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Fort Wayne To The Horizon League?


Old Titan

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I certainly hope our League office is on top of this and not just in reaction mode...

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It's IUPUI......

GREAT NEWS for Summit League Baseball

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League presidents were holding a conference call Thursday to discuss the specifics of membership, and whether IUPUI would join for the 2017-18 season or the 2018-19 season. League athletic directors will be presented Friday with two schedules, one for a nine-school league and one for a 10-school league.

IUPUI hasn't yet formally accepted, as negotiations are ongoing.

 

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No worries to replace a dog like IUPUI... Gotta be a bunch of schools who would like to join the Summit...besides, isn't North Dakota coming in next year?...:geek:

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That "dog" IUPUI just finished the year fourth in the All-Sports trophy race, topped only by the Dakota schools, and two spots above ORU.  They have twice the enrollment of any other Summit League school (27,000), and a sizeable endowment.  They've been a sleeping giant for years; maybe this move will wake them up.

I AM surprised that the Horizon League invited a non-baseball school, but that certainly is good news for Summit baseball.  I wonder if the uncertainty over the future governance of baseball-playing Fort Wayne made them too risky of a pick at this time.

Bottom line is, the Summit League loses yet another eastern outpost, and with the addition of UND will remain at the awkward number of nine members.  Wondering if the league's recent western expansion will continue in order to get to 10 schools, with the likes of Grand Canyon State or New Mexico State on the list of prospects?

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30 minutes ago, Old Titan said:

That "dog" IUPUI just finished the year fourth in the All-Sports trophy race, topped only by the Dakota schools, and two spots above ORU.

I don't see any signs of IUPUI improving in Men's Basketball; Women's Basketball maybe but IUPUI Men's Basketball is awful.

Season RPI
2016-17 218
2015-16 188
2014-15 258
2013-14 323
2012-13 326
2011-12 210
2010-11 115
2009-10 83
2008-09 241
2007-08 70
2006-07 208
2005-06 153
2004-05 157
2003-04 140

 

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Sorry....IUPUI is still a dog....they stink..... what are they good at?... Volleyball?....softball?.... tennis?....chess?... good riddance!!!....:-P

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I agree with OT in thinking that IUPUI is a "sleeping giant".  Athletically they may not be overly impressive in MBB, but as for adding prestige to the Summit academically, this place offers a lot.  It has over 27,000 students, an Endowment well north of $600,000,000, is ranked among the Top 200 "National Universities" in the nation, is home to Medical, Dental and Law Schools, and claims among others both Dan Quayle and Mike Pence as alums.  They play in the Fairgrounds Arena which seats north of 8,000 and had their MBB games on ESPN3 all last year.  They also sit in a major metropolitan area.  This is the type of institution you want in a league like the Summit for the long haul. 

On a side note, if we want a new 10th school for the Summit, go after New Mexico State with all you can.  Actually, I would have like to see the league go after Oakland to bring them back.  Just my $0.02. 

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Dan Quayle???....:blink::rofl::blink:.....geez....IUPUI has been not been relevant since Coach Ron Hunter left.....but OK.....TheEagleman hopes they stay...we need the teams....;-)

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And yet our brilliant leadership decided that the Southland was expanding too quickly and aggressively by adding new members, but we wouldn't have had to worry about being at the bare minimum for automatic qualification to the NCAA Tournament in baseball (or any other sport we sponsor) if we'd stayed.  So what happens if some other baseball-playing school decides to leave the Summit, even after North Dakota officially joins, we'll be potentially towing a fine line again.  Or what if some other school decides to leave, it just thins out the league overall and could create issues with scheduling, etc.  

And didn't we also leave the Southland because our brilliant leadership also said that we would end up spending too much money on travel?  Well, spending too much money is one thing and a very important thing, but we also have to look at what we're dealing with now... all of those wonderful long bus rides that take away class time and probably dampen morale amongst our student-athletes.  I'm sure that the boys and girls, especially those that play for our non-revenue sports, just love getting on the bus and thinking about those trips to the Dakotas and Macomb and Fort Wayne, and lest we forget even Omaha and Denver.  

And New Mexico State, or even Grand Canyon, to join the Summit?  I've been to New Mexico State twice, first on a bus with the baseball team for 15 hours, and it was a real joyride, and I was young then and going to school at ORU and it was still brutal for the youngster that I was.  The second time I went there I was working with the University of Houston's women's basketball team and we flew into El Paso and hopped on a bus and drove two-something hours to Las Cruces.  Las Cruces has an airport but, according to the internet, "there have been no scheduled passenger flights to this airport since Westward Airways ceased operations on July 25, 2005.  The airport is used by general aviation, the United States government, New Mexico State University, private charters and the local CAP squadron."  And Grand Canyon is even further west, but it's in Phoenix, and last I checked that's at least considered an actual city with a legitimate working airport.  But then we probably end up paying to fly all of our teams there pretty much, but at least Southwest flies there.

So who else would we 'go after' if we needed to add members?  Little Rock?  UMKC?  Or maybe even Chicago State, LOL.  Or maybe Commissioner Douple can convince Centenary to come back up to Division 1 and rejoin the league, whoo hoo!

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12 minutes ago, BlueGold said:

And Grand Canyon is even further west, but it's in Phoenix, and last I checked that's at least considered an actual city with a legitimate working airport. 

NPR - It's Too Hot For Some Planes To Fly In Phoenix

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You've heard the one about it being so hot you can fry an egg on a sidewalk, well how about it being hot enough to ground a jet?

That was the case in Phoenix on Tuesday, where temperatures were forecast to climb as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

14 minutes ago, BlueGold said:

So who else would we 'go after' if we needed to add members?  Little Rock?  UMKC?  Or maybe even Chicago State, LOL.  Or maybe Commissioner Douple can convince Centenary to come back up to Division 1 and rejoin the league, whoo hoo!

I would guess UMKC. Grand Canyon would be nice but it's too far.

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The travel was not any better in the Southland Conference from a distance standpoint.  The Summit is a better League from a basketball RPI standpoint and has provided ORU with a much better opportunity to advance to an NCAA regional in baseball.  The Summit League is a better fit overall for ORU than the Southland.  It would be nice to add another baseball school however to give us a little cushion.

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The travel was easier in the Southland, especially in the late fall, winter and early spring months, because all of the teams are down south and typically don't get the winter weather.  Baseball in the Southland was better, that league at least affords its members the opportunity to be higher than a 4-seed every time one of them gets into the NCAA Tournament, and the Southland consistently gets teams in as at-large selections.  The Summit's consistently low (terrible) baseball RPI almost always guarantees that if we get in we will be a 4-seed, and while it's nice to make the NCAA Tournament every year it doesn't afford us with a good seed in regional play.  We've had good teams the last few seasons and look at our results in the regionals, it's been almost impossible for us to steal a game because we always end up facing the 1-seed and their ace in the first game.  Yeah sure, basketball is king, and the Summit is better in basketball, but when our basketball teams aren't very good we end up on the outside looking in.  If basketball is king, we could use your statement about how the Summit affords us with a better opportunity to advance to an NCAA regional in baseball to the Southland affording us a better opportunity in basketball.  And everyone keeps talking about how the Summit is getting close to being a two-bid league, well, when is it gonna happen?  Ever?  I wouldn't bet on it anytime soon.

We can argue the pros and cons of being in one league or another and never get anywhere, people have different opinions.  Personally, I would have liked to have seen us stay in the Southland and give it a chance.  Two years isn't much to go on.

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Here's another vote for the Southland....from a basketball and baseball stance it made sense...not sure about the other sports but better weather for sure....maybe there were financial reasons we moved on....I would have given it a few more years...:geek:

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I'm guessing that anyone complaining about the travel from Tulsa to Omaha, Fort Wayne, or Denver has never ridden in a bus to Hammond, Natchitoches, or Thibodeax, LA.

For almost all sports in the Southland, ORU's travel was brutal (many locations farther then majority of SL schools, and impossible to fly to), the facilities were primitive, the fan support nominal, the hotel accommodations awful, and the towns are bereft of entertainment or cultural options.

As a parent, I would MUCH prefer my son or daughter competing against Summit League schools in Summit League towns, rather than Southland schools/towns, for a variety of reasons.

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Sounds like many of the Southland towns are akin to being in a 3rd world country....:blink:

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Again I agree with OT.  No offense to anyone in the Southland and yes they had 2 teams in this year's Baseball "Big Dance", but at the end of the day most of the schools in that conference had athletic budgets at the very bottom of the D-I food chain.  Most of their facilities were on par with high schools, and academically, with the exception of a few, most of the Southland schools were bottom dwellers with absolutely no aspiration to ever get out of the cellar.  In short, there was no upside with that conference and yes, trying to get to their schools was next to impossible unless we bussed everyone there.  Finally, and no offense to anyone on this Board, but MBB is our cash cow that needs to succeed in a big way to help fund the rest of our programs.  In the Southland, that would never happen.  I do know that in the last 2+ years since leaving the Southland and coming back to the Summit, the Golden Eagle Club has increased from about 270 members to somewhere north of 720 current members.  As our programs get better, I see that number increasing and with the same, more donations to our athletic programs.  GO GOLDEN EAGLES!

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TheEagleman doesn't doubt that all of the above is true....so it begs the question....why did we leave the Summit in the first place?...and who made that dumb decision?....:blink:

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