NCAA Basketball: 5 ideal conference realignment scenarios to consider
By Tim Edmonds
NCAA Basketball realignment scenario – Loyola-Chicago to the AAC
Currently in the midst of their most successful three year period in program history, the Ramblers have made their way onto the radar of other more prominent athletic conferences after their run to the Final Four in 2018.
Playing their games in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) — a league they only just joined in 2013 — the Ramblers make plenty of sense as an addition to more competitive conferences across the country, and most notably the American Athletic Conference (AAC).
Similar to the move their former MVC rivals Wichita State University made in 2017, the move would be beneficial for Loyola to continue their ascent as a program as well as the league to add another competitive team to a mix that already includes Houston, Cincinnati, and Tulsa.
Loyola’s head coach Porter Moser has been an outspoken critic of the difficulty for mid-majors to get to The Big Dance, and a move to the AAC would greatly help his team’s chances of building the resume good enough for an at-large bid going forward.
Concerns over the increase in the difficulty of the conference are well justified, but given the Ramblers location in a recruiting hotspot like Chicago, and Moser’s commitment to staying at Loyola despite offers from elsewhere, the Ramblers could become competitive within a season or two.
With Loyola’s continued rise as a national program and its ability to slide into the conference and provide it a Midwest presence it currently lacks, this move makes more than enough sense going forward.