Conferences changes

[UWMandSDSU]

Re: More Conferences changes today

The UWM guy is a hack. He needs to do more homework

Agree, he had SDSU going to its first big dance this year. I told him, no this was our second year. I also informed him their was no way USD overshadowed SDSU in branding capabilities.

[jack power]

Re: More Conferences changes today

The UWM guy is a hack. He needs to do more homework

Yeah,i stopped reading after the "Brand" section.

[LakeJack]

Re: More Conferences changes today

Yeah,i stopped reading after the "Brand" section.

How about no commercial air service . . . what a moron. The Sioux Falls Airport is 45 min. from campus. According to Mapquest it takes almost 30 min. to get from the Milwaukee Airport to UW-Milwaukee's campus.

[OldHare]

Re: More Conferences changes today

At the risk of making a mistake, I still have the notion that the Summit can be a grown up conference should the right teams be put into the mix. What are the right teams? Hopefully the people being paid to make those decisions end up in the same room. It is not a big reach in assuming that there will be many teams shuffled about in the next 2 years. It would be great if the real time info was available to everyone as the process moves forward. However, it is normal that the announcements are made only at the end rather than in the blogs and columns like the fellow from Wisconsin. My optimism is looking forward to another addition similar to Denver. Of course, I might be wrong like I was when I thought the move from DII to DI was not a good move for SDSU.

[2002jack]

Re: More Conferences changes today

How about no commercial air service . . . what a moron. The Sioux Falls Airport is 45 min. from campus. According to Mapquest it takes almost 30 min. to get from the Milwaukee Airport to UW-Milwaukee's campus.

Yes a very weak argument. I used work for Daktronics and travelled to the east coast for five years. I would say 2/3 (if not more) of the universities I worked with were over 45 minutes from a commercial airport.

[filbert]

Re: More Conferences changes today

As another data point: according to Google Maps, it is 53 miles and 53 minutes from Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS to the Kansas City airport, the nearest airport to the University of Kansas with commercial airline service. Iit is almost EXACTLY as far from Allen Fieldhouse to MCI as it is from Frost Arena to the Sioux Falls airport (54 miles and 53 minutes for SDSU).

Nobody worries about the University of Kansas being inaccessible.

[joeboo22]

Re: More Conferences changes today

The guy sounds like a moron but I think airport has more to do with it then people think, when SDSU flies in and out of Omaha and Minneapolis as much or more then it does Sioux Falls it probably doesn't help the notion that the airport is only 45 minutes.

As for the league, I still think making the Summit stronger is the best play for XDSU's especially SDSU, not going to be able to get the conference tournament and be a top 3 program within 5 years of joining most leagues. If a Northern Colorado, North Dakota and Arkansas-Little Rock can be added, and I think its quite possible they will be members by 2015, I think bolting for a conference like the Horizon wouldn't be the greatest move. Now money (Butler shares), can change that, and I'm not sure how those are divided up and if they would award those to new members or if they travel with old members.

My guess is they will target Robbert Morris, as they will want to keep Youngstown St. happy, as many think they will look to a more geographical sensible conference where they could take their football team, with some of the FCS programs out east going FBS they have options.

[FargoBison]

Re: More Conferences changes today

I think the Horizon would be a great opportunity but I have my doubts they will go this far west. The scary thing is I have no idea what the Horizon will do, they could add four and decimate the Summit or add just Northern Kentucky which would have no impact on the Summit.

[West-River_Jack]

Re: More Conferences changes today

I suspect that a couple more dominoes have to fall before this one will have much effect on us.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...c-association/

[joeboo22]

Re: More Conferences changes today

I suspect that a couple more dominoes have to fall before this one will have much effect on us.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...c-association/

Doesn't sound as if Youngstown will join the CAA, I figured they would bolt to the CAA, travel would be easier and I figured the CAA would look at them as a good football school, and be interested.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: More Conferences changes today

Blog from a UWM fan that scores who would make the best fit for the Horizon League. http://www.brewcityball.com/forums/c...horizon-league

That's a pretty flimsy assessment. The author obviously didn't do much homework. The real question is who from the western half of the Summit would want to join the Horizon. The answer: Mostly likely no one. There's nothing special about that league.

[cokolman]

Re: More Conferences changes today

If one reads how the Oakland move went down its clear that no other teams from the Summit are of interest. Oakland was to move last year, when Butler made its last minute move to the A10, but couldn't get schedules aligned quick enough. So both sides put it on hold... In the year down time the Horizon admits it opened up the selection process again, without schedule pressure, and came back to where they began. I'm certain they had enough information to move on two schools if they desired, but didn't... Summit is unlikely to see Horizon poaching another school in the foreseeable future. As for CAA they seem to be going to a southern strategy, and like the A10 has little interest in the midwest. Although one wonders if the Ohio Valley is going to see an impact when the SoCon rebuilds... Would Youngstown move to Ohio Valley in all sports? Probably not... But they would likely compete better than in the Horizon, and would have an easier path to getting a AQ in football.

[zooropa]

Re: More Conferences changes today

If one reads how the Oakland move went down its clear that no other teams from the Summit are of interest. Oakland was to move last year, when Butler made its last minute move to the A10, but couldn't get schedules aligned quick enough. So both sides put it on hold... In the year down time the Horizon admits it opened up the selection process again, without schedule pressure, and came back to where they began. I'm certain they had enough information to move on two schools if they desired, but didn't... Summit is unlikely to see Horizon poaching another school in the foreseeable future. As for CAA they seem to be going to a southern strategy, and like the A10 has little interest in the midwest. Although one wonders if the Ohio Valley is going to see an impact when the SoCon rebuilds... Would Youngstown move to Ohio Valley in all sports? Probably not... But they would likely compete better than in the Horizon, and would have an easier path to getting a AQ in football.

I wonder what conference is going to pick up the University of New Orleans.

Lindenwood is an interesting possibility; they fund their athletic programs pretty aggressively, but it would be several years before they could move up to D1. And I look at them and wonder if they'd be a good long-term fit, or if they'd be a bit ORU-ish, and just not see themselves as well fitted to a conference full of public institutions in the north.

I'm also curious whether the MnSCU (basically, the former Minnesota 'teacher's colleges' in Mankato, St. Cloud, Winona, Marshall, etc.) are independent enough from the U of M administration to send at least one of their members to D-1 (Mankato, IMO, is the best bet: It's involved in a pretty aggressive campaign right now to raise its stature as an alternative to the UofM Twin Cities campus).

As little as I'd like to see another D-1 school within this region, it may be necessary to provide a USD/UND/NDSU/SDSU/UNO/?? six member core that would be a stable set of peers.

[JackJD]

Re: More Conferences changes today

I'm also curious whether the MnSCU (basically, the former Minnesota 'teacher's colleges' in Mankato, St. Cloud, Winona, Marshall, etc.) are independent enough from the U of M administration to send at least one of their members to D-1 (Mankato, IMO, is the best bet: It's involved in a pretty aggressive campaign right now to raise its stature as an alternative to the UofM Twin Cities campus).

I've had the same question. I took a look at Wikipedia -- there's an entry on the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system which is technically separate from the University of Minnesota system. But, one has to wonder if there's much interest in among the U of MN system, MNSCU systems and the legislature, to permit another school to move up. In a way, the University (Minneapolis/St. Paul; Duluth; Crookston; Morris & Rochester) must feel it is competing with the MNSCU for dollars from the State.

For location, having Mankato in the Summit League would be nice.

From the Wikipedia page:
The law creating the Minnesota State system was passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 1991 and went into effect July 1, 1995. The law merged the state's community colleges, technical colleges and state universities into one system. Instead of three separate governing boards and three chancellors, there is now one board and one chancellor for the entire system.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system has 31 institutions on 54 campuses in 47 communities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneso...rsities_System

[cokolman]

Re: More Conferences changes today

U New Orleans is on its way to the Southland... Lindenwood would have a fellow private school member in Denver, which of similar size and also religiously affiliated. They are transitioning from NAIA, but should be made a full D-II member this summer. So they could be apply for D-1 transition as early as next year.

I agree that Mankato should be high on the Summit’s invitee list. If so I don’t think that U Minnesota will have much influence on a Minnesota State system school moving up. There could be some behind the scene efforts, but the two systems are independent enough to not make much difference. And as you said there is competition among schools, and the Minnesota State system could use a headliner. As such I think the biggest external problem with Mankato moving up will be an internal struggle with St. Could. This could be a wedded pair… Difficult one with the scholarship costs related to football.