ORU talking with Southland

[zooropa]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

I agree with some of that, but you Are projecting a lot of things on a large group of people based on one thing that hasn't happened.And reducing travel costs is a good thing that I think all schools look to do.

- it doesn't have to be a large group of people, just an influential group of people who don't like the way that the power has shifted away from Tulsa.

- I think it's a near certainty. Southland has said that ORU is in if they want, and ORU has invited them to campus to meet. When has that not led to an accepted invitation?

- this is a pretty significant and irreversible way to reduce travel costs.

[HoboJack]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

As for basketball championships being in Sioux Falls vs Tulsa (or anywhere else for that matter), I wonder who would vote with ORU for a change of venue. In mens basketball SDSU hasn't proven to anyone that they can turn the home-court advantage into a tournament tittle - twice lost in semi-finals.

SDSU-USD Obviously are best served by having the tournament in Sioux Falls
NDSU-UNO All would like a local option to host, but would view SF as a pretty good alternative
IPFW-IUPUI-UMKC-Oakland-WIU - Unlikely to find a local option to put in a bid - why would they want to give a consistantly strong ORU program, the competitive advantage they once had. IF one or more of the Dakota Schools start to consistantly win the title (especially if they finished outside the top 2 in regular season play), I could see them changing, but until then the money & attendance trump any risk of competitive advantage they might be giving up.

ON the women's basketball side, looking at attendance #'s for most of the schools, I don't think anyone outside of ORU really cares where this is played.

So if there is 4 votes for Sioux Falls (SDSU-USD-NDSU-UNO). Is there any way that ORU can convince the other 5 to vote with them, unless the Tulsa bid was not just 'competitive', but actually much better.

[zooropa]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

Air Force to the MVC?

That just sounds like an odd marriage, I'm not buying it.

http://sdsufans.com/board/showthread...-to-the-Valley

Apparently prestige trumps geography.
http://t.co/DeIXUCQu

[Grizzled_Jack]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

Musical chairs insanity.

[NebraskaJack]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

I hope as a University we are constantly keeping our eyes open on the ever shifting conference landscape. We all know this will have a trickle down effect. ORU leaving for the Southland would be the first blow. I would think that Oakland is keeping their eyes open and would look to move if the opportunity opens up. They would take a Horizon league bid in a heartbeat and actually would be a pretty good fit. Our league already gets little to no respect around the nation, eliminating 2 of the stronger programs wouldn't help us at all.

While I don't advocate what Syracuse and Pittsburgh have done in backdoor dealings and just bolting from a conference.....I also don't advocate being a Baylor or Iowa State and being left in an "Oh crap" moment as it appears your conference is crumbling around you. While being new to the D1 landscape doesn't necessarily open us up to invitations from larger conferences, I hope we keep our eyes and ears open as smaller conferences are pillaged by the larger ones.

A couple of years ago an invite to a conference such as an MVC for all sports seemed like a pipe dream, but the more you think about leagues getting raided for their best programs, the more you realize that opportunities may be on the horizon over the next couple of years. While all conferences hope to upgrade their existing base, that just isn't going to be reasonable and it is going to give some smaller schools an opportunity to join a conference that didn't seem possible only a couple of years ago.....just look at schools like TCU in the Big 12 or the invite list for the Big East as examples. I hope we are ready and I hope we are bold enough to dream big!

[Mike Vicks Dead PitBulls]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

On anohter thread I posted a story from UNK, the writter talked to two schools about the move to D-I. Both Schools are form the Summit League. Adding Northern Kentucky to replace ORU would tighten up our footprint and make the eastern schools happy I would think. We would trade the Tulsa market for the Cincinnati market, seems like an upgrade to me. It would give you five schools in the east and five in the west.

East

Oakland
Nothern Kentucky
IPFW
IUPUI
WIU

West

UMKC
UNO
USD
SDSU
NDSU

Nice grouping and if you added one to the East and one to the West you could go to divisional play


http://www.thenortherner.com/?p=10956

If the Summit were to add Northern Kentucky, I wonder if the MVFC would like to add NKU in football to bring the total to 11 once USD joins. NKU doesn't offer football, but if the Summit and MVFC were to say we'll take you but you have to add football, I wonder if they have the $$ to do it, or would they look to the OVC or elsewhere? But does the MVFC really want another team? It would help out YSU and ISU, I know YSU isn't too thrilled about the west expansion.

[joeboo22]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

A. I don't think the MVFC cares much about adding a football team at the moment. I think they kinda want to see how things workout
B. If they were to add football my guess is they wouldn't want to add an expansion team. I also don't think NKU would do that deal.

The more and more I look/think about it I wouldn't be surprised if a Minnesota school, St. Cloud St./MSU-Mankato/SMSU would drop football and join the Summit. My guess would be St. Cloud St., they have Title IX problems, their womens hockey team cost the school a ton of money and I think they either cancelled homecoming or didn't have one this year, and from all reports they have had serious discussions about eliminating football numerous times over the past 2 years. I also think the Twin Cities Metro Area would be a place that the Summit League would like to expand to.

[joeboo22]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

I hope as a University we are constantly keeping our eyes open on the ever shifting conference landscape. We all know this will have a trickle down effect. ORU leaving for the Southland would be the first blow. I would think that Oakland is keeping their eyes open and would look to move if the opportunity opens up. They would take a Horizon league bid in a heartbeat and actually would be a pretty good fit. Our league already gets little to no respect around the nation, eliminating 2 of the stronger programs wouldn't help us at all.

While I don't advocate what Syracuse and Pittsburgh have done in backdoor dealings and just bolting from a conference.....I also don't advocate being a Baylor or Iowa State and being left in an "Oh crap" moment as it appears your conference is crumbling around you. While being new to the D1 landscape doesn't necessarily open us up to invitations from larger conferences, I hope we keep our eyes and ears open as smaller conferences are pillaged by the larger ones.

A couple of years ago an invite to a conference such as an MVC for all sports seemed like a pipe dream, but the more you think about leagues getting raided for their best programs, the more you realize that opportunities may be on the horizon over the next couple of years. While all conferences hope to upgrade their existing base, that just isn't going to be reasonable and it is going to give some smaller schools an opportunity to join a conference that didn't seem possible only a couple of years ago.....just look at schools like TCU in the Big 12 or the invite list for the Big East as examples. I hope we are ready and I hope we are bold enough to dream big!

I think the big problem with SDSU joining the Valley is I don't see a Valley team leaving. And I don't see the Valley anyone else. Air Force talked about it and the Valley came out against them. The problem with both the Valley and the Summit is the teams that do have football are I-AA. If you look at conference expansion its all centered around football. Now some would argue that maybe a team would go D-I FBS. Now that is possible but out of the MVFC who? The only one would be Youngstown St. and they aren't even in the Valley for the other sports. UNI cant afford it, Southern Illinois? I don't see it. Generally the schools that are making the jump for FCS to FBS are doing so because a conference is waiting for them or they are part of a conference for the rest of the sports and they want them to add football.

Now I do agree that SDSU should always be looking at better options and so on, but I just think this belief that conference musical chairs will affect the Valley is inaccurate.

[SturgisJeff]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

haven't heard any rumors or seen anything in the locals about Oakland wanting to go anywhere. last time I talked to the AD over there he was happy to see 605 come in and see what a "rivalry" game between SDSU and 605 would look like. said there are no rivalries in the league.

[NebraskaJack]

Re: ORU talking with Southland

haven't heard any rumors or seen anything in the locals about Oakland wanting to go anywhere. last time I talked to the AD over there he was happy to see 605 come in and see what a "rivalry" game between SDSU and 605 would look like. said there are no rivalries in the league.

I have no knowledge of them looking to leave the league either....it was more just a thread on their message board from a while back. With that said, it was probably more just their fans wishing than anything the administration said. But I do have to make a comment on something you just wrote. If I am reading it correctly and there are no rivalries for them in the Summit then a move to the Horizon, if it was ever offered, would make more sense. The entire Horizon conference would be much more regional for them and would open them back up to the U. of Detroit as a in state rival. I know, I know....it will probably never happen but I enjoy all the speculation with the countless possibilities of how things could shake out.