If we go to 12 who do you want (choose 2) poll?

[mvfcfan]

IPFW???? Why not Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois?

[mvfcfan]

Oral Roberts had 14 consecutive winning seasons from 2002-2015. Yeah their last two seasons haven't been great and they are going to have a new coach and probably be rebuilding for a couple of years, but they definitely have potential to be good in the MVC and to bring the conference up. I'd much rather have a team join the conference that has had a history of winning, rather than bring in a team that finished 4th in the Horizon League their first year of being D1 and got lucky that all the good teams lost in the first round of the HL tournament.

Oral Roberts is the obvious 12th team in my opinion (with Murray State being #11). Murray State has had a winning season 34 of the past 36 seasons, so anyone not wanting them clearly isn't using their head. And before anyone claims that ORU's and Murray State's success was because they played in poor conferences just let me say that 8 of the 10 teams last year in the MVC were Summit and OVC level. None of our schools are where they should be. It's best to bring in schools with winning traditions and actual fanbases that have the potential to bring the league up.

[VUGrad1314]

That 1 top 100 win should have the asterisk of the opponent not being fully healthy. Just sayin. But yes as a speculative play I like NKU very much. Opens up Cincinnati to the MVC, gives us a hold on MM hoops in Kentucky assuming Murray State is coming along.Seem extremely committed to athletics much like Murray State. If they win the Horizon again maybe we can go ahead and jump on them. The one concern is that they're about 4 hours (a little under) from Murray, begging the question of whether these two are ideal partners. I feel like some of the financially strapped schools would find a way to say no to this. If we're serious about pushing the footprint so far East, then maybe Oakland becomes a possibility to open Detroit, but that would take Murray State out of the equation and make Milwaukee the 12th team, and right now no sane person in the MVC should want that because it's just too much wishing and hoping. Milwaukee would be great if they could just get out of their own way. I'm starting to cool on Belmont and warming a bit to ORU. UTA and SFA would be awesome but I can't see too many schools overly thrilled at the prospect of sending their teams all the way to Texas especially in non-revenue sports. but I question whether UTA would leave the Sun Belt as well but as a basketball school in a football conference, maybe they'd give it some thought especially if they had a partner in the move like SFA. I think it's much more likely we go with Murray State + somebody over any expansion to Texas. Also keep in mind that since UND is joining the MVFC we would need to find another football school or choose between Murray State and SFA. Maybe we could add Robert Morris who seems likely to join the Horizon League but with travel costs being a big reason why they're leaving the Big Sky, not sure how much they'll like playing in a league that stretches from Pennsylvania to Iowa and North Dakota to Texas.

[uniftw]

I want nothing to do with ORU

Founded by a criminal religious nut job who:
-claimed a 900' tall Jesus tells him to do things.
-Hired Carlton Pearson to be his "black son" to keep money coming in from the African American community
-Added his son, Richard, to the BOR of ORU at age 23 (though he didn't graduate college until he was about 45)
-Diverted 7 million dollars from the schools endowment to buy a home because - and this is a real quote - "The idea that religious people should be poor is nonsense". Closed the dental and law schools just a few years after that due to the school being broke
-Built a $250m medical center in 1981
-In 1987 told people that "God would call him home (kill him)" if the school didn't raise $8,000,000 in scholarships through donations to save this medical center a 900' tall jesus told him to build...the medical center was still closed after raising the $8m
-Left the university $50,000,000 in debt when he retied.
-Gave the university to his son, whom he told that if either him or his wife backslide in ther Christianity would be killed in a plane accident as 900' tall Jesus had told him

Meanwhile his son:
-Divorced his wife - while condemning divorce - because she was no longer a suitable wife due to her ambitions to be more than than arm candy later in the marriage while routinely telling her she looked "fatter with your clothes off"
- Is described as "assuming the role of a spoiled prince" once he got to work and instructed his men to only give him small tasks to make him appear powerful...creating an illusion of power
- Wouldn't work a full day - often went MIA before lunch
- Literally created classes that his children wanted to fill degree requirements rather than take the existing classes
- Raised over $9,000,000 for a new student center and then never built the student center
- Used university funding to pay for their leisure pursuits
- Oh, then there is the whole illegal involvement in political campaigns, more spending donor money on his private life, using the university jet for family trips, money for expensive family cars, tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, creating fake scholarships for family friends, and the whole using university cell phones to send text messages to, what the suit describes as, under aged males.




Maybe things have changed, or are changing. I just can't imagine MVC presidents, outside of the fact that the private schools in our conference love them some other private schools, are lining up to align with a university that has the history of ORU.

On the athletic side of things they are never settled, never happy.
They moved to D1 in 1979
They dropped to NAIA in 1989
They returned to D1 in 1991 and joined the Mid-Con (now Summit) effective 1997 - 6 years indy
They went to the Southland in 2012
The returned to the Summit in 2014
They are apparently looking to leave the Summit again?

ORU, with all those winning seasons, has just 3 all time NCAA appearances, going 1-3 and that was a 3 year run between 06-08 - which was a nice run, don't get me wrong.
Just one NIT bid
They never really dominated the Summit

Outside of that 3 year run ORU has won more than 20 games playing in a bottom 10 conference just 3 times since 2002 when Scott Sutten took over.

Their record has gotten worse each of the last 5 seasons.

Pre Scott Sutton the program was horrible. It looks like the end of the Scott Sutton era isn't going to end well.

I don't see the draw of ORU when everything that comes with them is added in.

ORU is a central US version of Liberty University. There's a reason Liberty had to petition the NCAA to let them move football FBS was an independent and bypass the rule requiring a conference invite. No one wants to associate with them. No one wants to be lumped in with the Falwell family. Liberty fantastic facilities across the board, more money than they know what to do with (legally/publicly). Yet they can't find a home. ORU and Liberty are one in the same.

[mvfcfan]

Well Oral Roberts is dead and his son Richard got the boot back in 2007. So you can rest assured knowing that the Roberts family is long gone now.

[GoldenEagle]

I want nothing to do with ORU
ORU, with all those winning seasons, has just 3 all time NCAA appearances, going 1-3 and that was a 3 year run between 06-08 - which was a nice run, don't get me wrong.
Just one NIT bid
They never really dominated the Summit

Has UNI ever made the Elite Eight? Have they ever even beat a P5 team?

[BEARZ77]

Has UNI ever made the Elite Eight? Have they ever even beat a P5 team?

I'm generally nice to visiting posters, especially those from schools who might be in consideration for membership. But honestly, bring a little something to the till, do a little research if you just don't have a clue before posting. Perhaps you remember a guard named Ali and a game against KU a few years ago, or perhaps UNC visiting UNI two years ago.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

I want nothing to do with ORU
ORU, with all those winning seasons, has just 3 all time NCAA appearances, going 1-3 and that was a 3 year run between 06-08 - which was a nice run, don't get me wrong.
Just one NIT bid
They never really dominated the Summit

Has UNI ever made the Elite Eight? Have they ever even beat a P5 team?

Northern Iowa is 2-0 against #1 ranked teams. Both wins were this decade.

[mvfcfan]

In Oral Roberts defense they've beaten two top 10 teams themselves within the past 10 years (#3 Kansas in 2006-07 season, #8 Xavier in 2011-12 season). Even as bad as they were last season they almost beat another top 10 team in Creighton where they only lost by 1.

They might not be as sexy of an add as Murray State and Valparaiso, but when you compare their budget, tournament appearances, arena, and other factors they fit in with the rest of the Valley quite well.

[uniftw]

I want nothing to do with ORU
ORU, with all those winning seasons, has just 3 all time NCAA appearances, going 1-3 and that was a 3 year run between 06-08 - which was a nice run, don't get me wrong.
Just one NIT bid
They never really dominated the Summit

Has UNI ever made the Elite Eight? Have they ever even beat a P5 team?

UM...

Since the last time ORU made the tournament.

More NCAA tournaments as ORU has all time
Multiple different seasons with top 25 rankings
A top 10 ranking
Few different Sports Illustrated covers/articles
All American
Sweet 16
Made it out of the first round of the NCAA tournament every NCAA tournament we've been in
20 All MVC players
2 POY winners
Top 10% APR honors 5 times
Winning record vs Iowa State (actually we are something like 9-6 in the last 15 vs Iowa State. ISU was top 5 in one of them and top 20 in another)
Winning record vs Iowa - i think 1 might have been a top 25 win
P5 wins over
#1 Kansas
#1 North Carolina
Texas - ranked in the top 25
Auburn
Boston College
TCU
Indiana - ranked
Virginia Tech
Northwestern
Arizona State
Oklahoma

Oh, throw in a handful of wins over Big East teams like Providence, DePaul, Marquette, Creighton (MVC at the time). A winning record vs the MWC conference over teams like UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming. More than a few wins vs Wichita State. A couple wins over Shaka Smart's VCU teams. A couple wins over Brad Underwoods SFA teams. Wins over ODU and George Mason at their primes. Quite a few of those were over ranked teams.

Congrats on making the Elite 8 in 1974. You can go sit over by Drake when they talk about how good it used to be 4 or 5 decades ago. Remember that S16 win vs Louisville in 1974? Yeah, that was the last time you won an NCAA tournament game.

I'm not real concerned about what an ORU fan thinks about UNI. Something about a lion and a sheep....