Jackson, MVC 'comfortable' with 11 teams
MBB: Missouri State is officially leaving the Missouri Valley Conference on June 30th
Change is nothing new for the Missouri Valley Conference. In the last dozen years, three schools have left the Valley. Creighton went to the Big East in 2013; Wichita State went to the American Athletic Conference in 2017; and Loyola-Chicago left for the Atlantic 10 in 2022. Missouri State’s final day in the Missouri Valley will be June 30th before they depart for Conference USA.
It’s been nearly a year to the day since Missouri State accepted their invitation to join their new conference home. After the news broke last spring, the immediate questions turned to whether the Missouri Valley Conference would look to replace Missouri State. At the time Valley Commissioner Jeff Jackson said he was “content” with 11 schools. Fast forward a year, and 11 appears to be the number the conference will have for the time being.
“The mindset of the board has not changed on this topic,” Jackson said. “When I first took over replacing (former commissioner) Doug Elgin, the conference was at ten schools. Then Loyola departed, and we quickly ended up at 12. Dropping back to 11 isn't really uncomfortable. As a matter of fact, it's still above where we were three years ago. I think the fact that we're geographically sensible, I think the fact that we have good relationships in our boardroom, that we're having some success with our student-athlete experience and obviously on the national stage, I think our board is very comfortable with the composition of the conference. Certainly, we keep our head on a swivel and if something was to come forward that our board would feel good about, in terms of thinking this would be an opportunity to enhance our student-athlete experience and some promotional and branding opportunities for the conference, I know they would take that under advisement — but that conversation is not being held right now.”
The last time a school left the Missouri Valley Conference and was not immediately replaced was back in 1996. At the time, the Valley had 11 schools, but when Tulsa left for the Western Athletic Conference, the Valley stayed put with ten in the conference.
When Creighton left in 2013, the Missouri Valley replaced them with Loyola-Chicago.
When Wichita State left in 2017, the school was replaced by Valparaiso.
In 2022, when Loyola departed the Missouri Valley, the conference added Murray State, Belmont and UIC to provide the conference with 12 teams for the first time in its history.