Oakland exit

[joeybrownerHOF]

Re: Oakland exit

Douple and Hans Mueh need to sit down and have a little chat. Good fit for both parties.

[slosho]

Re: Oakland exit

Douple and Hans Mueh need to sit down and have a little chat. Good fit for both parties.

The Idea of having the Air Force in the Summit is an interesting one. and I would agree with your assessment of it being a good fit for both parties.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Oakland exit

The League's take on Oakland leaving (through Douple, of course) is that they aren't on panic mode...which may be true regarding most sports...but baseball is a whole different cat. Despite the "three-year window", the impact on our recruiting is a major hit. Recruiting good players for a team that isn't sure when or where the program is going to get a lifeline for keeping the automatic bid status. will definitely be harder. I know it is just one sport in the league's outlook, but I hope it becomes very pro-active in pursuing all avenues. While the League may be committed to wanting to move slowly on adding teams in order to find a good fit (Douple's statement), finding at least an affiliate (or affiliates) for baseball should be a top priority. Adding another overall program to the League after that, especially a school with baseball, would then add even more security. I suspect getting Denver to add baseball would be fruitless, but it sure would be nice right now.

[NebraskaJack]

Re: Oakland exit

Adding Denver ( final RPI of 63 ) is a significant upgrade over ORU (132) and Oakland (166). If another decent school can be added , the Summit will be fine.

As long as we get the Denver of the last 2 years, and not the Denver of the previous 6. They were in the 200's three times and the 300's once. ORU and Oakland never sniffed that territory.

[LakeJack]

Re: Oakland exit

The League's take on Oakland leaving (through Douple, of course) is that they aren't on panic mode...which may be true regarding most sports...but baseball is a whole different cat. Despite the "three-year window", the impact on our recruiting is a major hit. Recruiting good players for a team that isn't sure when or where the program is going to get a lifeline for keeping the automatic bid status. will definitely be harder. I know it is just one sport in the league's outlook, but I hope it becomes very pro-active in pursuing all avenues. While the League may be committed to wanting to move slowly on adding teams in order to find a good fit (Douple's statement), finding at least an affiliate (or affiliates) for baseball should be a top priority. Adding another overall program to the League after that, especially a school with baseball, would then add even more security. I suspect getting Denver to add baseball would be fruitless, but it sure would be nice right now.

I don't think this should effect our recruiting in the least. If anything with ORU out of the league we can sell that we have a much better chance of getting into the NCAA Tournament. We have at least three years to figure out a long term plan. If we want an instant fix we could pick up NYIT's baseball team - the Great West is going away so they will be looking for a home for their only D-I sport. That is off the top of my head and I am sure our leaders know about more options then I do. I see no need to panic.

[Nidaros]

Re: Oakland exit

I see no need to panic.

I don't either. We just need to go about our business and recruit the best we can, and hope all goes well with what we get. I am sure there are lots of short cuts we could take, but its not worth it in the long run. The movie Blue Chips comes to mind. Bob Cousy was the AD remember? Nick Nolte the bb coach. It was a great movie and lessons on how to not do things. In other words, don't start a "Friends of the Team Club".

[Jacks-02]

Re: Oakland exit

I agree that we are nowhere close to a point of panic. While the baseball auto-bid is important, it pales in comparison to the basketball auto-bid, which is safe as only 7 schools are required to maintain it. The league can operate under the waiver for the time being for baseball and allow the league to be selective in finding options for expansion.

Meanwhile, the league splits up the exit fee from Oakland and now everyone gets a bigger piece of the pie for NCAA tourney revenues.

[Coyote_Fan]

Re: Oakland exit

Panic maybe or maybe not, but to show a sense of urgency most definately.

Looking from the outside in, the Summit is in conservation mode on a very thin lifeline right now. The schools better be getting together very soon to discuss options because the time is today not tomorrow to figure out what to do.

This is what I posted on the Coyote board but it involves someone taking a large initiative in starting a new conference.

West

UND
NDSU
SDSU
USD
UNO (if they add football back)
UNC

East

Western Illinois
Northern Iowa
Missouri State
Indiana State
Illinois State
Southern Illinois

If not UNO than move UNI west and add another eastern school such as Eastern Illinois.

This divides the conference into 2 divisions for football and still allows for a full round robin for all other sports. In basketball scheduling is difficult so I wouldn't mind the 22 auto games every year. I also think for basketball the conference easily rivals the Valley.

Really how do these schools say no to this. Stability and an all sports all encompassing conference. The east schools have plenty of membership and the west schools have plenty of membership. The basketball tourney could be held in Sioux Falls every other year and somewhere out east every other year. All teams get a fair shake having the tourney fairly close to home.

The only question, what do we name the new conference?

[filbert]

Re: Oakland exit

I agree that this would be ideal and nifty and keen and all, but--why would the present Valley schools want to do this? Just saying "how could they say no" is, to be blunt, laughable.

Panic maybe or maybe not, but to show a sense of urgency most definately.

Looking from the outside in, the Summit is in conservation mode on a very thin lifeline right now. The schools better be getting together very soon to discuss options because the time is today not tomorrow to figure out what to do.

This is what I posted on the Coyote board but it involves someone taking a large initiative in starting a new conference.

West

UND
NDSU
SDSU
USD
UNO (if they add football back)
UNC

East

Western Illinois
Northern Iowa
Missouri State
Indiana State
Illinois State
Southern Illinois

If not UNO than move UNI west and add another eastern school such as Eastern Illinois.

This divides the conference into 2 divisions for football and still allows for a full round robin for all other sports. In basketball scheduling is difficult so I wouldn't mind the 22 auto games every year. I also think for basketball the conference easily rivals the Valley.

Really how do these schools say no to this. Stability and an all sports all encompassing conference. The east schools have plenty of membership and the west schools have plenty of membership. The basketball tourney could be held in Sioux Falls every other year and somewhere out east every other year. All teams get a fair shake having the tourney fairly close to home.

The only question, what do we name the new conference?

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Oakland exit

I agree that this would be ideal and nifty and keen and all, but--why would the present Valley schools want to do this? Just saying "how could they say no" is, to be blunt, laughable.

I agree with your sentiment, although the threat or implementation of of Summit Football might cause some strange things to happen.

[mr76]

Re: Oakland exit

There is no way that the Missouri Valley Conference is going to combine with the Summit to form a conference. That would be a step backwards for those schools. If you take a look at the basketball venues of the MVC schools and compare them to the Summit League you will find that they are way ahead of the Summit. It would create stability for the Summit League, but this will never happen.

[jackdaniel]

Re: Oakland exit

Big fish eat little fish,the Summit could get raided again.Let's not wait til something happens again,The Summit needs more members,yes, good ones preferably .
Cream rises to the top,we evidently need to improve in that area as well.
There will be opportunity to recruit members as this never ending re-structuring process continues.
Every conference has to look out for raiders,and/or ,dissatisfied members who want to be a bigger fish and move on.
There's danger both ways,getting a school who's happy here, but never raise the level of their athletic programs and drag down conf RPI,and then there's the good program who only want a temp home, while they search for a better home(real or imagined)One leads to stability we don't want,the other leads to instability,which isn't a good feeling either.It comes down to,no ones ever completely satisfied with what they have.The beat goes on.

[Rabbit74]

Re: Oakland exit

I am of the school that we are in the best conference for us and that the current status is not a time for panic but rather for considered planning and action. That said here are some of my random thoughts and wishes. Below I am listing some universities that might be dream additions (strengthen the conference), some that would be ok (basically equivalent to the league in strength, and some that would be bail outs if the Summit gets into a bind for numbers due to further losses to other conferences. These are of course from my perspective probably not from the perspective of the commissioner or the presidents. I don't think any are out of the question but some would take a number of pieces falling together for us or falling apart for other conferences.


Dream additions

New Mexico State, can't be happy in the WAC and football has a home in the Sunbelt. Shares land grant status with SDSU and NDSU. would probably continue to look for better fit, not a bad travel partner for Denver
Belmont, Ohio Valley confernece is primarily football and Belmont doesn't have football, Basketball in the Ohio Valley is weak except for Belmont and Murray State.
Green Bay - supposedly most of the Horizon teams are looking elsewhere and the addition of Oakland may not provide long term stability.
Milwaukee - same as Green Bay
UA Little Rock - misfit in current football centric conference

OK additions

UND, seems like a natural but both sides seem to have reservations plus the football home issue
Eastern Illionis, former member, associate for swimming but football issue

Bail outs

Utah Valley University - not as remote as Southern Utah and reasonable travel partner for Denver
Northern Kentucky - unproven transitioning school
Southern Illinois Edwardsville, unproven transition school
Northern Colorado - have not demonstrated much success at DI level
Chicago State - continuing disaster, but ideal location
any reclassifying DII school.

What are your reactions to the above lists and classifications?

[joeboo22]

Re: Oakland exit

I think its unfair to classify Northern Kentucky, SIU-Edwardsville and Northern Colorado in the same boat as UVU, CSU and D-II relocations, they aren't slam dunks but they are solid schools that fit geographically. A Chicago State and UVU are schools you take if your the WAC and have to add, and you don't even talk to them before the NCAA has told you so.

[Nidaros]

Re: Oakland exit

I think its unfair to classify Northern Kentucky, SIU-Edwardsville and Northern Colorado in the same boat as UVU, CSU and D-II relocations, they aren't slam dunks but they are solid schools that fit geographically. A Chicago State and UVU are schools you take if your the WAC and have to add, and you don't even talk to them before the NCAA has told you so.

Yeah I kind of miss the odors of Greeley Colorado. Lets get them back in the SL.