SIU-Edwardsville

[coach daddy]

Which would mean that getting football into a conference as soon as possible would take priority.

With the best football conference in terms of GPI being the Great West, UND should look for membership immediately.

Agreed. Like the SU's, football is driving the move. USD and UND should take a spot available in the Great West if offered. The model NDSU has used is a good copy for the Sioux.

[siouxnanigans]

Agreed. Like the SU's, football is driving the move. USD and UND should take a spot available in the Great West if offered. The model NDSU has used is a good copy for the Sioux.

Does anyone have any idea how good/bad the facilities are at SIU-Edwardsville? I think that we have great facilities but would they accept us over SIU-E becuse of our facilities (besides the Alerus and Ralph - which won't have any impact on the Mid-Con).

Anyone know anything about USD's facilities?

[MplsBison]

SIU-E plays basketball in the Vadalabene Center (4,000):

[star2city]

SIU-E plays basketball in the Vadalabene Center (4,000):

DII Northern Kentucky has to be one of the more attractive DI move-up possibilities. With the basketball arena they are building in surburban Cincinnati, NKU has to be looking for a move up and would have to be garnering some attention from the MidCon, among others. Midwest schools to watch for a move up are Bellarmine from Louisville, Southern Indiana in Evansville, and Wayne State in Detroit.

NKU's Bank of Kentucky Center:

[MplsBison]

Very impressive.

[aff]

I'm sure facilities matter somewhat, but I doubt to the extent that fans on these message boards believe, and certainly not as much as location.

Case and Point:

NDSU/SDSU vs. Northern Colorado for the big sky invite. I hope nobody is going to argue that out of those three, Northern colorado has the worst facilities, and yet they got the conference invite, and NDSU or SDSU did not.

[Bison101]

Per info from the AGS board, Samford is leaving the OVC for the southern conference. This leaves them with 9 Football teams and 10 for basketball. Dos this open up a spot for SIUE? If so, that is good news for the Sioux and their quest for the Mid-Con. The only negative is that 10 basketball and 9 football makes for perfect round robin scheduling. However, I think this opens the door for SIUE to the OVC.

Samford to join Southern Conference in 2008

Thursday, March 15, 2007, at 10:27 a.m.

By Wesley Rucker

Staff Writer

Samford has accepted an invitation to leave the Ohio Valley Conference for the Southern Conference beginning in the 2008-09 academic year, SoCon commissioner John Iamarino said Thursday morning.

The league's presidents met via teleconference Thursday morning and unanimously voted in favor of inviting Samford into the SoCon, according to Iamarino.

Iamarino said a formal announcement was coming later this afternoon.

Read Friday's Times Free Press for more information

[MplsBison]

NKU and SIUE to the OVC would make sense.

Also, if they could get Morehead State to upgrade football from the Pioneer to the OVC, they'd have 10 football schools (better than 9 IMO).

[star2city]

Southern Indiana says "no" to DI for now:

Evansville Courier-Press: Stepping up to Division I isn't easy

Most recently, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville one of USI's closest rivals in the Great Lakes Valley Conference announced it will move up to Division I, making it the second member of the conference to make the move this decade. At least one other conference university is contemplating the move.

Either Bellarmine or Northern Kentucky is still contemplating a DI move.

Earlier in the article, the USI official said they weren't internally talking about a DI move, but yet they are shadowing another school's DI study. USI believes a DI move would cost them $4 million annually (and that's without football).

Hoops said a similar university in another state allowed USI to shadow its recent Division I study, and that university found that it would require $4 million to upgrade to Division I. Divide that among USI's full-time student population, and it comes out to almost $475 per student. SIUE has estimated its move will cost $2 million, which will require a student fee increase of approximately $150 per student.

"I think the $4 million dollar figure would probably be substantially more accurate," Hoops said.

USI's comfort with Division II has more to it than money or even the time required to reclassify. Hall said USI has the infrastructure and facilities necessary for Division I life, but USI makes the choice to stay where it is. The university is quickly expanding it's about three times the size of the average Division II institution but Hall concedes USI still has room to grow in Division II.

[MplsBison]

There's no way UNK would stay DII with the new 8k arena. They'd be competing with Cincy and Xavier for area bball recruits.

[aff]

There's no way UNK would stay DII with the new 8k arena. They'd be competing with Cincy and Xavier for area bball recruits.

"Cincy" just signed a 5 star and top 20 recruit in the country for 2008. I highly doubt that a new move up, no matter how nice their arena, is going to be competing with either of those teams for recruits for a long time. Both of them go head to head with Ohio State for recruits on a yearly basis.