Wichita State Shockers Officially Moving to American Athletic Conference

It’s official! The Wichita State Shockers will be moving to the American Athletic Conference beginning in 2017-2018. This is a great move for the school and for the AAC, but now the Missouri Valley Conference has lost another big timer.

It was reported on Friday morning that the American Athletic Conference has officially voted in the Wichita State Shockers to their conference. This is great news for the Shockers, as they’ll now get to compete against tougher teams and hopefully build their resumé a little more when heading into tournament season.

It’s been rumored for awhile that the Shockers would be exiting the Missouri Valley Conference, but no one expected it to fall into place as soon as next season. That’s what’s on the agenda though for Wichita State, and hey… Good for them!

The Shockers got gypped in the NCAA Tournament this past season, earning a ten-seed. They went on to lose in the Round of 32 to the Kentucky Wildcats, but had the Shockers been seeded higher, I feel like they could have made a further push. They got a tough draw in the tournament.

This move shows that WSU was fed up with being disrespected come tournament time and now hopefully the Shockers will get the respect they deserve when it comes to March Madness.

According to ESPN, the Shockers will join the AAC in all of their sports (minus football, as the school does not have a football team) and this move now adds another legit basketball contender in the conference.

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With the likes of Cincinnati, Connecticut, and SMU, the Shockers will have their work cut out for them. They’ll no longer be playing schools like Loyola and Missouri State, they’ll be playing teams who are NCAA Tournament contenders every year. This is a smart move for both sides, as Wichita State can play tougher schools, and the AAC can add strong competition to their conference.

With this move, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any pressure there for Wichita State to add a football program. They haven’t had one since 1986, and Navy is apart of the AAC simply as a football school. Perhaps that will cancel that debate out.

Per ESPN,

"Because of Wichita State’s basketball success, the Shockers were an attractive target for the AAC. Wichita State has been to six consecutive NCAA tournaments, winning at least one game in the past five tournaments and reaching the 2013 Final Four."

There’s no argument that the Shockers have been one of the better basketball programs in college hoops over the past five years. Gregg Marshall, their head coach, was rumored to be linked to higher up programs, but decided to stand pat in Wichita.

Now with this move to a stronger conference, it’d be hard to see Marshall going anywhere any time soon. Will this move work out as well as we think it will? Only time will tell.