Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone delivered his State of the League Address prior to the start of Saturday night’s league semifinal games. LeCrone commended Valparaiso University Athletic Director Mark LaBarbera and his staff for the job it has done hosting the Horizon League Tournament for the second consecutive year.
“The Valpo people have been incredible,” LeCrone said. “I’m just very pleased with the way the building looks. Mark’s staff has done a great job.”
LeCrone said even though the Athletics-Recreation Center is Valparaiso’s home court, the atmosphere has the right feel for a tournament venue.
The Horizon League is finishing up a trying season after the Butler Bulldogs bolted to the Atlantic 10 last summer.
“I thought our season was really interesting this year,” LeCrone said. “We had to completely redo our schedule. Lots of teams play difficult schedules.”
Since the Bulldogs’ departure, expansion has been the burning question for the Horizon League, which now stands at nine teams.
“I’m seeing this (2013-2014) as another transitional year,” LeCrone said. “There’s going to be a lot of movement, especially in the Midwest. I think there’s going to be a lot of change between now and the Final Four, or now and summertime.”
The Horizon League now has only five baseball schools, meaning it could risk losing its automatic NCAA qualifying bid after next season. However, LeCrone has assured the schools that losing the automatic qualifiers is not an option.
“Our baseball A.Q. is intact this year and next,” he said. “In ’14-’15 our five baseball teams are going to have automatic access to the NCAA Tournament. That’s just all there is to it.”
LeCrone believes that it would be naïve to think that other conferences have not contacted his schools about leaving the Horizon. However, he said the probability of the nine schools staying intact is “very, very high.”
“Everybody’s thinking about membership,” he said. “Everybody’s got lust. Everybody’s talking to everybody.”
Butler’s exit was not the “line in the sand” that suddenly created interest among outside schools in joining the league. He has been fielding phone calls from interested schools since well before last July. The league is currently involved in a search led by presidents from Cleveland State, Milwaukee and Detroit.
“We want it to be thoughtful and we want it to be strategic,” LaCrone said. “It’s the landscape right now. You just have to stay alert.”