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Post by GoYotes on May 24, 2023 17:22:41 GMT -6
USD and UND both received invitations in 2010 to join the Big Sky and UND accepted the invitation on November 1, 2010. However, USD received a last minute invite to the MVFC, which was accepted on November 4, 2010. I wonder what our conference situation would look like today had we accepted the all sports invitation to the Big Sky.
>>Would the Summit League still exist or would the lack of members resulted in its demise and SDSU and NDSU following USD and UND to the Big Sky? >>Would Omaha have made the move to D1? >>Would St Thomas have made the move from D3 to D1 or perhaps instead moved to D2 and joined the Northern Sun?
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jmgg
Sophomore Member
Posts: 102
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Post by jmgg on May 24, 2023 19:16:18 GMT -6
I'm sure the university could afford it as long as we stay within the Title 9 borders and offer only a few scholarships.Walk-ons count against Title IX too, because they are participants. It's not just about scholarship numbers. If we started baseball, we would also need to add a sponsored sport for women to offset the baseball players, regardless of how many of them are on scholarship. I suppose having a bunch of walk-ons might help a little bit with the cost of fielding the team, but not much in the grand scheme of things. There are tons of costs beyond scholarships. If we could fill up the dome with football fans, that would go a long way in determining how many other non-revenue sports we could sponsor. For now, I'd guess the budget wouldn't allow for a baseball team. So buy some football tickets! I didn't realize that walk-ons count against Title IX. This makes no sense as they're getting no more benefits than regular students on the campus. That shoots down everything I was mentioning.
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jmgg
Sophomore Member
Posts: 102
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Post by jmgg on May 24, 2023 19:19:26 GMT -6
I’m not sure when you were at USD, but two sport athletes are extremely rare now. The only recent examples I can think of are Amber Hegge and some football players moonlighting on the track and field team. I can’t imagine any of our men’s coaching staffs agreeing to lend their athletes to the baseball team. The competition level is way too high on both sides of that arrangement, and, frankly, it would be embarrassing. I'm old as dirt. I attending USD in the mid-70's. I know the competition level is amped up a lot. Several of the best players on the USD baseball team back then WERE the crossovers. Just better overall athletes.
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Post by Yotes on May 24, 2023 21:10:42 GMT -6
USD and UND both received invitations in 2010 to join the Big Sky and UND accepted the invitation on November 1, 2010. However, USD received a last minute invite to the MVFC, which was accepted on November 4, 2010. I wonder what our conference situation would look like today had we accepted the all sports invitation to the Big Sky. >>Would the Summit League still exist or would the lack of members resulted in its demise and SDSU and NDSU following USD and UND to the Big Sky? >>Would Omaha have made the move to D1? >>Would St Thomas have made the move from D3 to D1 or perhaps instead moved to D2 and joined the Northern Sun? Should have gone Big Sky. I get that being reunited with the xDSUs was valuable at the time, but we always live in a precarious situation now with the Summit. 4 Dakota schools isn't nearly a good enough foundation for a conference. We need to find a way into an arrangement with the regional state schools. The MVC has decided we are worthless except to complete their football league, so we have to look west. If we can't get into a league with Montana then we will eventually be in a league with Augustana. You tell me what is better.
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Post by Yote 53 on May 25, 2023 13:20:05 GMT -6
USD and UND both received invitations in 2010 to join the Big Sky and UND accepted the invitation on November 1, 2010. However, USD received a last minute invite to the MVFC, which was accepted on November 4, 2010. I wonder what our conference situation would look like today had we accepted the all sports invitation to the Big Sky. >>Would the Summit League still exist or would the lack of members resulted in its demise and SDSU and NDSU following USD and UND to the Big Sky? >>Would Omaha have made the move to D1? >>Would St Thomas have made the move from D3 to D1 or perhaps instead moved to D2 and joined the Northern Sun? Should have stuck with the Big Sky invite. I was a huge proponent of going to the Big Sky at the time because I have always believed, and still do, that the futures of the Dakota schools align with the Montana schools. If the UXDs would have stuck together and headed West it would have only been a couple of years before the XDSUs would have followed. That was the Big Sky's plan all along, to have all 4 of us. Today we would all be sitting in a Big Sky conference with the Montana & Idaho schools, UNC, EWU, and maybe Weber State at the very least and the southwest contingent of the conference would have probably broke off and went to the WAC like SUU already has. We'd have our Big North Conference by now. If the MVC publics would just wake up and figure out they are being used by the MVC privates and dump them and make an all sports MVFC that would be an awesome conference too, but I doubt that ever happens. So here we are, stuck in the purgatory that is the Summit League.
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Post by GoYotes on May 25, 2023 13:38:44 GMT -6
Another "what if" is where would we be today had NDSU & SDSU kept their football in the Great West? They left the Great West for the MVFC starting with the 2008 season, which was the same year USD & UND joined the Great West. Cal Poly & UC Davis were also members at that time and they didn't leave the Great West until the Great West stopped sponsoring football after the 2011 season. Had the SU's kept their football in the Great West it would have likely morphed into Summit League football and who knows what other schools may have joined as either all sports or football only members.
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Post by elcoyote on May 25, 2023 14:01:45 GMT -6
I think the main reason the Summit/MVFC was chosen over the Big Sky was that travel costs would have been something like $800,000 higher per year. Personally, I would prefer the Big Sky simply because it would be nice to take trips to scenic places in the West rather than industrial wastelands like Youngstown and other blah towns in Indiana, Illinois etc. Stop typing, I realize Vermillion, Brookings etc. aren't exactly the garden spots of America either.
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Post by wrj on May 25, 2023 17:16:33 GMT -6
IIRC, and I might not, the XDSU's pursued membership in the Big Sky at their transition to Division I. They were refused. It has been a real moving target trying to establish long term conference stability.
I also recall that there was concern regarding time zones. Membership in the Big Sky would have meant that almost all road games would have started and ended one hour later which could adversely affect fan interest in radio and video coverage. It would have our athletes changing time zones about every other week. Some think that is not significant, but talk to people about the annual changes to and from daylight savings time.
To me, the real "what if" question is what if the uxd's had made the transition when the XDSU's did? Would numbers all at once have been more interesting to conference membership or formation?
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Post by Cousin Eddie on Jun 8, 2023 8:17:13 GMT -6
One need only look at why UND left the Big Sky to come to the Summit/MVFC. The travel costs of the Big Sky are crippling.
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Post by Yote 53 on Jun 9, 2023 8:49:28 GMT -6
Not if USD, UND, SDSU, NDSU, and UNC are all in the BSC forming an eastern flank. Brings travel costs down considerably and provides for a very stable conference with peer schools in the Montanas and Idahos. Yes, one school being on an eastern island of the BSC did not work. All of the Dakota schools is a different deal.
We'd basically have the Big North conference with the Dakotas, Montanas, and Idahos by now if we would have stuck with UND in the BSC.
Here is the biggest point - stability. The Summit has been unstable and a revolving door since the day we joined. Every school in this conference is looking to move or would jump at the chance of joining a better, more stable conference. While the Dakota schools have a common interest that binds us together, the rest of the schools in this conference the only thing we all have in common is nobody else wants any of us. I think the Dakota schools deserve something better than that.
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fssd
Freshman Member
Posts: 57
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Post by fssd on Jun 10, 2023 15:20:33 GMT -6
Not if USD, UND, SDSU, NDSU, and UNC are all in the BSC forming an eastern flank. Brings travel costs down considerably and provides for a very stable conference with peer schools in the Montanas and Idahos. Yes, one school being on an eastern island of the BSC did not work. All of the Dakota schools is a different deal. We'd basically have the Big North conference with the Dakotas, Montanas, and Idahos by now if we would have stuck with UND in the BSC. Here is the biggest point - stability. The Summit has been unstable and a revolving door since the day we joined. Every school in this conference is looking to move or would jump at the chance of joining a better, more stable conference. While the Dakota schools have a common interest that binds us together, the rest of the schools in this conference the only thing we all have in common is nobody else wants any of us. I think the Dakota schools deserve something better than that. Nailed it!! Absolutely true, if only USD stayed in the Big Sky.
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