And to think, they just left the lowly Horizon league back in 2013, one year after Butler split.
I watched many a WSU-Loyola game in my day.
Creighton was actually in the Missouri Valley. Through the 80's and 90's the MAC, MVC, and Horizon (Midwest Colligate at the time) were pretty equal leagues. There are usually about 6 high major leagues and maybe about 3 that people sometimes argue are borderline major (A10, MWC, American right now). These three, along with the WCC, have occupied the space of the best true mid-majors for most of that time since then. In fact, the Horizon was probably slightly better back then as it still had the likes of Xavier, St. Louis, and Butler and a few others. The MVC had a resurgence of sorts in the 2000s as they were still able to get a lot of at-large bids while other true mid-majors started to almost always fail in doing so. The MAC was probably the deepest of the three but the MVC was the best for a while
The Horizon had already become diminished and lost Loyola and Valpo, their last real quality programs, to the MVC as a replacement after Creighton and Wichita St. left in 2013. Now, the Horizon is basically a low-major league and has added programs directly out of D2. It is likely to be worse than CUSA, Sunbelt and even the Colonial, Ivy and Southern most years. The MVC got two teams in the NCAA this year but it has become pretty rare for them as well. The MAC is deeper most years as there are not usually very many truly bad teams in the MAC. It has rated better than the MVC several times since the last movement in 2013. That was especially true in 2018/19 when the MAC was markedly better and better than conferences like the MWC and maybe the A10. The MVC has probably been slightly better than the MAC on average and is particularly so this year with Drake and Loyola in the NCAA while the relative depth strength of the MAC is not even there this year as the four "directionals" were lousy and would have been in the lower division of most conferences in the country.
Last Edited: 3/22/2021 11:33:19 AM by Victory