Conference Realignments - Take 2

[SiouxVolley]

Hampton is holding a press conference tomorrow to announce the it will join the Big South and leaving the MEAC.  Big South football will survive for the time being.

Hampton has eyes on the CAA so this move is just getting used to a non-HBCU conference.  Howard could be a CAA team too, but Howard has much more academic credentials.  So if schools are positioning themselves for the CAA, some movement will take place in the CAA.

[SiouxVolley]

Presbyterian is not moving to the Pioneer until at least 2021.  They have too many big payout games scheduled.

The school is also adding Pharmacy and Physicians assistant majors and a Health Sciences school, so they have money from somewhere.  And they will be adding sports, likely man and women's wrestling.

[SiouxVolley]

So EWU is really unhappy with the New Big Sky.  They won't get a guaranteed game against Montana now  as their annual rivals are now Idaho and Portland State.  The EWU AD wants formal divisions or the Big Sky North to split off so they get Montana and Montana St annually. 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/04/big-sky-athletic-directors-pondered-options-with-c/

Just gat the Montanas, Idaho and EWU to move to the Summit and everything will be dandy.

[darell1976]

19 minutes ago, SiouxVolley said:

So EWU is really unhappy with the New Big Sky.  They won't get a guaranteed game against Montana now  as their annual rivals are now Idaho and Portland State.  The EWU AD wants formal divisions or the Big Sky North to split off so they get Montana and Montana St annually. 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/oct/04/big-sky-athletic-directors-pondered-options-with-c/

Just gat the Montanas, Idaho and EWU to move to the Summit and everything will be dandy.

I don't think they would like the travel. They didn't care for the flight to play us. Just think of playing all four Dakota teams. 

[SiouxVolley]

21 minutes ago, darell1976 said:

I don't think they would like the travel. They didn't care for the flight to play us. Just think of playing all four Dakota teams. 

Guess the Big Sky is a bus league then?  Montana to Flagstaff, Cedar City, Greeley  and Sacramento are easy bus rides.

[SiouxVolley]

Richmond is considering the Patriot League for football:

http://www.richmond.com/sports/changing-football-landscape-could-be-among-john-hardt-s-challeges/

When JMU and Delaware go FBS, Richmond wouldn't want to stay CAA.

[nodak651]

34 minutes ago, darell1976 said:

I don't think they would like the travel. They didn't care for the flight to play us. Just think of playing all four Dakota teams. 

It wouldn't actually be that bad, though.  When they travel to the dakotas, UND/NDSU, and USD/SDSU are very short and easy drives between games.

Omaha/Denver wouldn't be so bad either, with cheap flights into and out of Denver.  Frontier currently has flights to Omaha for 68 dollars.

If Northern Colorado and UMKC were added, NoCol to Denver and UMKC to Omaha are also easy drives.

These aren't really any more difficult than SUU and NAU road trips for the Montana Schools.

Baseketball would be Very competitive in a merged league, especially if Weber comes along.  This league would compete with the new MVC, imo.  Take football from the MVFC and force UNI to make a big decision.

[bison73]

40 minutes ago, darell1976 said:

I don't think they would like the travel. They didn't care for the flight to play us. Just think of playing all four Dakota teams. 

Where do they bus to?

[SiouxVolley]

As part of the breakup of IPFW into a PFW and IUFW, only the PFW will still sponsor athletics and will be changing its colors to Purdue's black and gold from white and blue.  Hopefully, PFW gets invited to the Horizon in the next few months, as it's an eastern time school.  When that occurs, the sh** will hit the fan because PFW is the sixth school sponsoring baseball and men's soccer, and the Summit needs six to have an autobid for men's basketball.

http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/schools/20171109/color-scheme-change-part-of-ipfw-rebrand

[SiouxVolley]

Sounds like UCSD will get a DI offer and join the Big West.  UCSD is the highest rated academic school in DII and even above the vast majority of DI schools, but was voted down by the Big West last year.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-ucsd-expected-to-join-big-west-20171125-story.html

[SWSiouxMN]

WAC problems

Sound the alarms

[SiouxVolley]

1 hour ago, SWSiouxMN said:

WAC problems

Sound the alarms

UCDavis and Cal Poly probably just put in notices that they will move for football reasons, as the Big West at 11 does not make much sense..  The WAC needs to take Sam Houston St, Lamar and SF Austin.

[UNDBIZ]

Interesting group 

[Smoggy]

1 minute ago, UNDBIZ said:

Interesting group 

Beat me by a minute.  Great combination.  I have a feeling that football ends up doing the same. if they don't play in the same league 

[UNDBIZ]

2 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Beat me by a minute.  Great combination.  I have a feeling that football ends up doing the same. if they don't play in the same league 

Think the big sky is still upset with USD?

[Smoggy]

 

2 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Think the big sky is still upset with USD?

As they should be.

[SIOUXFAN97]

1 hour ago, UNDBIZ said:

Interesting group 

 am i missing something here?

[UNDBIZ]

1 hour ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

 am i missing something here?

Probably. 

[SWSiouxMN]

This is an interesting group... Eastern instead of Weber?

[SiouxVolley]

4 hours ago, UNDBIZ said:

Interesting group 

Those eight plus USD and Denver have already started a relationship.  A new Summit will be just a continuation and cementing of the existing relationships.

[SiouxVolley]

My bet is ORU moves to the WAC next.  The WACneeds more schools, and such a move would set off a crisis in the Summit, as it would be on course for losing its autobid as ORU sponsors key sports like baseball and men's soccer.  The Summit sponsoring football and inviting the Montana Idaho four would set the Summit on firm ground.

[The Sicatoka]

Those eight (UND, NDSU, SDSU, UNO + UM, MSU, UI, EWU) seem like an interesting consortium. I see 7 FB, 8 BB. 

What would be better for scheduling would be 9 FB (for 8 conference games) and 10 or 12 BB. 

The (semi-)obvious would be Weber State (west) and USD (east). That'd get it to 9 FB, 10 BB. 

After that, two BB only schools ... hmmm ... Denver and someone to balance. 

[jdub27]

16 hours ago, SiouxVolley said:

Those eight plus USD and Denver have already started a relationship.  A new Summit will be just a continuation and cementing of the existing relationships.

The ACC and B1G play a basketball challenge somewhat similar to this as do the Big 12 and SEC, I suppose those conferences are merging in some fashion as well? Those Big Sky teams have no real benefit in looking east and therefore no desire in doing so.

This is a helpful scheduling alliance that gets some guaranteed home games for teams that have some issues getting them due to location. The conferences helped facilitate it and at least they did a bit of work unlike the MVFC/Big Sky challenge that they decided to latch onto after the games were scheduled, though that idea was probably a small catalyst for this.

[SWSiouxMN]

I’d like to see a similar idea explored for WBB

[The Sicatoka]

How did UNO get that MBB Challenge Series slot and not USD?