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Post by azsod73 on Oct 4, 2019 12:17:40 GMT -6
Per a Stu Whitney tweet: St. Thomas undergraduate enrollment 6,395; endowment $436 million. Augustana undergrad enrollment 1,792; endowment $82.1 million.
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 4, 2019 14:06:22 GMT -6
Per a Stu Whitney tweet: St. Thomas undergraduate enrollment 6,395; endowment $436 million. Augustana undergrad enrollment 1,792; endowment $82.1 million. That would be the 2nd highest endowment in the league (I found $519M for 2018 with google search.) some of these might not be from this year, but are as close as I could find: $762M Denver $519M St. Thomas $279M North Dakota $258M South Dakota $207M NDSU $173M UMKC (2019)* $122M SDSU $82M Augustana (2018) $72M UNO $60M WIU $60M PFW $38M ORU *was hard to find separated from the other U of Missouri schools. found it here: missouri.app.box.com/s/beuli3q4dxlbzlmmcl8g3gmvy1k9jebu |
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Post by Yote 53 on Oct 4, 2019 14:42:18 GMT -6
Argus Article about how this applies to Augustana. www.argusleader.com/story/sports/college/2019/10/04/university-st-thomas-invited-join-summit-league/3864220002/I don't see this as good news for Augie as the Summit would be at 10 members, which is a perfect setup for travel, etc. The more troubling part of the article are a couple of quotes from Sell and Herbster. Sell: “I don’t think it’s relevant," Sell said. "Having been in the league for over 10 years, in each of the last seven we’ve had membership conversations every year. Just because we feel solidified at 10 doesn’t mean those conversations don’t keep going. There’s always a lot of moving and shaking going on and I’m sure we’re not done with those conversations. So I don’t think this has a lot of bearing on Augustana, and we haven’t as a league seen anything yet from Augie.” Herbster: "We've been talking about membership ever since we've been in the league and I think it's something we'll continue to evaluate," he added. " I know more about Augie's intentions to come into the Summit League from the media than we've ever heard from Augie itself." Yes, both say that expansion talks are always happening and this changes nothing as far as Augustana is concerned. The interesting parts to me are the bolded parts. Both emphasize the SL has not had heard anything from Augustana. Interesting because we have a D3 school in UST that has its stuff together enough, and is aggressive enough, that they secured an invite from the SL as a D3 school. They must have put forth quite the plan as to what they were going to do during the transition process. But there has been no plan from Augustana yet, which we've been hearing about for years now as a future SL member. Why is that? |
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Post by GoYotes on Oct 4, 2019 14:55:55 GMT -6
I am guessing that Augie is doing their due diligence. As noted, they have a much smaller endowment and student populations than UST, and they aren't going to commit to any move until they know they can put the financial resources in place to do it successfully.
It is also likely that the idea of UST joining the Summit League was in place before the talk of UST being expelled from the MIAC started. There have been plenty of rumors about UST working behind the scenes to orchestrate the MIAC voting to expel them from the conference so to help build their case to transition direct to D1 from D3.
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Post by Yotes on Oct 4, 2019 18:46:10 GMT -6
Wow, nice find, Eddie! Big news, but it comes with the caveat that the NCAA still hasn't ruled on their waiver. I'm sure having the Summit invite helps their case. Having a D1 invite in hand has to go a long way in helping their case with the NCAA. |
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Post by Yote 53 on Oct 11, 2019 9:09:53 GMT -6
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Post by GoYotes on Oct 29, 2019 7:10:59 GMT -6
New billboard on 39th & Minnesota (close to the Augustana campus) in Sioux Falls paid for by some Augustana alumni.
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Post by Yote 53 on Oct 29, 2019 7:53:43 GMT -6
Now we are seeing the pushback. Third time this month I've heard about Augie alumni and donors pushing back on this move.
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Post by Yotes on Oct 29, 2019 16:09:17 GMT -6
Good for them. Once you start the transition there is no turning back. Better make damn sure you belong first.
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timt89
Freshman Member
Posts: 9 
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Post by timt89 on Nov 5, 2019 10:31:58 GMT -6
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Post by Yote 53 on Dec 11, 2019 11:38:01 GMT -6
Why wait until spring to apply to the Summit? We've been hearing about this Augie to the Summit for about 3 years now and it's always delay, delay, delay. Like clockwork it's about every 6 months that Augie to the Summit comes up. Like they just keep stoking the fire to keep their name in the news cycle.
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yote18
Senior Member
Posts: 577
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Post by yote18 on Jan 20, 2020 14:40:54 GMT -6
After looking at the league for women’s and men’s basketball it’s clear that the summit isn’t a very attractive option for established programs to look at. I’m curious what some of your thoughts are on how they could make it better. Strategically it’d make the most sense to try and get into the MVC or get a school or two from theirs into the Summit. I like the summit, so I’m not necessarily saying we need to leave the conference. But the summit league also shouldn’t be our forever home either. The only thing holding back our stock would be the lack of MBB success. I have no info on anything going on behind the scenes I’m just simply a fan looking towards the future 😁.
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Post by Yotes on Jan 20, 2020 18:18:37 GMT -6
After looking at the league for women’s and men’s basketball it’s clear that the summit isn’t a very attractive option for established programs to look at. I’m curious what some of your thoughts are on how they could make it better. Strategically it’d make the most sense to try and get into the MVC or get a school or two from theirs into the Summit. I like the summit, so I’m not necessarily saying we need to leave the conference. But the summit league also shouldn’t be our forever home either. The only thing holding back our stock would be the lack of MBB success. I have no info on anything going on behind the scenes I’m just simply a fan looking towards the future 😁. If we are talking about improving the Summit we are very limited in options. Who would consider an invite? I think the only answer is a WAC school or someone looking to move up to D1. Look around D1 and tell me who else would ever consider a move to the Summit. Anyone in the Horizon, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, etc. is already in a more competitive conference that has better geography. With that, I think it would make sense to try poaching New Mexico State and Grand Canyon from the WAC. NMSU is a perennial power and GCU is putting in the money to be a successful D1 program. The geography kind of makes sense with Denver and Oral Roberts being in bordering states, and frankly there just isn't anyone better at the D1 level who would ever consider an invite. My stance for some time now is that we are always going to be held back by the Summit. Anyone we can get to join the league is always going to be looking for a way out. Omaha already tried joining the MVC and Horizon, UMKC and Oral Roberts both left once already, and I'm surprised rumors of Denver leaving haven't come up. If St Thomas joins and shows they are a D1 school they are probably going to end up in the Missouri Valley or Horizon. The only schools that will stay are not going to be very desirable because no one with options wants to be in a conference centered around the Dakotas. I don't think we can join a different conference either though since the 4 Dakotas have tied themselves together. No conference can take that many teams at once, not in this bloated D1 landscape. The Big Sky and Missouri Valley are both attractive destinations but neither seem like realistic options anytime soon. We have to do the best we can with the Summit for now. St Thomas is an exciting addition. I hope for more exciting additions (please do not let Augustana into the league), but will always be hopeful something changes in the landscape and we can tie the Dakotas to either our cohorts in the MVFC or our peers to the west. |
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Post by kickingbird on Jan 21, 2020 8:52:37 GMT -6
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Post by Yote 53 on Jan 21, 2020 9:06:27 GMT -6
Summit just needs to stand pat with what we have once St. Thomas enters the league. Constantly bringing in D1 move-ups just drags the conference down. There is a core established in this conference that can be built around but there needs to be some consistency and stability in the conference for a few years. Augustana brings nothing to the conference other than its Sioux Falls location, which is already well covered by USD and SDSU. They will end up being a drag on the conference.
The only conference any of the Dakota schools could join is the MVC, and that isn't happening anytime soon. So might as well keep building the conference we have from within.
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