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Posted

If baseball is to remain viable, a conference home will be needed soon. The Great West possibly won't exist beyond the 2012 season. Even if it does exist, it needs to work toward autobid status, which isn't possible unless it has consistent membership.

The logical conference to look into is the WAC, as it has lost three schools and only gained two:

Current WAC baseball:

Hawaii

San Jose St

Fresno St

Sacramento St

Nevada

N Mex St

La Tech

New schools added

UTSA

Texas St

Lamar likely gets added to the WAC.

The WAC is also looking at non-football schools like Seattle, Utah Valley, and Bakersfield, which all have baseball.

Southern Utah and Northern Colorado will also be looking for a baseball-only WAC affiliation.

With seven or eight baseball slots filled, the WAC won't be interested in UND.

The Southland could end up adding Houston Baptist and UTPA, to back fill the losses of UTSA, Lamar, and Texas St, further depleting Great West baseball.

That would leave the Great West baseball with only the following schools:

UND

No Colo

Chicago St

NJIT

New York Tech

Those five could survive as a separate league - named something other then the Great West - if they could add one more independent or if Houston Baptist, UTPA, or UVU don't receive invitations. The only other independents would be Southern Utah, LeMoyne (NY), Longwood (Va), and Dallas Baptist. Dallas Baptist probably wouldn't accept, as that school has made it to the NCAA's playing a strong independent schedule. A northern league would kill Dallas Baptist's chances.

Remarkably, the best shot for UND baseball might be the Summit League, but with the mess between Douple and UND, highly doubt that there are good relationships there.

The Summit League has 8 teams, but will be losing two: Centenary and Southern Utah. That would leave the Summit with only six teams, meaning if they lose one more (Oral Roberts to the Southland or WAC), the Summit league would lose their autobid.

Considering the relationship between UND administrators and the Summit, the Summit probably will choose a school like Northern Colorado - which would be a double blow to UND baseball.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Posted

If baseball is to remain viable, a conference home will be needed soon. The Great West possibly won't exist beyond the 2012 season. Even if it does exist, it needs to work toward autobid status, which isn't possible unless it has consistent membership.

The logical conference to look into is the WAC, as it has lost three schools and only gained two:

Current WAC baseball:

Hawaii

San Jose St

Fresno St

Sacramento St

Nevada

N Mex St

La Tech

New schools added

UTSA

Texas St

Lamar likely gets added to the WAC.

The WAC is also looking at non-football schools like Seattle, Utah Valley, and Bakersfield, which all have baseball.

Southern Utah and Northern Colorado will also be looking for a baseball-only WAC affiliation.

With seven or eight baseball slots filled, the WAC won't be interested in UND.

The Southland could end up adding Houston Baptist and UTPA, to back fill the losses of UTSA, Lamar, and Texas St, further depleting Great West baseball.

That would leave the Great West baseball with only the following schools:

UND

No Colo

Chicago St

NJIT

New York Tech

Those five could survive as a separate league - named something other then the Great West - if they could add one more independent or if Houston Baptist, UTPA, or UVU don't receive invitations. The only other independents would be Southern Utah, LeMoyne (NY), Longwood (Va), and Dallas Baptist. Dallas Baptist probably wouldn't accept, as that school has made it to the NCAA's playing a strong independent schedule. A northern league would kill Dallas Baptist's chances.

Remarkably, the best shot for UND baseball might be the Summit League, but with the mess between Douple and UND, highly doubt that there are good relationships there.

The Summit League has 8 teams, but will be losing two: Centenary and Southern Utah. That would leave the Summit with only six teams, meaning if they lose one more (Oral Roberts to the Southland or WAC), the Summit league would lose their autobid.

Considering the relationship between UND administrators and the Summit, the Summit probably will choose a school like Northern Colorado - which would be a double blow to UND baseball.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

My money's on UND dropping baseball after 2012. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Posted

I think baseball will be the casualty of choosing the Big Sky over the Summit League. I still find it interesting that people feel that scheduling for football was near impossible without a conference...try scheduling 60 baseball games with-out a conference.

Posted

I think baseball will be the casualty of choosing the Big Sky over the Summit League. I still find it interesting that people feel that scheduling for football was near impossible without a conference...try scheduling 60 baseball games with-out a conference.

Didn't we already do that here?

In response to Bison Dan's post..... With the recent upgrades to Kraft Field, I don't think baseball is on the chopping block at this time.

Posted

What about dropping baseball and bring back wrestling. Title IX killed that sport for us but we could bring it back.

"IF" baseball were to be dropped, bring on lacrosse. The sport is booming. Wrestling is dying.

Posted

Thanks for the info... I was just trying to gauge the popularity of the sport... you know like NCAA hockey has both D1 and D3.

Reading slightly further I see 37 DII schools and 166 DIII.

I didn't know The University of South Dakota was in a Lacrosse league.

Great Rivers Lacrosse ConferenceInstitution Nickname Affiliation Enrollment

University of Arkansas Razorbacks Public 19,939

Creighton University Bluejays Private 7,368

DePaul University Blue Demons Private 16,199

University of Illinois at Urbana

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Has there been any talk from UND on the future of UND baseball in 2012 and beyond? My nephew toured UND and may be starting in the fall he plays baseball for Rosemount HS and I told him how the BSC doesn't offer baseball.

Posted

Has there been any talk from UND on the future of UND baseball in 2012 and beyond? My nephew toured UND and may be starting in the fall he plays baseball for Rosemount HS and I told him how the BSC doesn't offer baseball.

Baseball will continue at UND for the foreseeable future.

Posted

Has there been any talk from UND on the future of UND baseball in 2012 and beyond? My nephew toured UND and may be starting in the fall he plays baseball for Rosemount HS and I told him how the BSC doesn't offer baseball.

Baseball will continue at UND for the foreseeable future.

  • 4 months later...
Posted

With Baseball and Men's Golf the only teams without a conference in a year, is there any possibility of them following the Women's Swimming & Diving Team to the WAC? The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation does not sponsor either of these sports. Both the Missouri Valley and the Summit do, but seem unlikely homes.

Posted

With Baseball and Men's Golf the only teams without a conference in a year, is there any possibility of them following the Women's Swimming & Diving Team to the WAC? The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation does not sponsor either of these sports. Both the Missouri Valley and the Summit do, but seem unlikely homes.

Even if the Great West all-sports conference falls apart after this coming year, almost all the current Great West baseball schools would still need a home. Also, Cal St-Bakersfield and Longwood are still hanging out as independents. All of the other baseball independents (LeMoyne, NC Central, New Orleans, SIU-E, Seattle, Dallas Baptist, Savannah St) have either found a league within the next two seasons or they are moving to Division II.

The Missouri Valley added Dallas Baptist, which has top-notch baseball, as a baseball affiliate, so that's almost certainly not an option for UND.

The Summit League almost certainly doesn't need another cold weather team that is unlikely to host until late April.

It is possible that a Great West Baseball Conference could qualify as a single-sport conference and gain an autobid if six full DI members stay together for two years.

Utah Valley, N Colo, UTPA, and Chicago St were all full DI members this year. HBU, UND, and NJIT are all in transition. New York Tech is a DII school, DI only in baseball, so they don't count toward the six necessary for an autobid (unlike in hockey, where DII or DIII schools count toward the six members for a DI autobid ).

If the league stays together for three more years with at least six full DI members, the Great West could gain an autobid in 2014 or 2015.

Since Bakersfield still doesn't have a league in any sport, they may consider the Great West, if only in baseball.

It's thought that Longwood will be offered a spot in the Atlantic Sun Conference, but that conference hasn't yet made a move after losing Belmont and Gardner-Webb.

  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

The Summit League will be down to five teams plus Omaha in baseball: IPFW, Oakland, NDSU, SDSU, and WIU.

Since Omaha is in transition, it won't count toward the six teams until mid-decade. The Summit has to add teams in order to keep its autobid.

So will the Summit add No Colo and UND as affiliates? Or will the Summit add an affiliate like UTPA so it can have early season games in a warm location?

The Summit is in position to kill the Great West baseball conference. If the Summit doesn't include UND baseball, that sport may be endangered at UND.

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