Saw this post of yours on GPL, MafiaMan. Responding here because it was in a series thread:
You can still make that road trip to Duluth and St. Cloud if you want.
Also you want 3 roads trips to the UP versus easy plane trips to Denver and CC? There is a huge alumni base in Denver. I'd take driving to Omaha versus to any of those UP schools.
Do you live in the TC area? I live in Minot. It'd be way easier for me taking a plane to Denver versus getting to the UP. Hell, I'd rather even drive to Denver!
Swap out MTU, LSSU, and NMU for Denver, CC, and Omaha and I like that conference set up.