With Donovan Clay moving from Valpo to Missouri State, the topic of MVC to MVC transfers has come up. The biggest one in my time was massive: Doug McDermott being released by Northern Iowa to go to Creighton. But that happened due to what I call the Dana Altman Butterfly Effect.

The Dana Altman Butterfly Effect set the course of the MVC in the 2010s. He leaves for Oregon, Greg McDermott replaces him at CU, then-ISU coach Kevin McKenna coveted the CU job at his alma mater, didn’t get it, and leaves to join Altman’s staff, leading to the Greg Lansing here.

Doug McDermott, then signed to Northern Iowa, is released by Ben Jacobson from his LOI to be able to play for his Dad at Creighton. Doug McDermott is wildly successful beyond anyone’s expectation. His period of excellence coincides with conference realignment.

The Big East was looking for credible, basketball-playing institutions that widened their TV footprint. CU had been good since the late 90s, but McDermott was a national talent that made them more attractive than they would have been. (There were other factors, but he was big.)

Creighton bolts for the Big East. Loyola joins. Derided at the time, but watch this space. Meanwhile, Gregg Marshall is building a machine in Wichita, and now their main perennial MVC rival, Creighton, is gone.

That has the double effect of lesser competition in the league for WSU and a stronger desire/jealousy among WSU’s supporters to move on to their own new pasture. Sure enough, CU’s withdrawal coincides with the zenith of the Marshall era with Baker and VanVleet dominant.

WSU continues to dominate, leading to the notion the other MVC schools can’t compete (though UNI & Illinois State gave it a good go) unless they invest more money in their programs. Some do, including Loyola, who predictably struggled in its early years in the MVC.

Ultimately, WSU gets its ticket out to the American Athletic Conference. That, of course, directly leads to Valpo’s addition. However, that investment some programs made begin to bear fruit, especially at Porter Moser’s Loyola. The Ramblers make a surprise Final Four run in 2018.

Suddenly, Loyola is the MVC standard bearer, proven again by a Sweet 16 run in 2021. It is recruiting players it never would have had access to in the Horizon or its early MVC years. Other programs who invested, including Drake, also start to see the benefits.

The fates of a lot of people and a lot of MVC programs, past and present, can draw a direct line to the Dana Altman Butterfly Effect. Could some of these things happened anyway? Probably, but not in the same way. Who knows if, say, Porter Moser is coaching at Oklahoma without it?