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Fort Wayne To The Horizon League?


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On 6/28/2017 at 0:17 PM, ORU82 said:

So IUPUI's exit is immediate.  What happens to their $1,000,000.00 exit fee?  Secondly we will have to replace all games/events this year with IUPUI in all sports?  I wonder if there is a breach of contract clause in our contract with them whereby they will have to pay us something for breaching the contract to play us?  Hopefully there is and it is steep.

As for the Argus Leader article posted above, I assume it was written by someone in the Dakotas.  I laughed when the writer stated that basically there was no comparison between USD, SDSU, NDSU and UND and the rest of the league and that "There is more money flying around in sports other than hockey and more fan interest and facilities are in most instances substantially better."  Apparently the writer has never been to either Denver's campus or our campus and has no clue what either Denver or we spend on basketball.  Take away Denver and you will find that what we are paying Coach Mills this year in MBB is still at the top of the Summit food chain.  Secondly, both Denver's basketball arena and Mabee Center are light years ahead of anything the Dakota schools have, and our attendance, even as down as it is, still leads the Summit.  I assume that the writer does not know that we are finishing a $14,000,000.00 track and field complex which will host the Summit Championships next year.  In short, the writer was going off about how great the Dakota schools are and how they are light years ahead of anyone else in the Summit, which I would seriously question on multiple levels.

Be that as it may, what does concern me is why the Summit is not becoming more proactive in getting programs to join our league, and I am not talking about the Chicago States of the world.  No offense to anyone in the Horizon, but that conference IMHO is not that great and certainly not better than the Summit.  Cleveland State, Wright State and Youngstown State are considered after thoughts in the State of Ohio.  Cleveland State is an over grown commuter college, and so is Wright State.  Youngstown State is not any better and all seriously lack any redeeming academic  quality. 

I know that this post is about 3 weeks old but I will give you some background.

The person that wrote this article is one of the sports writes for the Argus Leader.  He is the beat writer for SDSU but, with budget cuts, I don't know how much he has traveled to Denver or Oral Roberts.  The Argus's two sports writers cover SDSU, USD, Augie (DII in SF), University of SF (DII in SF), 5 Sioux Falls high schools, other semi pro, amateur and area high school teams.

SDSU pays their MBB coach around $300,000.  I think that might be the top salary for the Dakota's coaches but don't know for sure.

Denver's and ORU's basketball arenas might have been light years ahead of the Dakota's but I don't know anymore.  NDSU, USD, Omaha (I think) and UND(I think) have all built new arena's in the last two years.  SDSU is planning on remodeling theirs in the next 2 years.  That means all 5 teams from up this way will all have arenas that are 5 years old or newer in about 2 years.  I'm not saying that they are all better then Denver's or ORU's arenas but since they are new, they should be comparable(minus OSU's baseball field I think newer is mostly better).  

SDSU just built a new softball field, baseball field (no bathrooms or concessions, yet- this is why I brought up ORU's baseball field), new football stadium and an indoor practice facility within the last 5 years.

USD has a new basketball arena, new soccer complex and they build a new outdoor track, too.  I think their new track and field complex (?? on cost) hosted the Summit Championships two years ago.

SDSU's home MBB attendance was around 2300/game.  For WBB they averaged about 1900/game.  I don't know how the compares with ORU.

With all of the new arenas, tracks, indoor practice facilities(I think UND just built one, too), football stadiums, baseball and softball fields that have been built in the last 5 years, "there is more money flying around".  Does that mean that all of the sports complexes need remodeling a long time ago?  Probably.  SDSU's football stadium was about 50 years old.  They didn't have and indoor practice facility and it does get cold and crappy in SD in winter.  

I'm not saying that any SDSU or any other place up here are ahead of Denver or ORU because I think you probably have nice facilities (never been there) but we are 100 times better than we were about 5 years ago.

I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers or pick a fight but I thought I'd give you a little background on why(maybe) they writer wrote that.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Western illinois' AD talked to their local media and he didn't mince words.  IPFW is gone and W Ill "would be silly to keep our heads in the sand".Western Illinois can get an invite from the OVC, where Eastern Illinois is.

The Summit will invite UND's Big Sky friends.  Even a blind man can see that, as it's the only option.  UND moved over to help demolish and renovate the conference.

http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/20170714/western-facing-conference-changes

 

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  • 1 month later...

After budget cuts, UMKC conducting study of athletics......

Quote

The CIE Athletics Task Force addresses three primary questions. The first is whether UMKC should continue to have Intercollegiate Athletics and what level of subsidy for the department should come from general revenues.

The second is whether UMKC should drop to a lower division or continue as a NCAA Division I. If we should drop, then what is the best fit and why? And lastly, if the school decides to remain in Division I, should switching conferences be considered?

http://info.umkc.edu/unews/athletics-task-force-prepares-to-issue-report/

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think everyone agrees that Ft Wayne is eventually going to be gone. 

 

I think there should be a concern that Western Illinois may very well go to the OVC if and when Murray State goes to the MVC. 

 

With that said I think the Summit League needs to go after UMKC and even though it's an ugly add, Chicago State. There's strength in numbers and even if they do shut down in a few years maybe another school will move up to D1 (such as Augustana).

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  • 3 weeks later...

UNO athletics, Baxter Arena appear to be on more firm financial footing after year of concern

http://www.omaha.com/news/education/uno-athletics-baxter-arena-appear-to-be-on-more-firm/article_e0814722-ae0b-11e7-8c77-8b1fdc48a384.html

...........

Quote

With that said I think the Summit League needs to go after UMKC and even though it's an ugly add, Chicago State. There's strength in numbers and even if they do shut down in a few years maybe another school will move up to D1 (such as Augustana).

Chicago St may not be around much longer.......zero chance they join the Summit....

Only 86 freshmen at Chicago State University, as total enrollment drops 25 percent

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-state-university-enrollment-future-met-20160927-story.html

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