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Re: Great Western Conf.
Here is a QA article from the Brookings Register
Conversations: Quest for a conference
By John Andrews
With South Dakota State University’s decision to move to Division I status already made, officials have turned their attention to finding a conference to join. With that in mind, SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien met Dec. 8 and 9 in Las Vegas with officials from North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, California-Davis, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Southern Utah and St. Mary’s of California to discuss forming a new football-only conference. Today, the Register talks with Oien about those meetings and the quest for a conference.
Q. From what I understand, these meetings in Las Vegas marked the beginning of discussions between SDSU and these other six schools, the purpose being forming a new conference. What, if anything, was decided out there?
A. Well, there were no formal decisions made. What we did is we reviewed a proposed constitution, bylaws. We looked at scheduling; we looked at the policies and procedures for operating a conference and how that conference would operate. In the world of athletics, everybody has pretty set standards on how a conference is going to work together — how are things reported to each other, how do you deal with compliance issues. We worked through the typical stuff that is in place in most conferences. Because this is new, we just had to come to an agreement and look at those things. So we went through an initial draft and made editorial changes. We would expect soon that will come back to us, edited, and then we’ll sit down and talk about it some more. It’s kind of a give-and-take process over time to see if we’re in agreement on how we’re going to operate with each other.
Q. Is there any sort of a timetable out there for forming this conference?
A. We would expect that it’s going to happen over a period of time here. It could be in the spring. We’re not sure yet. It all depends upon how quickly we can move and get these things out of the way.
Q. Are you optimistic that this will get done or are there some stumbling blocks out there?
A. Oh, I think every one of the schools, the seven schools, felt that we made great progress and that we’re moving forward. And, that somewhere down the road, we’ll be playing each other as a conference.
Q. Is there still that possibility that SDSU and NDSU could join a conference that’s already out there, such as the Big Sky?
A. All the members talked about that, in fact all seven of them, that things change. And that if all of a sudden conference affiliation requires you take football with it, then there’s a provision in this constitution of bylaws on how you withdraw from a conference. We have talked about that and I think we have come to agreement on how that would work as well.
Q. Provided you join this conference, it is football only. What happens to the other sports at SDSU?
A. We’ll continue our conversations with other conferences. But this was an opportunity to take care of one piece in case a conference that we joined didn’t have football, and we didn’t want to exclude it.
Q. And what if the conference isn’t formed. What happens with football next year?
A. Well, we would continue scheduling. In fact, I think we agreed that probably the first time any of us would be able to play a full schedule would be in ‘06. Some of the schools like Cal Poly, Southern Utah, they’ve been playing as an independent, so they’ve got their schedules out there quite a ways already. We’re busy forming our ‘04 and ‘05 schedules right now, and that’s gone very well for us. We’re not too far from a full schedule.
Compiled by John Andrews
Here is a QA article from the Brookings Register
Conversations: Quest for a conference
By John Andrews
With South Dakota State University’s decision to move to Division I status already made, officials have turned their attention to finding a conference to join. With that in mind, SDSU Athletic Director Fred Oien met Dec. 8 and 9 in Las Vegas with officials from North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, California-Davis, Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Southern Utah and St. Mary’s of California to discuss forming a new football-only conference. Today, the Register talks with Oien about those meetings and the quest for a conference.
Q. From what I understand, these meetings in Las Vegas marked the beginning of discussions between SDSU and these other six schools, the purpose being forming a new conference. What, if anything, was decided out there?
A. Well, there were no formal decisions made. What we did is we reviewed a proposed constitution, bylaws. We looked at scheduling; we looked at the policies and procedures for operating a conference and how that conference would operate. In the world of athletics, everybody has pretty set standards on how a conference is going to work together — how are things reported to each other, how do you deal with compliance issues. We worked through the typical stuff that is in place in most conferences. Because this is new, we just had to come to an agreement and look at those things. So we went through an initial draft and made editorial changes. We would expect soon that will come back to us, edited, and then we’ll sit down and talk about it some more. It’s kind of a give-and-take process over time to see if we’re in agreement on how we’re going to operate with each other.
Q. Is there any sort of a timetable out there for forming this conference?
A. We would expect that it’s going to happen over a period of time here. It could be in the spring. We’re not sure yet. It all depends upon how quickly we can move and get these things out of the way.
Q. Are you optimistic that this will get done or are there some stumbling blocks out there?
A. Oh, I think every one of the schools, the seven schools, felt that we made great progress and that we’re moving forward. And, that somewhere down the road, we’ll be playing each other as a conference.
Q. Is there still that possibility that SDSU and NDSU could join a conference that’s already out there, such as the Big Sky?
A. All the members talked about that, in fact all seven of them, that things change. And that if all of a sudden conference affiliation requires you take football with it, then there’s a provision in this constitution of bylaws on how you withdraw from a conference. We have talked about that and I think we have come to agreement on how that would work as well.
Q. Provided you join this conference, it is football only. What happens to the other sports at SDSU?
A. We’ll continue our conversations with other conferences. But this was an opportunity to take care of one piece in case a conference that we joined didn’t have football, and we didn’t want to exclude it.
Q. And what if the conference isn’t formed. What happens with football next year?
A. Well, we would continue scheduling. In fact, I think we agreed that probably the first time any of us would be able to play a full schedule would be in ‘06. Some of the schools like Cal Poly, Southern Utah, they’ve been playing as an independent, so they’ve got their schedules out there quite a ways already. We’re busy forming our ‘04 and ‘05 schedules right now, and that’s gone very well for us. We’re not too far from a full schedule.
Compiled by John Andrews
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