Summit Expansion '25

[LakeJack]

Southern Utah and Utah Tech potential moving to the Summit.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2025...ce-realignment

[LakeJack]

https://www.ksl.com/article/51212159...-utahs-borders

[OldHare]

Adding Utah schools will require flights for visiting teams. Most teams need 1000-1500 miles to get into Utah. Denver is 500-650 miles for the proposed sites. It will eliminate a couple NAIA/D2 OOC games. The Summit League I-29 map will get a makeover.

[2002jack]

Southern Utah and Utah Tech potential moving to the Summit.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2025...ce-realignment

Southern Utah leaving the Big Sky will go down in their history as a very poor decision.


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[AZjack]

Adding Utah schools will require flights for visiting teams. Most teams need 1000-1500 miles to get into Utah. Denver is 500-650 miles for the proposed sites. It will eliminate a couple NAIA/D2 OOC games. The Summit League I-29 map will get a makeover.

Cedar City and St. George easily accommodate charter flights and are easy bus rides from each other. Shouldn't have to fly into Vegas and bus up like back in the old days of going to SUU.

[filbert]

Nice to see the Summit being talked about doing the expanding rather than the alternative. Although southwest Utah is just a tad out of the current conference's footprint (not that geographic footprints mean diddly in D-i athletics any more).

[GoJacks2011]

Nice to see the Summit being talked about doing the expanding rather than the alternative. Although southwest Utah is just a tad out of the current conference's footprint (not that geographic footprints mean diddly in D-i athletics any more).

Could be okay but I feel like the student athletes HATED traveling to Southern Utah when they were with us before. Now that we charter more flights it's probably a different story. Quite isolated geographically as closest large airport I'd assume is Las Vegas.

[filbert]

Yes, Cedar City is around a 3 hour drive from LAS.

[AZjack]

Could be okay but I feel like the student athletes HATED traveling to Southern Utah when they were with us before. Now that we charter more flights it's probably a different story. Quite isolated geographically as closest large airport I'd assume is Las Vegas.

Like I said earlier, charter flights to either Cedar City or St. George will be very easy.

Both airports handle large air tankers, smaller turboprops like the Jacks charter can use either airport.

[peavy]

It will eliminate a couple NAIA/D2 OOC games. The Summit League I-29 map will get a makeover.

Expansion obviously providing stability but at what cost?
I like the idea of having 2 more games that will count on the schedule (again depending on which sites you go to non d1 aren't added to overall record)


Southern Utah M 9-16 NET 279 ... W 6-19 NET 301
Utah Tech M 4-22 NET 305 .... W 3-21 NET 332

[GoJacks2011]

Expansion obviously providing stability but at what cost?
I like the idea of having 2 more games that will count on the schedule (again depending on which sites you go to non d1 aren't added to overall record)


Southern Utah M 9-16 NET 279 ... W 6-19 NET 301
Utah Tech M 4-22 NET 305 .... W 3-21 NET 332

We can find better quality programs than these. These schools don’t have a lot of upside. I also like staying in the same time zone for multiple reasons. Let’s look at the Texas universities instead.

[LakeJack]

https://x.com/TommieHoops/status/1895208062178542017

[peavy]

https://x.com/TommieHoops/status/1895208062178542017

Dom Izzo sharing a McFeely article on the additions along with this to say: "Mike has been on this for about a year. I was told that it's likely Southern Utah and Utah Tech will be added to the Summit League soon. League would be at 11 schools, which is still not ideal. Those school's football programs would remain in the UAC."

"The hot rumor is that Utah Tech and Southern Utah will join the Summit League for next season. An announcement could be coming this spring." from article

Tommie fan quoting it saying "Big news for the Summit League. If this happens, that means potentially 20 conference games for basketball and maybe no non-D1 games on future schedules, which would be great. Also another baseball and men's soccer school with Utah Tech"



20 conf games means 4 extra games of 300 Net teams aka quad 4 games. If March Madness is the only thing that matters anyway, do they want more Q4 games or more non-conference Q1-Q3 opportunities? With those 4 games back at least 2 of them are going against D1 teams. This line of thought is probably small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, similar to the Murray State being bad at football

[jakejc795]

Dom Izzo sharing a McFeely article on the additions along with this to say: "Mike has been on this for about a year. I was told that it's likely Southern Utah and Utah Tech will be added to the Summit League soon. League would be at 11 schools, which is still not ideal. Those school's football programs would remain in the UAC."

"The hot rumor is that Utah Tech and Southern Utah will join the Summit League for next season. An announcement could be coming this spring." from article

Tommie fan quoting it saying "Big news for the Summit League. If this happens, that means potentially 20 conference games for basketball and maybe no non-D1 games on future schedules, which would be great. Also another baseball and men's soccer school with Utah Tech"



20 conf games means 4 extra games of 300 Net teams aka quad 4 games. If March Madness is the only thing that matters anyway, do they want more Q4 games or more non-conference Q1-Q3 opportunities? With those 4 games back at least 2 of them are going against D1 teams. This line of thought is probably small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, similar to the Murray State being bad at football

That column had multiple interesting notes, such as FCS writer Brian McLaughlin (B-Mac) passing away and speculation that current Summit League commish Fenton will be next Valley commish.

[DieselJacks]

The Summit League needs more than 9 members for security, and Southern Utah and Utah Tech are in a fast growing region. Is it optimal? No. But, it is probably the best option at the moment