SiouxVolley

"Our current members believe that the league’s present core of committed institutions gives us a solid foundation in which to build upon in the future.” – Tom Douple, Summit League Commissioner

Davidson is joining the A10, so the SoCon is down four teams (Appy St, Ga Southern, Charleston, and now Davidson). SoCon may also lose Elon to the Colonial. Some of these conferences are really being wiped out. SoCon is talking with VMI, East Tennessee St, Mercer, two of which are really only starting football.

http://www.arguslead...?nclick_check=1 Doesn't appear there is any short term plan to add fully Di members and get back to eight members, as Douple himself is stating there will only be seven teams at the conference tournament. Wow. Just Wow. There goes down the drain the idea perpetuated by these bison and jack fans that Douple had a plan. If Fullerton has a plan for FBS, why wouldn't NDSU take that. NDSU isn't getting any interest from any other FBS league, as Kolpack would have been all over that story if there was just a sliver of a chance. Imagine if UND was FBS and NDSU wasn't?

What's really bad for the Summit is that Oakland joins the Horizon this coming July. That puts the Summit's basketball bid on the clock because baseball will be down to 4. If Oakland had waited until the Summer of 2014, it would have given the Summit a bit more breathing room. Wonder if any official at NDSU or SDSU are even going to acknowledge how bad this could be. Would be surprised if Douple has any kind of plan except to retire.

That zooropa is really something: wanting the heads of Faison and Kelley because UND won't move baseball to the Summit and save SDSU's posterior:

The MVFC may be an entirely different story. There's no evidence that NDSU pushed for UND to get in that conference, especially with the way Taylor has wanted to avoid scheduling UND in football for years. If the Big Sky story about going FBS is true, that may be the only open door that NDSU and Taylor will ever get to FBS. Think Taylor and Bresciani could have very different views of their athletic relationship with UND and also of Douple.

This MplsBison guy just isn't too bright or horribly misinformed. A men's basketball autobid is contingent on meeting the requirements of the multisports conference requirement. So his statement that "it has no bearing whatsoever on men's basketball" is utterly false. By NCAA rules, a conference is only sponsoring a sport if six teams are in it, with some of those schools as affiliate teams from outside the league in sports other than basketball.. Their seem to be very few NDSU or SDSU fans that truly recognize how much the Summit League is in a bind. FargoBison may be the exception here. Taylor or Bresciani will have to tell those poor souls, as they refuse to read for themselves and certainly won't listen to Whioux fans.

That statement is so ass backwards and preposterous that it had to have come from bisonville. The fallacy in that statement is that no one wants to join a Dakota-centric conference, because few people live here. That's the precise reason that ORU, UMKC, and Oakland bailed on the Summit: it's too Dakota dominated and that buys the other schools nothing on the home front. If the Big Sky becomes a 16 team league for football with divisions, the Dakota schools would be in a separate division so they won't turn off the Pacific Time Zone schools. Sac, Poly, Davis, Portland don't have anywhere else to go.

Bison fans all seemed to think NDSU and the Big Sky was a marriage made in heaven back 10 years ago. When NDSU was forced into a marriage with the fat chick Summit (nice name for a really really big chic!), guess Bison fans have a bit more morals about divorce than I thought.

When Oakland leaves this week, maybe it will finally sink into their skulls that the Big Sky is their only option. They better be a bit gracious if the Big Sky ends up offering, cause they have no other options for their Olympics, unless they can plead with the WAC. NDSU and SDSU can stay in the Summit with USD and Omaha, while everyone else leaves, and see how many bids they get from the NCAA. Just rename the Summit the Great West!

A lot of construction to happen, especially with the IPF in the mix. Thought petroleum engineering is getting a big new building too mostly from corporate gifts. Anyone know what the plans will be for the old Medical school bldg? The remodel of it a decade ago gave it a nice indoor courtyard. For the athletic plan to work correctly, a parking ramp has to be build on the east side of Columbia and University so a soccer field and ourdoor T&F oval can be constructed over most of the student parking. The Med School will be built on the women's soccer field.

Over the next 15 months, NCAA DI is reviewing "subdivision placement" issues so Fullerton just isn't blowing smoke. http://www.ncaa.org/...l qualification

For the sport that falls under six members, the 2-year grace period is only good "provided the conference maintains at least five Division I members." Since Summit baseball had now fallen under five (to four), the 2-year grace period for baseball is gone (if there are no new baseball teams by July), and the conference at large will be under a 2-yr grace period for its basketball autobid for failing to meet the definition of a multisports conference.

The Summit is like a train without a conductor. One thing that could possibly save it is UND jumping aboard, so could end up seeing a lot of political pressure to force a move on UND to benefit NDSU. I think we need to be aware of that. A change in conferences by the other Dakotas would also change the whole dynamics of recruiting.

There are two separate grace periods: A.- one for a team sport that is not basketball B. - one for being a multisport conference and maintaining a men's basketball autobid The Summit would be moving from situation A to situation B if it doesn't maintain 5 baseball teams for another year, or return to six the following year.. If a conference has four men's team sports, Situation B won't happen even if Situation A ends up with a loss of an autobid for one sport. But I could be reading the bylaws wrong if the NCAA intends that a non-football league that doesn't sponsor three men's sports be immediately stripped of it's men's basketball autobid. The Summit League also needs to maintain six men's soccer teams and is vulnerable there too with Oakland and Kansas City leaving. The Summit League has two affiliate members in E Illinois and Oral Roberts in that sport that keep them alive there. If the MVC offered both ORU and EIU in that sport only, the Summit would also be in violation in that sport, as the Summit only has Denver, W Ill, IPFW, and IUPUI in that. Men's soccer (must be 6), men's baseball (must be 6), and total active DI members (must be 7) are the three criteria that especially matter for the men's basketball autobid, and the Summit is hurting in all three.

That would mean they have through 2014-15 to fill the void, assuming that they don't lose more schools or add more schools. Adding DII schools won't do them any good. Omaha's baseball when it becomes eligible would only get them to 5, which wouldn't add them any time. Right now, the whole situation can be corrected by adding two baseballs school by July 1st. If the Horizon adds either WIU or IPFW, then not only would baseball be down to three, but the Summit league would be down to six DI active teams and be on a grace period for that reason too. Losing two more members without any kind of replacement would kill the league. If the Summit can add Chicago St and NJIT, it would avoid any kind of grace period and provide a lot more insurance that the Summit can survive with at least 7 members by the time Omaha is fully DI. The Summit really is in a bind unless it can add Big Sky or WAC members.

Guess I was bored tonight so looked up issues around the Grace Period for Summit League baseball. The NCAA regulations clearly state that the Summit League will lose its auto bid for baseball if it falls below five members. When Oakland leaves, that means that the Summit League has to have another baseball member in place before July 1st, 2013. If the Summit League doesn't have a fifth baseball team in place by July 1st, the Summit League will also be in violation of not meeting the requirements of a Multisport conference (not having two men's team championships other than basketball that compete for NCAA autobids), which means the conference could lose their right to a men's basketball bid. So if baseball drops to four, Summit baseball no longer has an autobid, and the Summit League now is put on the clock for its men's basketball autobid. Here's the definition of a multi-sport conference, which the Summit League would no longer meet because of baseball. At best, the Summit League would have two years of grace to correct the lack of baseball (or it could offer another men's sport like hockey) or it could take football in house and add two more teams, otherwise the Summit League would be defunct in the eyes of the NCAA.

Yeah, its kind of funny, all these Bison trolls telling us how we have such sh*tty teams. But now come here and demand that our "sh*tty" teams move to their sh*tty conference? Guess Bison fans think the Summit League should be renamed the Outhouse League.

Don't know so much that it was Kelley as the SBoHE. Wouldn't doubt at all that they wanted the name gone and gave Kelley marching orders to get the job done quietly, and tasked different people to do different tasks. A couple of board members even went to Chicago to meet with Douple. When Douple accused UND of asking to get rid of the name, the SBoHE could very well have told Bresciani to get Douple to STFU by threatening him with his job. Douple did STFU immediately and will no longer answer any questions on the subject. The SBoHE could be why Bresciani has it out for Douple, because the SBoHE is the one that has the issue with Douple. Bresciani admitted he dinged Douple for bringing up the Sioux name after UND was in the Sky, but Bresciani didn't stop Douple from threatening UND before. Really, the SBoHE is in and always has been in Douple's line of command through Bresciani. Just food for thought. The SBoHE is about as dysfunctional as any group in the country, so it's not that far fetched. How a group like the SBoHE could be so impressed with Shirvani - not even do a background check that shows Shirvani's past lawsuits for thuggish managerial behavior - is almost unbelievable too.

Just for a Top 25 program to agree to come to a UND tournament shows how much UND's program has advanced in terms of how other coaches view it. A Top 25 team simply will not go to a tournament full of RPI killers. With the program down south in the dumps, they can't even dream of hosting a tournament like this now. I think it must be Iowa St, as UND has had spring matches against them (and was very competitive) so the coaches are very familiar with each other. Iowa State also has more volleyball prestige than Kansas, so it would help attract a very good 4th team. It can't be Texas, the defending national champion, as they would never play Texas A&M in a tournament outside the state of Texas and definitely not in Grand Forks. Surprised that Oklahoma St doesn't even sponsor women's volleyball.

Don't see Kelley and Faison even want to associate with Douple after what Douple accused them of. Bottom line, they probably told other Summit Presidents that they'd only consider the Summit for baseball if Douple's head was on a platter. Guess the Summit chose to keep Douple, but maybe at the expense of the league. Bresciani seems to be the only Summit League President that wants Douple fired. The other thing to consider is that UND has swimming in the WAC. How would the WAC react if UND rejected their baseball offer? Forcing UND swimming into the Summit diminishes UND swimming, especially with their only good swimming team Oakland threatening to leave.

The issue is that there were options that were half the price, but the political price was too high. When the US Federal government is taking on ridiculous debt, why whould Clay County or Moorhead dictate that the cheapest option can not be done, but citizens south of Fargo have no say with a diversion that is twice as expensive? A diversion around Moorhead is cheaper by nearly 50%, but Clay County politicians were dead set against it even if Fargo, N Dakota, and the Feds paid for it. Throw in a nicer hockey arena as a blatant bribe to Moorhead, and maybe the goverment and taxpayers would still be ahead by nearly a billion dollars. Effectively, this diversion version of the Fargo flood protection is $1 billion more than what could have happened if politicians just agreed to use tax payer money wisely and actually give FM protection earlier.

Losing Oakland in baseball is not progress, so don't see how the Summit can argue for more leeway. NJIT or some one else playing baseball needs to be on board by July 1st. Really admire your courage for stating this, but me thinks you'll be torn apart by SDSU fans. They just seem oblivious to the problems the Summit faces. NJIT could well be an answer, but they might have other options before the whole cascade of the Big East splitting hits other smaller conferences.

Here's an interesting story of how NCAA rules force conferences to make absurd geographical moves. The illustration is the DIII Great South conference, but it proves how even minor conferences in DIII have to go to extreme lengths to protect their autobids (the NCAA isn't interested in giving exemptions or extending grace periods). The Summit League had options later last year, prior to UTPA, Bakersfield, UVA, and Chicago St all being absorbed into the WAC, but now only NJIT can be their savior. http://deadspin.com/5978363/how-the-ncaa-causes-gigantism-the-story-of-the-small-regional-conference-that-swallowed-up-the-continent

Midco is probably going to make out real well on the Montana at UND game, as it will be able to sell rights elsewhere as it is non-conference game, Root isn't eligible to pick it up that game without paying Midco for the rights. UND vs Montana St probably gets picked up elsewhere too. http://missoulian.com/sports/college/montana/football/griz-left-to-close-tv-gap-left-by-root/article_13dc04ce-b224-11e2-a6cc-001a4bcf887a.html