Is Missouri Valley Conference the KC Roos’ next league? The two sides are talking ...
The University of Missouri-Kansas City is one of three schools under consideration to join the Missouri Valley Conference, a university source confirmed to The Star.
The Kansas City Roos, along with Murray State and the University of Texas-Arlington, are being considered. It’s possible all three schools will land an invitation.
CBSSports.com first reported the story.
The Roos currently are competing in The Summit League for a second time. They were members of The Summit from 1994-2013 before joining the Western Athletic Conference for seven years. They returned to the Summit last season.
The timetable for a potential move is unclear.
The news comes after Loyola Chicago announced it was leaving the Valley for the Atlantic-10 in 2022.
What would Kansas City bring to the Valley? The Kansas City market and its college basketball heritage. What’s known today as the Missouri Valley was founded in 1907 in Kansas City. Kansas and Missouri were among its charter members. Those schools have moved on, and the league has since been home to other schools like Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Wichita State, Louisville and Memphis State.
The Valley was college men’s basketball’s 11th-ranked conference last season. It’s had a Final Four team as recently as 2018, when Loyola, fueled by Kansas City high school products Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson, made it to the national semifinals.
Current members besides Loyola include Missouri State, Bradley, Drake, Evansville, Indiana State, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Valparaiso.
The Roos fit in the Valley’s footprint. The league would lose the geographical area around UT-Arlington but welcome the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Murray State is a longtime mid-major powerhouse.