, coaches at the helm or athletic directors overseeing programs: The Valley’s present focus is more targeted toward getting a second team in the NCAA Tournament via an at-large bid. For the first time, the league this offseason put into play a scheduling directive requiring all its programs to book at least four games with projected Quad 1 or Quad 2 teams in its nonconference schedule.
What Bradley thinks about the Valley’s future
Bradley Braves head coach Brian Wardle holds up a piece of net for the crowd after cutting it down in celebration of winning the MVC championship with a 73-61 defeat of Drake on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 at Carver Arena.
Regardless of how many teams comprise the Valley lineup, the league is chasing that second bid with quality, rather than quantity, as a priority.
“I want basketball in the Missouri Valley Conference to be as competitive as it can be,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. “We have a great commissioner, great coaches. I don’t know what will happen. Maybe we’ll decide to stay at 11. But if we add, we need a well-resourced program that cares about basketball, or it won’t win in our league. I’m blessed to have an athletic director and administration that is committed to basketball at Bradley and helps us succeed.”
More: Bradley basketball has a 2024-25 nonconference schedule. Here’s every team BU plays
That athletic director, Chris Reynolds, has a firm vision of the game’s big picture after serving as chairman of the prestigious NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee in 2022-23.
“I’m really big on controlling the controllables,” Reynolds said. “Do everything I can to put Bradley athletics in the best possible position to move forward. In the bigger picture, unless a team is going to add value to our league, then should you add a team just for the sake of replacing Missouri State … ?”
The view from rival Valley sidelines
Longtime Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson, a five-time Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year.
Belmont joined the Valley for the 2022-23 season. In its first season, it finished tied for third in the MVC at 21-11 (14-6 in conference) and with a NET ranking at 118. Last season, the Bruins tied for fourth in the MVC at 20-13 overall (12-8 in conference) and with a NET ranking at 117.
“My opinion doesn’t matter when you talk about expansion or not expansion,” Belmont coach Casey Alexander said, laughing. “I’m glad we have great leadership that will make those decisions. I’m fine with it where it is, I like being able to play 20 games and being a full round-robin.
“I don’t understand anything about the financials involved or the bigger picture landscape. I try not to worry about it … let the Jeff Jackson’s of the world and the university presidents make those big-boy decisions.”
On what led Belmont to choose the Valley two years ago — a criteria teams in other conferences are likely using now to perhaps make the same decision while evaluating the Valley — Alexander said:
“It was the total commitment to basketball across the board that was a great fit for us. Not to say the teams that were in the OVC weren’t committed. But there’s a different level of resources, a different level of historic success that you see in the Valley. It was great for Belmont to be attached to that brand.”
The dean of the Valley head coaches, Ben Jacobson, looked at the subject, too. The five-time MVC Coach of the Year and the league’s all-time winningest coach in conference games has had a busy summer rebuilding his team after multiple hits from the transfer portal.
MVC basketball: Which Missouri Valley players used the NCAA transfer portal? Here’s the list
“To some extent, all of us are thinking about it (the number of teams in the league),” Jacobson said. “One of the things I’ve learned over the last three, four, five years is, those dominoes are going to fall when they fall. One of the tremendous positives about our league is the leadership. For us as coaches, we’ve got thoughts. But I trust our leadership. I trust they are tracking it and are going to make the best decisions to move our league forward.”
Jacobson re-iterated the Valley’s bigger focus on pursuing a second NCAA Tournament bid and how the MVC team lineup could impact it.
“And really in men’s basketball, what do we do to best position ourselves to get that second bid, that at-large bid?” he said. “To get more teams in the NCAA Tournament. Obviously conference re-alignment, if you go back to 12, stay at 11, drop down to 10, that obviously has an impact on where we want to get to when it’s all said and done from a big-picture standpoint.”
Ultimately, for Jacobson, it comes down to getting more teams from the Valley into March Madness — no matter the number of teams in the league.
“For me, personally, I don’t have an answer whether 11 is best, going back to 12 is best or (even) dropping down to 10,” Jacobson said. “For me, it’s (about) let’s make a decision that is going to best position our league to get some more teams into the NCAA Tournament.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or [email protected]. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball coaches, from left, Ben Jacobson of Northern Iowa, Casey Alexander of Belmont and Brian Wardle of Bradley.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: NCAA basketball: Analysis Missouri Valley Conference alignment
