What conference will the other Dakotas be in 2015?

[CMSioux]

Did sac state put up a fuss when NDSU was trying to get into the Big Sky? As you know they had a !@#$ fit when we joined.

Can you document that - all I saw was one newspaper blogger sounding off - was there more than that?

[CMSioux]

They can say what they want. Maybe that was the case and they changed their mind from awhile back. A few years back the Big 10 wouldn't have probably taken Rutgers or Maryland. A few years back the Big East wouldn't have taken San Diego State. Re-Alignment has been an interesting thing.

Are you of the opinion that UND-USD was more attractive than NDSU-SDSU?

I have no behind the scenes knowledge I just know who they offered membership to and who they didn't which seems to answer that question.

[darell1976]

Douple took over in 2005, here are the teams that have left:

Chicago State 2006

Centenary 2011

Southern Utah 2012

Oral Roberts 2012

UMKC 2013

Oakland 2013

Teams that joined since Douple took over:

IPFW 2007

NDSU 2007

SDSU 2007

USD 2011

UNO 2012 (transition until 2016)

DU 2013 (no baseball)

[jdub27]

Can you document that - all I saw was one newspaper blogger sounding off - was there more than that?

To the best of my knowledge, it was just one newspaper guy as well. Their AD is Terry Wanless, former UND AD. I don't think he was against UND joining.

[UND1983]

I love how the Douple's on Bisonville are now saying that the Summit never invited UND and were never going to. It is basically the exact opposite of that. UND canceled the visit by Douple and took the Big Sky invite instead. That is fact. The visit was a formality and the invite was coming very shortly after that Monday visit.

[Matt]

I love how the Douple's on Bisonville are now saying that the Summit never invited UND and were never going to. It is basically the exact opposite of that. UND canceled the visit by Douple and took the Big Sky invite instead. That is fact. The visit was a formality and the invite was coming very shortly after that Monday visit.

I love how you just used the term "Douple". There are a ton of "Douples" over there right now.

The melt down over there does my heart good.

[darell1976]

I love how the Douple's on Bisonville are now saying that the Summit never invited UND and were never going to. It is basically the exact opposite of that. UND canceled the visit by Douple and took the Big Sky invite instead. That is fact. The visit was a formality and the invite was coming very shortly after that Monday visit.

http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/4376/

UND's search for a new athletic conference has suddenly taken a dramatic turn.

UND has canceled its site visit from the Summit League, scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. Coincidentally, the Big Sky Conference will be making an announcement on Monday and it is "very likely" they will be announcing "additions" to the D-I (FCS) conference, according to Big Sky Media Relations Director Jon Kasper.

[Teeder11]

Not at all related to conference alignment, but I thought it was an interesting analysis of NCAA revenue rankings:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/

[UND-1]

To the best of my knowledge, it was just one newspaper guy as well. Their AD is Terry Wanless, former UND AD. I don't think he was against UND joining.

Wanless did not like the travel costs that came with UND joining the Big Sky, and I cannot blame him. He loves UND and was a great AD. He was very good with the budgets and always kept UND in the black, as I am sure he is doing out there.

I do not know if he officially voted against UND getting in but I guarantee he brought up how much extra is was going to cost his athletic department to have to travel there.

[GeauxSioux]

Not at all related to conference alignment, but I thought it was an interesting analysis of NCAA revenue rankings:

http://www.usatoday....hools/finances/

I don't think I like the $683,453.00

and wonder why it differs so much from the OEP numbers ( http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstList.aspx )

which has UND's revenues and expenses balanced at $17,512,292 with a caveat stating... "Men's hockey had an exceptional year with $3,318211.00 in ticket sales for FY12."

[darell1976]

Not at all related to conference alignment, but I thought it was an interesting analysis of NCAA revenue rankings:

http://www.usatoday....hools/finances/

Revenue: (most to least)

UND 116

NDSU 127

SDSU 142

USD 192

Expenses: (most to least)

UND 113

NDSU 128

SDSU 141

USD 196

Out of 228 schools

[darell1976]

http://www.bisonville.com/forum/showthread.php?30287-GF-Herald-Big-Sky-Should-Add-NDSU/page13

Interesting post from a Yote fan:

Yote 53:

I didn't read through this whole thread but a lot of discussion centers around Summit stability as a conference if we lose our baseball autobid. A simple solution, and one I could see happening if the basketball autobid was threatened, would be for USD to restart our baseball program.

Long term the Summit has got to get UND into the conference for stability. They key to achieving that is getting them an invite to the MVFC. The only way to do that is to threaten to blow up that conference by threatening to leave as a block, NDSU, SDSU, USD, WIU all banding together demanding UND's entry. If it's not granted we all seek to form a new conference or leave for the Big Sky. Sad thing is it may not just be a threat, it may be a forced reality if the Summit crumbles.

An ideal Summit core would be UND, NDSU, SDSU, USD, UNO, DU, UNC, and WIU. We can add a few other schools from there to round out the conference. MSU-Mankato would be an ideal option.

On the other end of the wish spectrum is that the Valley implodes due to a rift between the football and non-football playing members, possibly Wichita St moving on to a bigger conference on the back of their Final Four appearance. Creighton has alreday left and was backfilled with a less than desirable option. Then the MVFC schools could look at an all-sports conference. Honestly, that would be a fantastic conference.

UND could get approval from the western MVFC schools in the SU's, USD, UNI, and WIU maybe SIU (with help from Dale Lennon) its schools like ISUb, Missouri State, and YSU. They don't like USD in the conference due to extra travel to the Dakota's. So I don't know if UND could get in if Faison wanted to do a deal like USD (MVFC/Summit).

[CMSioux]

I love how you just used the term "Douple". There are a ton of "Douples" over there right now.

The melt down over there does my heart good.

The Doppler Effect is "the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to its source. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer."

The Douple Effect is "the change in the frequency of sound waves from Summit fans in regards to their crumbling conference. It is commonly heard when a member school in the conference sounds a siren or horn as it recedes from the conference."

[Risky]

On the USD forum a Coyote backer is saying that USD blew it. He said they should of went to the Big Sky when they had the chance. The Summit is definitely in trouble. The Big Sky is definitely looking pretty good about now.

[zonadub]

from Conference Realignments Take 2 thread...

UND just got rid of Bruce McLeod. Why would they want to replace him with Tom Douple? I know, different sports, BUT just as inept.

Fullerton is forward-thinking. Douple is reactive, and slow to react at that.

[North Dakota]

The Summit offers UND no form of stability. The risk of UND leaving the Big Sky for the Summit, only to have a couple more members bolt for a new conference is to great. The strength of the Big Sky is the numbers and geography, it can afford to lose a member or two but I don't know where they will go.

I see it as the Summit will always be waiting for UND if it needs it. The history of that league has given no reason to believe they will not always be looking for members.

I disagree with this. With UND they would have a solid core. UND, NDSU, USD, SDSU, WIU, UNO & DU would make for a stable conference. I don't see anywhere else for those schools to go that would be a better fit. You would have at least 5 baseball members, 6 if USD decided to restart.

The question is would the MVFC schools be willing to add UND. They may if YSU decided to leave which has been discussed before.

[supersioux]

Lets be honest, the Summit League will survive. It will never be stable unless it adds Football. The WAC has proven that an AQ is to valuable for mid to low majors to let it fold.

There will be schools who look at the Summit as a chance to earn a bid to the NCAA's (much the way UMKC looked at the WAC). The question will be "who's will it be". Both the Big Sky and the Summits are almost exclusively 1 bid leagues for all sports (except football) the question would you rather be in a 1 bid league with 8 or 10 member or one with 14 or 16?

Also would you rather have your NCAA money divided by 8 or 10 or 14 or 16?

[North Dakota]

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?

Fullerton has no plan for FBS. You do realize that a conference can't move up to FBS together right? A school needs to be invited from an existing FBS conference. So the FBS is a mute point. And UND is no where near FBS ready!

[North Dakota]

Lets be honest, the Summit League will survive. It will never be stable unless it adds Football. The WAC has proven that an AQ is to valuable for mid to low majors to let it fold.

There will be schools who look at the Summit as a chance to earn a bid to the NCAA's (much the way UMKC looked at the WAC). The question will be "who's will it be". Both the Big Sky and the Summits are almost exclusively 1 bid leagues for all sports (except football) the question would you rather be in a 1 bid league with 8 or 10 member or one with 14 or 16?

Also would you rather have your NCAA money divided by 8 or 10 or 14 or 16?

I agree. I can't help but think that UND might have jumped into the BSC without fully thinking through all of this first. It would appear as a desperate move on our part and it may have been at the time. Do we have a chance to rectify the situation? I believe so. The leadership to do so?

[UNDColorado]

Can you document that - all I saw was one newspaper blogger sounding off - was there more than that?

No i cannot, Other than the columnist I did hear a lot of negative chatter from fans on message boards, so nothing official.

[UND92,96]

I agree. I can't help but think that UND might have jumped into the BSC without fully thinking through all of this first. It would appear as a desperate move on our part and it may have been at the time. Do we have a chance to rectify the situation? I believe so. The leadership to do so?

What about football? Are you assuming that an MVFC invite was/is a given? I don't. And that's not a risk UND, or any other school in a similar position, could afford to take unless they were going to go the UNO route and drop football altogether.

[UNDColorado]

What about football? Are you assuming that an MVFC invite was/is a given? I don't. And that's not a risk UND, or any other school in a similar position, could afford to take unless they were going to go the UNO route and drop football altogether.

You hit the nail on the head.

[North Dakota]

What about football? Are you assuming that an MVFC invite was/is a given? I don't. And that's not a risk UND, or any other school in a similar position, could afford to take unless they were going to go the UNO route and drop football altogether.

USD got an invite. I do think an MVFC invite was coming, but we may never know now. The nickname issue didn't help anything either.

[southpaw]

Fullerton has no plan for FBS. You do realize that a conference can't move up to FBS together right? A school needs to be invited from an existing FBS conference. So the FBS is a mute point. And UND is no where near FBS ready!

His post was in reference to going FBS if there is a restructuring of D1 college football to three divisions. Fullerton has a plan if that comes to fruition in which certain teams, if not the whole conference, would go to FBS. If the BCS conferences break away from the rest of FBS, then those lower conferences will need more conferences in order for the division to be viable.

[darell1976]

USD got an invite. I do think an MVFC invite was coming, but we may never know now. The nickname issue didn't help anything either.

Then you are the only one. No way was UND getting an invite, because:

1. UND was not a member of the SL while USD was. The SL and MVFC worked out a deal together.

2. Eastern MVFC schools didn't want USD until they were told they only had to make 1 trip to the Dakotas. With UND they would no doubt have to make 2 trips.