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Post by gopheryote on Aug 18, 2021 9:39:46 GMT -6
News:
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Post by kiyoat on Aug 18, 2021 13:47:27 GMT -6
Wow. I don't know what precipitated this, but he has had a pretty long career in athletics admin. Here's a full bio from the Summit League site: thesummitleague.org/staff.aspx?staff=1-Native of Lebanon, PA -1976 graduate of LSU - All-conference track athlete -8 years teaching and coaching high school in Baton Rouge, LA. -3 years Assoc. AD @ Cornell -20 years Asst. Supervisor, Facilities/ Asst. AD @ LSU -? years AD SE Louisiana State -5 years AD Southern Utah -16 years Commissioner Summit League Wonder if he will stay in SF or move back to Louisiana? Spent a good deal of his life there. |
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timt89
Freshman Member
Posts: 9 
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Post by timt89 on Aug 18, 2021 18:48:50 GMT -6
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Post by easmus on Aug 18, 2021 20:21:07 GMT -6
I don’t think this was a voluntary retirement. Why would a commissioner retire right as school is starting effective October 1? 🤔 If this was his decision wouldn’t this have happened back in April or May and been effective June 30th with time to find a replacement before school starts? Yes, the answer is yes.
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Post by Yotes on Aug 18, 2021 20:28:06 GMT -6
Without reading, I agree that his legacy is mixed. I give him credit for letting Sioux Falls and the Dakota schools do their thing, and also for seeing the potential in St Thomas. I'm largely critical of everything else I witnessed the past several years. Expansion has effectively been limited to pursuing schools who were chased to worse situations. There was a period where I wasn't sure the league would survive. I believe it would have folded if Denver had any respectable options, ORU didn't fall flat in Southland baseball, and/or WIU didn't have their budget issues (even IUPUI and IPFW found Horizon invites). I look forward to seeing what new leadership may bring. |
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Post by GoYotes on Aug 18, 2021 21:08:15 GMT -6
Tough crowd. I think overall Douple did a real solid job. I didn't agree with everything the Summit League did during his tenure, such as getting rid of MBB / WBB DH's this year, last season's scheduling fiasco with every single USD SDSU game taking place in Brookings, etc. But in the big picture he definitely left the Summit League in a much better position than when he started. He built a strong core with the 4 Dakota schools, added members in the 3 largest metro's surrounding the Dakota's; Denver, KC & the Twin Cities, plus a member in 2 other large regional metros; Omaha and Tulsa. His leadership also helped establish the Summit League MBB & WBB tournaments as one of the top mid-major tournaments in the nation.
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Post by Yote 53 on Aug 19, 2021 8:13:33 GMT -6
I don't know why DU and some of the "outliers" have such a problem with the "Dakota-centric" conference. Every conference needs stability and support and the Dakota schools provide that. Without the Dakota schools this conference would have dissolved a long time ago. Instead it is building, solid in its core, and getting better and more competitive. There was a time where every school in the conference would have jumped to another conference without a second thought if they got an invite. Now, I'm not so sure that is the case. The Summit is quickly chasing down and passing other mid-major conferences. There was also a time when the Summit would admit any warm body that wanted in the conference. That is no longer the case either. The conference can be more selective, as we have seen already with the Augustana situation.
A simple look at the map and you can see it's not a bad setup for travel for a mid-major conference based west of the Mississippi River. I-29 connects all the Dakota schools. I-35 intersects and connects ORU, UMKC, and UST. I-80 connects the conference east to west. Yeah, DU is on the western flank and the travel is tougher on them but some school is always going to be on the edge of the boundary. UND is on the northern tip and travel for them to Denver, Tulsa, and Macomb can't be easy either.
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Post by kiyoat on Aug 19, 2021 9:16:16 GMT -6
I don't know why DU and some of the "outliers" have such a problem with the "Dakota-centric" conference. Every conference needs stability and support and the Dakota schools provide that. Without the Dakota schools this conference would have dissolved a long time ago. Instead it is building, solid in its core, and getting better and more competitive. There was a time where every school in the conference would have jumped to another conference without a second thought if they got an invite. Now, I'm not so sure that is the case. The Summit is quickly chasing down and passing other mid-major conferences. There was also a time when the Summit would admit any warm body that wanted in the conference. That is no longer the case either. The conference can be more selective, as we have seen already with the Augustana situation. A simple look at the map and you can see it's not a bad setup for travel for a mid-major conference based west of the Mississippi River. I-29 connects all the Dakota schools. I-35 intersects and connects ORU, UMKC, and UST. I-80 connects the conference east to west. Yeah, DU is on the western flank and the travel is tougher on them but some school is always going to be on the edge of the boundary. UND is on the northern tip and travel for them to Denver, Tulsa, and Macomb can't be easy either. Yeah, it's funny to read the criticisms from DU fans and writers that savage the fact that the conference is Dakota-centric, but will still acknowledge that it is a better, more stable conference than it was in the past. Sorry, but you can't have everything. There are trade-offs. I'll take stability. One trade-off is the fact that our current conference geographic footprint is not chock-full of up-and-coming programs. St Thomas was the exception. OTOH, the "satelite" programs are largely in big metro areas with good airports. The big plus is the long-understood fact (around here, anyway) that the former NCC was always a sleeping giant. Other regions need to get over themselves and recognize that elite level athletes CAN and CONTINUE to be found in flyover country. Douple understood that, at least. I don't know how much of his successes were dumb luck and how much was a cunning strategy, ..... but they happened. |
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Post by fightsd on Aug 19, 2021 10:47:28 GMT -6
I don't know why DU and some of the "outliers" have such a problem with the "Dakota-centric" conference. Every conference needs stability and support and the Dakota schools provide that. Without the Dakota schools this conference would have dissolved a long time ago. Instead it is building, solid in its core, and getting better and more competitive. There was a time where every school in the conference would have jumped to another conference without a second thought if they got an invite. Now, I'm not so sure that is the case. The Summit is quickly chasing down and passing other mid-major conferences. There was also a time when the Summit would admit any warm body that wanted in the conference. That is no longer the case either. The conference can be more selective, as we have seen already with the Augustana situation. A simple look at the map and you can see it's not a bad setup for travel for a mid-major conference based west of the Mississippi River. I-29 connects all the Dakota schools. I-35 intersects and connects ORU, UMKC, and UST. I-80 connects the conference east to west. Yeah, DU is on the western flank and the travel is tougher on them but some school is always going to be on the edge of the boundary. UND is on the northern tip and travel for them to Denver, Tulsa, and Macomb can't be easy either. I think the SL is in a place now where they don't need Denver as much as Denver needs the SL. DU's criticisms lie largely in the fact that they've been competitively passed by the Dakota schools in the sports that garner the most media coverage, men's and women's hoops. They've been a mainstay at the top of the conference in volleyball for years, but outside of that, they're most successful programs are ones that many other conference members don't compete in, or don't generate much public interest: men's soccer, tennis, etc. But when it comes to earning a spot in one of the most watched sporting events of the year, the NCAA basketball tournaments, DU has struggled. They can blame it on the SLT being in SF or that their travel situation is worse, but the fact is, they haven't kept up with the Dakota schools where they needed to. If they think they'd be better suited in a different conference, I think the SL has become attractive enough that they wouldn't be missed too much. Just my opinion I guess. |
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Post by Yotes on Aug 19, 2021 21:31:31 GMT -6
I don't know why DU and some of the "outliers" have such a problem with the "Dakota-centric" conference. Every conference needs stability and support and the Dakota schools provide that. Without the Dakota schools this conference would have dissolved a long time ago. Instead it is building, solid in its core, and getting better and more competitive. There was a time where every school in the conference would have jumped to another conference without a second thought if they got an invite. Now, I'm not so sure that is the case. The Summit is quickly chasing down and passing other mid-major conferences. There was also a time when the Summit would admit any warm body that wanted in the conference. That is no longer the case either. The conference can be more selective, as we have seen already with the Augustana situation. A simple look at the map and you can see it's not a bad setup for travel for a mid-major conference based west of the Mississippi River. I-29 connects all the Dakota schools. I-35 intersects and connects ORU, UMKC, and UST. I-80 connects the conference east to west. Yeah, DU is on the western flank and the travel is tougher on them but some school is always going to be on the edge of the boundary. UND is on the northern tip and travel for them to Denver, Tulsa, and Macomb can't be easy either. Interstates aren't relevant when schools have to fly over them. I'm sure ORU isn't okay that they are driving over 10 hours to St Thomas since it's all I-35. Denver doesn't feel connected to the Summit just because I-80 takes them to Omaha. The conference remains on shaky ground with a very small core. WIU could close down, UMKC and ORU left once already, and UNO has already tried to leave multiple times. I'd expect St Thomas will leave as well once they get D1 facilities. We've always been able to claim superiority over other small or mid-majors, but are also always dangerously close to the brink of running back to the Big Sky. No one will ever want to be in a Dakota-centric conference unless we start inviting NSU and Augie. The Dakotas are not attractive to anyone but a very select few. |
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Post by usdguy99 on Dec 5, 2021 9:24:56 GMT -6
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Post by Yotes on Dec 5, 2021 14:07:47 GMT -6
The reaction I saw online was a lot of NCHC fans disappointed to see him go. I wasn't expecting a one-sport AD to get the job, but those hockey fans sure seemed to like him. He's definitely familiar with how to put on successful events in this part of the country.
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Post by Coyote Fan on Dec 5, 2021 22:41:51 GMT -6
I don't think it is going to be difficult to be better than Douple.
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Post by nodak651 on Dec 27, 2021 11:27:31 GMT -6
I don't think it is going to be difficult to be better than Douple. This. I'm a UND fan and everyone in the NCHC liked Fenton. The NCHC had a terrible commissioner the first year or so of the league, and once Fenton came on, there was a noticeable change for the better. Every decision he has made has been legit. He is also resistant to expansion for expansion sake alone, as seen when he declined Arizona State's and Mankato's applications to join the conference. He declined their applications, despite Mankato being a local top 10 team and ASU being a P5 team, because there wasn't a clear benefit to the existing conference members by their addition. As this relates to USD, his history shows that he would likely be against adding Augastana to the Summit, which is an option that I think most fans of the Dakota schools are against, as it does nothing to improve the league. Fenton also has executive ties to CBS Sports Network, and he was key to getting the NCHC hockey conference a CBSSN deal with them. If he was successful in getting them to broadcast college hockey, ya gotta think there could be potential for basketball or football there as well, or he could potentially use them to at least leverage a better deal with ESPN. I also think that he may look to bring the NCHC under the arm of the Summit, once St. Thomas announces a new arena. This would help to lock UST, Omaha, and DU into the Summit league, as accepting an invite to a different conference would cause their hockey teams to lose conference affiliation with what would be the best league in the country. This would be huge as I think it would essentially block poaching attempts by the MVC if they were to offer an invite to UST or Omaha. Omaha was originally scheduled to make a presentation to the MVC last week, and after the Fenton announcement, that presentation was cancelled - I'm curious as to why, and would be curious to know if he had a chat with them.. |
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Post by nodak651 on Dec 27, 2021 11:29:33 GMT -6
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