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Date Posted: 14:48:29 10/15/05 Sat
Author: Neckfansince71
Subject: Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley?
In reply to: IPFW 's message, "Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley?" on 00:25:08 10/15/05 Sat

Let me see? If Jacksonville State is a long way from EIU, how far is it from WIU? The only Valley I can see WIU joining would be the Missouri Valley Conference. Unfortunately, a couple of our sister schools in the state have not been all that happy with that scenario, especially since Macomb is still out in the middle of.......and airport service would either be Moline or Peoria. As long as Oral Roberts and Valpo and UMKC remain in them MidCon things look good and improving.

jc

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[> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- Neckfansince71, 14:49:47 10/15/05 Sat

PS. EIU was in the Midcon and Gateway! Don't think they are coming back!

jc

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[> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- wiuato, 18:26:32 10/15/05 Sat

EIU got out of the Gateway as fast as they could. They could not compete anymore with the level of play so they headed EAST to a weaker conference. Now, that is football, the OVC is slightly better overall in Basketball. EIU for the record wants nothing more to do with WIU.

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[> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- IPFW, 20:57:56 10/15/05 Sat

Thanks. I didn't realize EIU's conference history.

So is this the athletics heirarchy/fan support of downstate/directional Illinois schools:

N. Illinois > S. Illinois > Ill. St > W Ill > E Ill

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[> [> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- Neckfansince71, 07:35:10 10/16/05 Sun

Not quite sure what you are looking for?

jc

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[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- IPFW, 13:02:46 10/16/05 Sun

Rephrasing the question, on a scale of 0-100, where 100 represents the fan interest in the Illini, what would be the fan interest in outstate Illinois for each of these schools? Correct these numbers if it is way off base. Not trying to knock anyone, just trying to get a perspective.

Illinois 100
N Illinois 20
S Illinois 12
Illinois St 8
W Illinois 4
E Illinois 2

Also, what would it take for W Illinois to get more recognition or in a higher conference? i.e. More enrollment, better facilities, winning tradition in basketball, or for S ILL to leave the Mo Valley for the MAC.

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[> [> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- wiuato, 07:04:23 10/17/05 Mon

First off you have to be specific in which sports you may be refering to. Obviously in Basketball Illinois would rank very high in the fan support with SIU , ISU and NIU next in line. WIU and EIU would round out the bottom.

In football you have a different scenario which would rank like this: Illinois, NIU, WIU, SIU, ISU, EIU.

And you mentioning SIU going to the MAC? Will not happen, too far south and besides the MVC is better for Basketball and other high profile sports. SIU would not move to the MAC for football either.

WIU if the case comes up again needs to look for another conference and the logical choice would be the MVC seeing that the MVC oversees the GFC. But my guess is there will be some resistance from certain schools because of the recruiting battles for that conference for one. You already have SIU, Bradley and ISU battling for in-state recruits and adding WIU would cause even more friction. WIU also has geographic recruiting rivalries with UNI and Missouri State so again there is another potential problem. I think the MVC overall would prefer another school in the molds of Evansville, Drake and Creighton over WIU but the only sensible selection would be WIU at this point if it were to happen.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- VU75, 08:31:33 10/22/05 Sat

If the MVC expands their first choive will be UIC. The Chicago TV market and the huge MVC alumni base are the big draw. A few years ago during the big expansion boom MVC officals toured UIC's facilities.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Eastern Illinois - happy in the Ohio Valley? -- wiuato, 07:33:35 10/26/05 Wed

Maybe, but UIC competes for press with Northwestern, DePaul, Illinois and even Loyola so the bigger market in Chicago is not really any more of an advantage for UIC. If the MVC is going to move North, a school like Detroit or Youngstown. YSU would then be afilliated with the MVC in all sports including football(GFC). Another possibility for a school where travel is a bit long is WKU who would be in the same boat as YSU if they joined. But who knows?

The logical choice to join would be WIU but the MVC relys heavily on Mens Basketball and WIU has been down for a while but they would I am sure love to have the Womens programs and the other mens sports because they are up par or above the others as a whole. But again, the MVC is a Mens basketball focused conference and if they can get a school who has had some success and fan base they will sacrifice the other areas.

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