MVC Basketball: Five teams the Valley should add

Mar 19, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Wichita State Shockers head coach Gregg Marshall reacts against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Joseph-USA TODAY Sports /

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Mar 17, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Wichita State Shockers head coach Gregg Marshall reacts against the Dayton Flyers during the first half in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

MVC basketball will have a major challenge in replacing Wichita State, so who will they add to the league?

With the departure of Wichita State, the Missouri Valley Conference is no longer a premier mid-major conference. Five years ago teams like Creighton, Northern Iowa, Indiana State, and the Shockers would battle for the top spot annually. The quality of the conference slowly declined and it is now an average college basketball conference.

Wichita State big addition to AAC hoops in 2017-18, giving league 12 members in both basketball & football https://t.co/MelMVybUOF
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) April 7, 2017

In the early to mid-2000s, the MVC was one of the premier mid-major conferences. They sent multiple teams to the Sweet 16 and had got a huge boost from Wichita State’s 2013 Final Four run. The league had great parity between programs between 2000-2013 when Creighton left the conference for the new Big East.

The conference has lost big name schools in the past and faces some challenges replacing Wichita State. The MVC has a unique problem in the sense that the last two teams to leave (WSU and Creighton) do not have football programs.

The conference needs to be aggressive in trying to add a school that can perform well in basketball and every sport in general. Loyola (IL) has improved steadily since joining the conference but was not a huge addition overall.

They have a few options that make sense geographically, and not sponsoring football gives the league plenty of options for smaller schools. Recent basketball success will have a huge factor considering the top two MVC programs of the last decade are now gone.