Mid-Continent to add 3 Southern Schools(?)

[star2city]

As the conference realignment shuffle moves down the college ranks, the changes affect any hope NDSU or SDSU will soon have a conference affiliation. Right now, there are rumblings that the Mid-Continent will add New Orleans, Arkansas-Little Rock, and South Alabama from the Sunbelt. These three schools, which do not have football, will be the odd schools out if the Sunbelt and remaining WAC schools merge to protect their IA football. The Mid-Continent would gain three strong basketball and baseball schools and then split into northern and southern divisions. The Sunbelt/WAC would be a mega-conference split into southeast and western divisions that would easily meet the 8-team IA football conference requirement, protect against schools defecting to the Mountain West, and protect against losing teams to the attendance standards.

If this happens, NDSU and SDSU would really have no existing conference options. The Horizon and Missouri Valley Conferences, two long-shot hopes, at present look to be unaffected and they don’t normally even consider ‘new’ Div I teams.

If the Mid-Continent does pick up these three schools, NDSU and SDSU’s options are to be independent for what looks like 4-5 years minimum or piece together a scalawag conference of other Div I independents (N Colo, Utah Valley, IPFW, TxAM-Corpus Christi, and Tx-PanAm).

[RD17]

At this point, everything hinges on what the Mountain West does. It's been widely speculated that they're interested in poaching some of the WAC schools, namely Boise State, Hawaii, Fresno State, and Nevada. If the MWC takes two or more of those schools it will lead to a dominoe effect and most likely the remaining football schools in the Sun Belt will have to merge with the WAC leftovers to remain viable in I-A. If all this happens (it's better than a 50/50 chance IMO) the schools you mentioned will be first in line for the Mid-Con.

[Bisonfan1234]

Big Sky is still an option for NDSU and SDSU.

[ScottM]

Big Sky is still an option for NDSU and SDSU.

So is the Big 12.

[The Sicatoka]

Just as NDSU et al, the "haves" if you will, are frustrated with smaller, relatively underfunded schools flooding "their house" (division), apparently, so are the "haves" of the Division I ranks.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/sports/5989715.htm

This quote (from a Charlotte Observer article) should serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the NCAA:

"The NCAA is a voluntary organization," said Duke's (senior associate athletics director, Chris) Kennedy. "We choose to belong to it, we choose to pay dues."

They choose to hang around. I guess that means they could choose something else too.

That's the thoughts at Duke, and assumably by association, the ACC.

[bisonguy]

star2city,

The credibility of your "source" is laughable at best . What happened to IFPW, TexasAM-Corpus Cristi, and Texas Pan-Am all being the frontrunners for memebership into the Mid-Con? Has anyone noticed that the threads about those schools were all started by a NO fan (probably the only one)?

Here's something you might find interesting (it's on a message board, so it must be true )

In a closed door meeting, the Big Ten conference has decided to expand membership to fourteen. The new members of the Big Ten are North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Northern Colorado

[Bisonfan1234]

star2city,

The credibility of your "source" is laughable at best . What happened to IFPW, TexasAM-Corpus Cristi, and Texas Pan-Am all being the frontrunners for memebership into the Mid-Con? Has anyone noticed that the threads about those schools were all started by a NO fan (probably the only one)?

Here's something you might find interesting (it's on a message board, so it must be true )

LOL!

[elmduf]

At this point, everything hinges on what the Mountain West does. It's been widely speculated that they're interested in poaching some of the WAC schools, namely Boise State, Hawaii, Fresno State, and Nevada.

I doubt that would happen. The Mountain West Conference was formed BECAUSE the WAC overextended itself. Those schools bailed on the WAC and purposely left Hawaii and Fresno State out of the loop. Although you can never say never, I doubt they are looking to add any WAC schools at this time.

[star2city]

The credibility of your "source" is laughable at best  .  What happened to IFPW, TexasAM-Corpus Cristi, and Texas Pan-Am all being the frontrunners for memebership into the Mid-Con?  Has anyone noticed that the threads about those schools were all started by a NO fan (probably the only one)?

Message boards were chattering about Miami's move to the ACC well before it happened. This is no different. The Mid-Con would take those three schools in a heartbeat, but UNO, USA, and UALR would be very reluctant unless they had lesser options. The Mid-Con will do what is best for itself, and it really has no concern whether NDSU or SDSU are without a conference.

Tonight's news, probably eliminates the possibility of a SunBelt/WAC merger, as Utah St and N Mex State are moving from the SunBelt to the WAC. It also means that Idaho will be stranded an average of 2000 miles away from its Sunbelt rivals. To make matters even worse for Idaho, their athletic director jumped ship this month to San Diego State. So Idaho's options appear to be: pretend to be excited about their rivalries with Troy State and Middle Tennessee, or swallow their pride and drop back to I-AA football and accept the standing invitation from the Big Sky.

If nothing else, the Mid-Con's and Big Sky's actions have got to make NDSU and SDSU feel valued and highly desirable.

[bisonguy]

star2city,

Yup, message boards were chatting about Miami's move long before it happened. The most credible message board on the subject,College Sports Info, was talking about it long before anybody else. I trust the "rumblings" on there much more than some team's fan spouting off on a Valpo board. The next couple of years will be interesting in conference realignment, with moves by the WAC, C-USA, and the Sunbelt coming next.

[Bisonfan1234]

The Big Sky would be very happy to have Idaho back. That probably hurts NDSU and SDSU's chances of getting into the Big Sky.

We may still start our own conference. We'll see.

[CoteauRinkRat]

Why do you NDSU fans even care about our feelings on which conference you should/can/will go to?

You come on here to argue, nothing more.

[The Sicatoka]

So Idaho's options appear to be: pretend to be excited about their rivalries with Troy State and Middle Tennessee, or swallow their pride and drop back to I-AA football and accept the standing invitation from the Big Sky.

Idaho is in a very tough spot considering the new DIA football minimum average attendance per home game requirements coming on line.

The following is the list of DIAs that do not make (or made by less than 500 people per game) the new average per game minimum for DIA football (based on 2002 average home game attendance):

North Texas

Louisiana-Lafayette

Houston

Wyoming

Troy State

Arkansas State

Ball State

Akron

Buffalo

Middle Tennessee State

Idaho

Eastern Michigan

San Jose State

Kent State

Louisiana-Monroe

Schools that don't meet the minimum DIA home attendance will be pushed back down to DIAA by the NCAA under the new rules.

See any names in that list the Big Sky would find interesting before looking outside of their current geography?

[Bisonfan1234]

Obviously Idaho and Wyoming would be their targets although technically they would consider San Jose State because they already have Sac State.

[bisonguy]

Wyoming would drop football before they move to I-AA, probably along with Idaho. It has been discussed on the Griz boards before.

CoteauRinkRat,

Why do UND fans even care what conference NDSU ends up in? I come on here to discuss, not argue.

[RD17]

I doubt that would happen. The Mountain West Conference was formed BECAUSE the WAC overextended itself. Those schools bailed on the WAC and purposely left Hawaii and Fresno State out of the loop. Although you can never say never, I doubt they are looking to add any WAC schools at this time.

I realize the Mountain West schools ditched the rest of the WAC a few years ago. There are two very good reasons for them to add schools back to the conference now. The first is the minimum home game requirement for I-A schools that starts next year. With only 8 schools in the MWC, every year half of the schools only have 3 conference home games making it necessary (and hard on the budget) to bring in other schools to fill out their home schedule.

The other reason is bowl game tie-ins. Boise St. and Hawaii would bring bowl games (Humanitarian and Aloha) with them if they were to join the MWC. Another advantage to adding Hawaii is that if you play them on the island, the NCAA will allow you to play an extra game over the maximum in that year.

Here's a good article from today's Boise newspaper that talks about MWC expansion:

link

[star2city]

Why do UND fans even care what conference NDSU ends up in?

For a couple of reasons:

So Sioux fans get better understand why a reasonably firm Div I conference commitment is a necessity (which the Carr reports said was needed for success) and how little strategy has gone into NDSU/SDSU's plan for conference affiliation.

Secondly, to give NDSU / SDSU lurkers get a reality view of their true challenge and likely independent future, with the spin of Taylor/Chapman and Oien/Miller removed. If they get into a conference in the next several years, it will be because of shear luck in spite of their own bungling.

[bisonguy]

The WAC already countered the C-USA migration by inviting Utah State and New Mexico State.

It's a great time to be an AD looking for a DI conference! The possibilities are endless!

[elmduf]

There are two very good reasons for them to add schools back to the conference now. The first is the minimum home game requirement for I-A schools that starts next year. With only 8 schools in the MWC, every year half of the schools only have 3 conference home games making it necessary (and hard on the budget) to bring in other schools to fill out their home schedule.

RD17,

That was an interesting article, but it seemed to have more to do with Boise State lobbying to join that MWC than anyone in the MWC showing interest in them.

However, I could see expansion based on the minimum home game requirement. MWC teams seem to look for an easy win here and there, just like any other football program. With these new attendance requirements, it's going to tougher for those schools to pick up a I-A win against a lower conference if the MWC ends up being at the very bottom of the barrel. I just don't see Hawaii as an option. It's a travel nightmare for any school outside of the west coast. If they did expand by two schools, I would bet on Fresno State and Nevada. I also see Wyoming under Joe Glenn improving! (I loved their win over BYU!) Their attendance should now reach the minimum needed.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to eventually seeing NDSU come down to Fort Collins for the "every fourth year" Ram's vs the unknown I-AA school buttwhooping. Hey, NDSU fans will feel welcome with the Green and Gold on all the Ram fans at CSU! Unfortunately, they quit selling beer at Hughes Stadium, so our poor friends from moo U will have to watch their football heroes get stomped while being stone cold sober.

[DamStrait]

We may still start our own conference. We'll see.

Yeah! And you can call it the North Central Conference! Hey... wait a minute..where have I heard that name before?

[Bisonfan1234]

Yeah! And you can call it the North Central Conference! Hey... wait a minute..where have I heard that name before?

I'm curious how many schools move down a division in football after moving up? I don't know for sure but i bet it's very small. It's still possible to that we could move back, but now that we've committed i don't think we will put much consideration into moving back down. This is barring a major reclassification by the NCAA.