Time is right to leave Mid-Con

A few weeks ago, in this space, we encouraged Youngstown State University officials to join the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.
While we're not naive enough to think that opinion had any influence on the YSU brass and trustees who approved the immediate transfer from the Mid-Continent Conference on Friday, we nonetheless applaud the decision.
We won't go back over all the reasons we provided in that previous column for why making such a move was, in our opinion, necessary. But, in a nutshell, we liked the Midwestern Collegiate because of the proximity of many of the competing schools, the overall strength and the higher profile of the conference.
A surprise: Apparently, so did Youngstown State officials. What is surprising to us is that they were willing to pay the rather stiff fine, as required by the Mid-Continent Conference bylaws, for leaving without giving a two-year notice.
We believe when pundits look back, though, the decision will be looked upon as a sound one.
The Midwestern Collegiate Conference was obviously ready to expand, and Youngstown State is a good fit. This is the time to make such a move; waiting for two years might not have made the Penguins as appealing to the Midwestern Collegiate.
Our speculation is that Youngstown State officials indicated to the Midwestern Collegiate they were willing to pay the Mid-Con's fine in order to hasten the process.
Market shares: The move leaves the Mid-Con in YSU's wake with eight schools and the loss of one member with a pretty strong media base. Of the remaining Mid-Con schools, only Oral Roberts, based in Tulsa, Okla.; Chicago State; Oakland, located just outside of Detroit, and IUPUI, based in Indianapolis, are located in bigger media markets than Youngstown.
Even so, Oral Roberts is at best No. 3 behind the University of Oklahoma and Tulsa University; Chicago State can't compete for media space or time with the University of Illinois and the professional teams in its market; IUPUI takes a back seat to Indiana University, Purdue University and the Indianapolis pro teams, and Oakland must compete against the Detroit pro franchises, the University of Michigan and Michigan State.
I suppose, in an ideal world, Youngstown State could entice either Valparaiso or Oakland to join it in the Midwestern Collegiate, but I don't see either team moving, for differing reasons.
Valparaiso won't leave because it is the big fish in the little pond -- the king of Mid-Con basketball. Valpo officials played a key role in moving (and keeping) the conference basketball tournaments to Fort Wayne, Ind.
University president Alan Harre issued a statement Friday, committing Valparaiso to the Mid-Continent Conference.
Move probably blocked: The situation with Oakland is completely different. While no one there is officially saying that institution would make such a move, the fact remains that Oakland is now the eastern-most school in the Mid-Con and located almost in the middle, geographically, in the Midwestern Collegiate.
However, even if Oakland did attempt a move to the MCC, it would almost surely be blocked by Detroit-Mercy, which now has unlimited Midwestern Collegiate access to the Detroit market.
This move should energize the Youngstown State basketball programs; recruiting players from the Midwest should be a little easier, since it's easier to sell a program that plays Cleveland State instead of Southern Utah.
So bring on Cleveland State and Wright State and Detroit-Mercy and Illinois-Chicago and all the others.
Which brings us to the next problematic question: For how long and for how much can we keep John Robic?
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator.