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WKU votes to go DI-A


WYOBISONMAN

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It is official. WKU board of Regents has just voted 7-2-1 to move to DI-A. This opens up a pretty significan Gateway possibility for the xDSUs.........and has ripple effects for UxDs.....

Well this pretty much looks like it will seal the deal to send the two XDSU's to the Gateway and kill any possiblity of the Mid-Con/GWFC proposal that Douple was hoping to broker. Looks now like if nothing is able to be worked for the BSC you maybe looking at Indy status for a while.

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When the Gateway adds the NDSU/SDSU combo in January (if not sooner), they will be very happy with 9 teams until someone else leaves the conference. They will never vote to go to an 11 team conference.

Besides, Bunning and Kupchella already have the Big Sky locked up in their back pocket. Why would any Sioux fan want to settle for the Gateway/Mid Con anyway when the FSSN pretty much writes the ticket to any conference they want into.

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When the Gateway adds the NDSU/SDSU combo in January (if not sooner), they will be very happy with 9 teams until someone else leaves the conference. They will never vote to go to an 11 team conference.

USD will gain entry into the Gateway within a few years, making it 10 teams.

USD and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville will likely be the two schools going into the MidCon, making it 12. If any MidCOn school leaves, Texas-Pan American will be the replacement.

Besides, Bunning and Kupchella already have the Big Sky locked up in their back pocket. Why would any Sioux fan want to settle for the Gateway/Mid Con anyway when the FSSN pretty much writes the ticket to any conference they want into.
Exactly right! :whistling:
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From the St. George paper (Southern Utah):

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...PORTS/611030327

Great West Football in for some changes

By BEAU EASTES

beastes@thespectrum.com

CEDAR CITY - Changes are a coming for fans of the Great West Football Conference.

As expected, Western Kentucky's board of regents approved the school's move from I-AA football to I-A on Thursday with a 7-2 vote. The decision means the Hilltoppers will leave the I-AA Gateway Football Conference for the I-A Sun Belt Conference, a league the rest of Western Kentucky's athletic programs already participate in.

Like any move in college athletics, the move has ramifications beyond just the Gateway. The loss of the Hilltoppers leaves the conference with seven members, one school more than the minimum six teams required for an automatic bid into the NCAA's I-AA football playoffs. With that in mind, Gateway officials are expected to invite Great West Football Conference members North Dakota State and South Dakota State to join the Midwest-based league. . . .

"It's not good for the (Great West)," Southern Utah athletic director Ken Beazer said last week when the possibility of losing the Dakotas was first brought up. "But the Great West has plans to move forward.

Though the Dakotas would almost certainly participate in the Great West next season, 2008 could see several new teams in what is currently the top-ranked I-AA football conference in the country.

The University of North Dakota will begin its transition from Division II to Division I/I-AA football next season and would be seen as a logical replacement for NDSU and SDSU. Additionally, on Monday the University of South Dakota received a recommendation from an intercollegiate consulting firm to make the move from Division II to I-A with a I-AA football program. Similar to when NDSU and SDSU moved classifications together, UND and USD could be seen as a package deal that would solve the Great West's membership problems, at least temporarily.

"We're at the table with some other I-AA schools," said Mid-Con commissioner Tom Douple, whose conference governs the Great West. "But it takes time to develop a viable conference." (read more)

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