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Post by GoYotes on May 8, 2016 14:31:53 GMT -6
New Mexico State surveyed faculty and staff about possible conference choices for all sports other than football (which will become and FBS independent) and one of conference choices in the survey was the Horizon League. Anyone can post whatever crap they want on their own blogs, etc. but I ran across 2 blogs that speculated about a possible team to join the Horizon League along with New Mexico State. One blog mentioned Omaha, Denver, IPFW and former Summit League member UMKC among the possible choices. The other also mentioned Denver, Omaha and UMKC and also Oral Roberts. Seems to me that many of the people speculating about conference realignment don't have access to a map of the USA. |
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Post by Yotes on May 8, 2016 17:04:08 GMT -6
The Horizon could have half the Summit at the drop of a hat if they wanted. The Dakota schools are probably the only ones that would decline an invitation, Oral Roberts, Denver, and UNO seem unlikely to get an offer due to geography, leaving WIU, IPFW, and IUPUI as the reasonable schools that could be raided. That being said I'm not sure the Horizon would currently want WIU (will they even have athletics in five years?) or the IUPUs (lack of fan interest). It seems unlikely to me that the Horizon comes after any further Summit teams as they already took the one they were interested in.
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dave
Sophomore Member
Posts: 112
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Post by dave on May 8, 2016 21:48:04 GMT -6
Nebraska-Omaha: Former ESPN personality Trev Alberts has the Mavericks football program firing on all cylinders and he'd love to see the same from his basketball program. Right now the Mavs fit naturally into the Summit League but could the better TV package, and markets surrounding the HL entice this relatively new program?
UNO football firing on all cylinders, news to me. The above quote comes from the Two Hoops of Passion blog. Can you trust a blogger when he can't get the basic facts straight.
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Post by Yotes on May 8, 2016 22:01:20 GMT -6
Nebraska-Omaha: Former ESPN personality Trev Alberts has the Mavericks football program firing on all cylinders and he'd love to see the same from his basketball program. Right now the Mavs fit naturally into the Summit League but could the better TV package, and markets surrounding the HL entice this relatively new program? UNO football firing on all cylinders, news to me. The above quote comes from the Two Hoops of Passion blog. Can you trust a blogger when he can't get the basic facts straight. Mavericks haven't lost a football game in several years, I see no issue here. |
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Post by kiyoat on May 8, 2016 23:07:49 GMT -6
Did you get this news from Doc and Marty in their Delorean? 'Cause it sounds like a blog article from around 2010...
I tried to find it, but Google kept trying to send me to "Two Holes of Passion" instead of Hoops... yikes.
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Post by kiyoat on May 8, 2016 23:11:59 GMT -6
I think the Summit should keep trying to poach a quality 10th school instead of being on the bad end of the... poaching.... stick? Well, you get the idea.
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Post by Yote 53 on May 9, 2016 9:29:06 GMT -6
I fail to see why any conference would want UNO. Must be because all they see is the "Omaha" market. UNO doesn't own that Omaha market though, they are small potatoes and are a far, far distant third behind Big Red and Creighton Blue. UNO is a hockey school, their other sports properties do not move the needle in Omaha. They are in the Summit out of necessity, location, and familiarity with other schools in the conference, without that familiarity we would see them as another UMKC, which isn't a good thing. I just don't get why when these articles come up they always focus on the market, the Omaha market, the Kansas City market, etc. Great, the schools are located in metro markets that they cannot deliver.
Summit schools need to go all in with full pressure on the MVFC to get UND a football home in the conference. Spent the past weekend in Grand Forks. First thing is the drive from Fargo to GF is like driving from Vermillion to Sioux Falls, no big deal. The travel and footprint thing is blown way out of proportion. Next thing is that UND is not a Big Sky school, no way. They are so far removed from the Big Sky footprint it is laughable. They are a Midwest school in the I-29 corridor. They belong in the Summit/MVFC. Time for the rest of the Summit schools to apply some pressure to make this happen.
One of the weirdest things I saw was driving by the Alerus and there being a Midco Sports ad flashing on the video board advertising Midco Sports as "your home for Summit League athletics" with a large Summit Logo on the video board. The Summit, a conference UND is not even in being advertised on their video board. Irony?
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Post by Yotes on May 9, 2016 12:31:45 GMT -6
I constantly wonder what UND is honestly doing in the Big Sky. What possible advantage do they have with that conference? It's not even like they have to be a full member to ensure their football team has a home since a few schools are Big Sky just for football, if the MVFC doesn't want UND they could keep their football where it is and move all other sports to a conference that makes way more sense.
What other schools are there for the Summit to attempt poaching? Having our basketball tournament permanently in Sioux Falls might be a sticking point for some.
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Post by Coyote Fan on May 9, 2016 17:32:54 GMT -6
The bias towards the newer Western Schools of the Summit and Tom Douple could be their undoing. Put yourself in the shoes of IUPUI and IPFW. By far their biggest athletic dream is making the NCAA tourney in men's basketball. They don't have football to fall back on. It's basically men's basketball or bust for those schools. What do they get but new schools taking over their conference and moving the conference tourney to their back yard. I can't blame IUPUI and IPFW wanting out if that would be what they would want.
The only two schools that definitely would be hurt by the Summit Tourney moving out of Sioux Falls would be USD and SDSU. Omaha and NDSU don't really mind the tourney being in Sioux Falls but I don't think either would let that prevent them from jumping at another opportunity. By catering to the select few not only could end up alienating the eastern schools but also make it very difficult to attract new candidates. I think the conference tourney should be moved around for general fairness as well. I think the Summit's goal should be to try to get to 12 schools and consider splitting the conference tourney between Sioux Falls and a more eastern site (at least on occasion) if it came down to it just to preserve some conference stability and show the eastern schools that they matter as well. The money and interest is obviously good but you can't just take care of a few schools at the expense of others.
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Post by gorabbits on May 9, 2016 19:35:34 GMT -6
New Mexico State sent a survey to their fans asking whether they would prefer to be in the Big Sky or the Horizon. The Horizon made absolutely no sense to me until I read that the Horizon was looking at a major expansion with a number of western schools such as Denver, Oral Roberts, Omaha and UMKC. It still makes no sense to me. Remember that Oakland went to the Horizon a few years ago in part to be a member of a bus league. The survey means that there is something out there beyond fan chatter/useful thinking but I still don't see a raid of the Summit likely to happen. Many of the fans in other parts of the country still think of the Summit the way it was before the Dakotas joined and not as the way it is today.
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Post by oldhare on May 9, 2016 19:42:14 GMT -6
The bias towards the newer Western Schools of the Summit and Tom Douple could be their undoing. Put yourself in the shoes of IUPUI and IPFW. By far their biggest athletic dream is making the NCAA tourney in men's basketball. They don't have football to fall back on. It's basically men's basketball or bust for those schools. What do they get but new schools taking over their conference and moving the conference tourney to their back yard. I can't blame IUPUI and IPFW wanting out if that would be what they would want. The only two schools that definitely would be hurt by the Summit Tourney moving out of Sioux Falls would be USD and SDSU. Omaha and NDSU don't really mind the tourney being in Sioux Falls but I don't think either would let that prevent them from jumping at another opportunity. By catering to the select few not only could end up alienating the eastern schools but also make it very difficult to attract new candidates. I think the conference tourney should be moved around for general fairness as well. I think the Summit's goal should be to try to get to 12 schools and consider splitting the conference tourney between Sioux Falls and a more eastern site (at least on occasion) if it came down to it just to preserve some conference stability and show the eastern schools that they matter as well. The money and interest is obviously good but you can't just take care of a few schools at the expense of others. You will see the tournament rotating as soon as another location can provide a bid as attractive as Sioux Falls. That will include a list of private money sponsors as well as the paid crowd to spice the bid. This event appears to be a major money maker for the teams of the Summit plus some extra publicity for the conference. Taking a much lower income for the conference does not find interest for the members who do not have the ability to host or have close proximity to the tournament. If there was interest from another venue, there would be competitive bids on Douple's desk. Do you think that Rutgers or Maryland will be moving the Big 10 conference tourney to NYC or Baltimore to be fair? Kansas City is not likely to lose the Big 12 anytime soon either. It will take a big reason to change anytime soon. |
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Post by Yote 53 on May 9, 2016 19:46:38 GMT -6
The Valley in St.Louis is another tournament that is permanent and favors a few schools location wise.
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Post by Coyote Fan on May 9, 2016 21:46:13 GMT -6
I am not debating the benefit of having the extra money and exposure of having the tourney in Sioux Falls but I am debating the desirability of the eastern teams to want to stay in the league. What does the Summit do if the Indiana schools leave and Western Illinois goes D2. Next thing ya know Denver and Oral Roberts leave and the Summit is down to 4 schools. The core that Tom Douple would probably like to build around are the Dakota's and Omaha. Four schools want the tourney in Sioux Falls and the other 5 probably aren't too crazy about it. IPFW is mens champ and their reward for that is having to beat USD, NDSU and SDSU back to back to back in enemy territory. Nice reward for winning the regular season conference title. That is exactly why the Indiana schools could very well want to move elsewhere. Not saying they will for sure but they are now the outsiders of the Summit and I could certainly understand their line of thinking if they would want out. The eastern block was in the Summit prior to the Westward movement.
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Post by Yotes on May 9, 2016 22:06:53 GMT -6
The bias towards the newer Western Schools of the Summit and Tom Douple could be their undoing. Put yourself in the shoes of IUPUI and IPFW. By far their biggest athletic dream is making the NCAA tourney in men's basketball. They don't have football to fall back on. It's basically men's basketball or bust for those schools. What do they get but new schools taking over their conference and moving the conference tourney to their back yard. I can't blame IUPUI and IPFW wanting out if that would be what they would want. The only two schools that definitely would be hurt by the Summit Tourney moving out of Sioux Falls would be USD and SDSU. Omaha and NDSU don't really mind the tourney being in Sioux Falls but I don't think either would let that prevent them from jumping at another opportunity. By catering to the select few not only could end up alienating the eastern schools but also make it very difficult to attract new candidates. I think the conference tourney should be moved around for general fairness as well. I think the Summit's goal should be to try to get to 12 schools and consider splitting the conference tourney between Sioux Falls and a more eastern site (at least on occasion) if it came down to it just to preserve some conference stability and show the eastern schools that they matter as well. The money and interest is obviously good but you can't just take care of a few schools at the expense of others. You will see the tournament rotating as soon as another location can provide a bid as attractive as Sioux Falls. That will include a list of private money sponsors as well as the paid crowd to spice the bid. This event appears to be a major money maker for the teams of the Summit plus some extra publicity for the conference. Taking a much lower income for the conference does not find interest for the members who do not have the ability to host or have close proximity to the tournament. If there was interest from another venue, there would be competitive bids on Douple's desk. Do you think that Rutgers or Maryland will be moving the Big 10 conference tourney to NYC or Baltimore to be fair? Kansas City is not likely to lose the Big 12 anytime soon either. It will take a big reason to change anytime soon. Jeopardization of our conference is the only reason i can foresee the tournament leaving SF in the next decade. |
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Post by kiyoat on May 10, 2016 6:37:14 GMT -6
If you were to calculate the geographic center of the current conference members, I think you would land somewhere around Omaha or KC. Really not that far from SF. Besides, SF has been great for the conference tourney. Huge turnouts of fans, breaking attendance records, especially for the women.
I just think we need to do a better job of making the non-jacks fans not feel like they are being boxed-out of the best seats.
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