Another Expansion Announcement?

Big D's case that no further expansion likely this year is persuasive.

We'll probably want a 2014-15 prediction thread soon enough, but real quick Green Bay and CSU should both be real good next year - even with Brown gone I don't see a fall-off from Green Bay and I think CSU should be better, despite the loss of the under-appreciated Jon Harris. The biggest question marks may be Detroit, Valpo, and WSU. Valpo has a lot of freshmen last year who are now sophs and we'll have to see how good they are. Twenty wins isn't at all out of the question - the question is, will they be about like this year, or take major strides forward? Detroit loses Bruinsma but not much else, and has a boatload of new talent - 2 freshmen Michigan 1st team All-State forwards, the Colorado transfer Jenkins, a redshirt freshman (Paris Bass) who was a super hot recruit last summer, a 6-11 transfer from Penn State who sat out last season, and a solid JC guard - but will they live up to expectations? Wright State loses a lot but had what I think is a very good recruiting class, best in the league (Big D? Agree? Disagree?). If those three teams play well, the league will be good, although it may be tougher to get a second bid since the league champ will probably take 4 or more losses in conference play.

OU has some good players and will be competitive but if they couldn't do it with Mondy and Bader they probably can't do it without Mondy & Bader. I look for them to be about the same because I think Kampe will figure out how to use Hooper, who won't be Bader but will be a reasonable facsimile, they've got the big center Petros, Kahlil Felder will emerge as a star, and McCune or Hill should play a bit more like the high-major recruit each once was. YSU will struggle, though Hain is a good player. I think Milwaukee is being overrated in some of the early predictions I've seen and will fall back. For you Chuck, UIC will probably be picked to finish last. The last two years the team picked to finish last was in contention well into the season, made the conference tournament final (winning it this year), and went on to post-season play. So have heart. I think Odiase is a real good recruit but unlikely to have huge impact as a freshman. Brown has to be consistent and Birt needs to take a big step forward, along with someone else like McGuire.

I'd say the Horizon is about the same next year in overall talent. Some of the early scheduling looks pretty tough, which can actually hit the league's RPI if our teams don't win those games. I'd agree with Big D's 12-14 ranking.