Wichita State Basketball: How the Shockers' move to AAC impacts program?

The AAC basketball league is expected to add Wichita State basketball to their league on Friday.

On Friday afternoon, the landscape of both the American Athletic Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference is about to change as Wichita State is expected to be added as the 12th member of the AAC.

The league is projected to add the Shockers into the mix as soon as the 2017-18 season.

Wichita State is expected to accept an invitation to join the AAC today, a source told @CBSSports.
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) April 7, 2017

This move has a significant impact on multiple parties.

First, for Wichita State, the Shockers will have more opportunities to build their resume within league play. The AAC is obviously not a Power 5 league and had a down year in 2016-17, but matching up against Cincinnati, SMU, UConn, and Houston, amongst others, will only improve their RPI, SOS and computer numbers, in general, moving forward.

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The Shockers were drastically under-seeded in the NCAA tournament this past season (they were given a 10-seed and had to play Dayton in the first round before facing off against Kentucky in the second round) despite winning 30 games, including just a single loss in MVC play. While the jump to the AAC doesn’t guarantee that WSU will receive more respect from the NCAA Selection Committee, this does give them more national relevancy, instead of playing “tune-ups” during league play.

And don’t forget about the impact this could have on Gregg Marshall. Marshall is one of the more elite mid-major coaches in the country. Every offseason there are multiple teams that are trying to poach Marshall, offering him loads of money to lead a high major program. While it’s inevitable that Marshall will move onto greener pastures, this puts Wichita State in a position to keep their head coach longer than expected.

For the AAC, this provides them balance within their conference schedule. They now have 12 basketball schools in the league, and adding an emerging brand like Wichita State won’t hurt their reputation on a national scale. Add in the fact that teams at the top of the conference will get a chance to play a top-10 program next season (and a team that should be a consistent contender as long as Marshall is the head coach), and this is a win-win for a conference that had only two teams in the NCAA tournament this past season.

As for the Missouri Valley Conference, this is a brutal loss. There’s no other way to put it. Four years ago, the Creighton Bluejays departed for the Big East and now, they are losing their flagship program to the AAC. The Missouri Valley still has Northern Iowa and Illinois State, but the league is only trending downwards without the Shockers.

Next: Early preseason top 25 for the 2017-18 season

Whether or not this move sparks a “mini-realignment” throughout college basketball will be interesting, but for now, it’s definitely a win for the Shockers, the AAC and Marshall. Meanwhile, the MVC will have to somehow recover from what could be a devastating day for the conference.

Wichita State Basketball: How the Shockers’ move to AAC impacts program?

By Carmine Carcieri | Apr 7, 2017

The AAC basketball league is expected to add Wichita State basketball to their league on Friday.

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