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In the St. George Spectrum, the view from Cedar City:
"We need to solidify the long-term stability of the conference," Beazer said. "These moves are all about the future. Even though we bring these institutions on board now, there's a period before they help us with the automatic qualifiers."
Ah, the NCAA automatic qualifier, the Holy Grail to athletic directors around the country.
With just seven schools officially in the Mid-Con after the 2006-07 school year and only six of those core institutions - schools that have been in the conference for five years - SUU and its fellow centers of higher learning are sitting at the bare minimum number of schools allowed for their conference to receive an automatic invitation to the NCAA basketball tournament, the lifeblood of any mid-major conference, especially one that doesn't sponsor football.
"Right now, the margin of error is so slim," said Beazer. "We need to bring some people on board. It's vital as we look to the future."
Ah, the NCAA automatic qualifier, the Holy Grail to athletic directors around the country.
With just seven schools officially in the Mid-Con after the 2006-07 school year and only six of those core institutions - schools that have been in the conference for five years - SUU and its fellow centers of higher learning are sitting at the bare minimum number of schools allowed for their conference to receive an automatic invitation to the NCAA basketball tournament, the lifeblood of any mid-major conference, especially one that doesn't sponsor football.
"Right now, the margin of error is so slim," said Beazer. "We need to bring some people on board. It's vital as we look to the future."
"SUU's been a good member in the Mid-Con," said Douple, who served as the school's AD before taking over as conference commissioner last year. "But when they got into the league there wasn't a travel partner and there were no promises made."
Inviting Utah Valley State College in Orem to join the conference would be one possible solution, but the Mid-Con is hesitant to add another school so far from its Midwest roots.
"It'd be great to have a Mid-Con game where I don't have to get on a bus and then fly somewhere," Beazer said. "But right now the (conference) presidents have said these are the schools we're going to look at.
"If for some reason we go to the Dakotas or IPFW and things don't fall into place or they elect to go elsewhere, then UVSC becomes more attractive."
Here's where things get a bit tricky.
As far as Orem is from Indianapolis and Kansas City, adding UVSC to a basketball or volleyball schedule would be fairly painless.
Teams would be able to play the Wolverines one night and the T-Birds the next, getting two games instead of one for their flight.
So why didn't UVSC even receive an invitation from the Mid-Con to send a letter of interest to last month's expansion meeting?
"There's no question about it, the Mid-Con is worried about SUU's Big Sky aspirations," said UVSC Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen. "They're afraid SUU might leave."
Inviting Utah Valley State College in Orem to join the conference would be one possible solution, but the Mid-Con is hesitant to add another school so far from its Midwest roots.
"It'd be great to have a Mid-Con game where I don't have to get on a bus and then fly somewhere," Beazer said. "But right now the (conference) presidents have said these are the schools we're going to look at.
"If for some reason we go to the Dakotas or IPFW and things don't fall into place or they elect to go elsewhere, then UVSC becomes more attractive."
Here's where things get a bit tricky.
As far as Orem is from Indianapolis and Kansas City, adding UVSC to a basketball or volleyball schedule would be fairly painless.
Teams would be able to play the Wolverines one night and the T-Birds the next, getting two games instead of one for their flight.
So why didn't UVSC even receive an invitation from the Mid-Con to send a letter of interest to last month's expansion meeting?
"There's no question about it, the Mid-Con is worried about SUU's Big Sky aspirations," said UVSC Athletic Director Mike Jacobsen. "They're afraid SUU might leave."
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