89rabbit Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 http://www.argusleader.com/article/20090415/UPDATES/90415031 USD will join Summit League April 15, 2009 The University of South Dakota will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. this afternoon in Vermillion to announce its athletic programs will join the 10-school Summit League beginning in 2011. On Tuesday, the league’s Presidents Council voted unanimously to invite the school into the conference beginning July 1, 2011, according to an email sent to Summit League member schools. USD will not compete in team tournaments that season, the last that the Coyotes are ineligible for NCAA postseason competitions. In 2012-13 USD will be an active member of NCAA Division I and will participate in Summit League tournaments. . . . (read more) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUIsbig Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Surely they are not adding only one team. Unless were losing one? Centenary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 All indications point toward the University of North Dakota joining USD's enty into the Summit League. UND just has to take care of its mascot 'issue' - which appears to be happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I would bet by the time USD is eligible to begin play against conference foes, we have either lost a school (Centenary, Southern Utah or UMKC) or will also be adding the University of North Dakota and going to a 12-team divisional format. As it is, if we are at 11 teams in 2011, it's going to make for some interesting scheduling challanges in the basketball schedule: who is USD's travel partner - SDSU, or someone else? If it's SDSU, then who is NDSU's travel partner? Do we play 20 conference games home-and-home with everybody in the league, and how do you find enough dates on the schedule to play so many games while still playing an early March championship tournament? Do we instead go to a divisional format with fewer conference games? If so, how do we rectify having one division with five teams and the other with six? Do we go each year without playing everyone at least once? Honestly, I have to wonder if the fast-tracking of announcing/adding USD has partly been done to put pressure on UND to get their name/mascot issues resolved quickly, so they can still go in with USD at the same time in 2011. Can't imagine they now want to continue any longer than necessary as the odd man out in the Dakotas when it comes to D-1 participation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I agree that by adding USD it will be expected that UND will be added in the near future as well. So, a 12-team Summit League might need to have divisions or there will be 22 conference games, which seems like a lot. Although, personally I would have no problem with having 22 conference games. It would just mean fewer non-conference road games and more conference home games. As a result, a little bit worse strength of schedule and probably a little bit better record. However, the fact that we think it is strange to move from a 10-team conference to an 11-team conference might be the same thing some MVC schools would be thinking when considering whether ORU would be worthy of joining their conference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I like this expansion, the Summit League has added a good school that is in the conference's footprint. I would think UND is next but Douple did say 6 schools have applied for admission and a few are currently in other conferences. UND better not wait too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I think Denver (Sunbelt) is one of the schools trying to get in the conference. I wonder if Utah Valley State is a candidate? Southern Utah (and the league) needs a travel partner in the worst way. Or they should get out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 My question is: Did USD red-shirt several of their best freshman players on this year's team hoping that they can win the Summit Conference tournament in 2012-2013 as seniors? Or will they red-shirt all their sophomores to be next year hoping to dominate the conference as seniors? And if UND doesn't gain approval to join the conference until next year, will they have to red-shirt all of their juniors to be during the 2010-2011 year hoping to dominate the conference in 2012-2013 as seniors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUJason Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Bring on University of Denver, I think they would be a good addition. (Of course I must disclose that my wife is from Denver). Also, the USD mascot/moniker is the Coyotes, which will add to the rich tradition of unique mascot names in the Summit League. If UND also joins the Summit League eventually, then how many teams in the conference will have D-2 football teams? I assume that UND has a D-2 football team just like USD... If there are enough D-2 teams to form a D-2 football conference, then would the Summit League choose to become a football conference? If so, then could it be possible that down the road, the D-2 football teams in the conference would want to become D-1 teams? If so, would the Summit League eventually become a D-1 football conference? And could football possibly be driving an increased interest in teams being in the Summit League? I don't necessarily believe that the answer to all of my questions listed above is "yes". I just thought that since ORU has nothing to do with football, it is possible that there could be football consequences to the conference decisions which are currently being made that I hadn't previously thought about because I am so myopicly focused on non-football sports. Most likely the main teams interested in the Summit League do not already have a conference home or have difficult travel schedules (a la Denver in the Sun Belt conference), and those would be the 2 driving forces (not football). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I'm all for adding Denver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theeagleman5 Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 South Dakota?....oh goodie!..... ......the MVC is looking better all the time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 My question is: Did USD red-shirt several of their best freshman players on this year's team hoping that they can win the Summit Conference tournament in 2012-2013 as seniors? Or will they red-shirt all their sophomores to be next year hoping to dominate the conference as seniors? And if UND doesn't gain approval to join the conference until next year, will they have to red-shirt all of their juniors to be during the 2010-2011 year hoping to dominate the conference in 2012-2013 as seniors? I think UND redshirted 7 players this year, at least that is what I saw on their board. Looks like USD only redshirted two though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cornelius Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I like this expansion, the Summit League has added a good school that is in the conference's footprint. I would think UND is next but Douple did say 6 schools have applied for admission and a few are currently in other conferences. UND better not wait too long. Do you have a source for this? It would be interesting to get a run down of the schools (obviously not gonna happen) in other conferences that want membership in The Badlands. Six seems like a high number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Bring on University of Denver, I think they would be a good addition. (Of course I must disclose that my wife is from Denver). Also, the USD mascot/moniker is the Coyotes, which will add to the rich tradition of unique mascot names in the Summit League. If UND also joins the Summit League eventually, then how many teams in the conference will have D-2 football teams? I assume that UND has a D-2 football team just like USD... If there are enough D-2 teams to form a D-2 football conference, then would the Summit League choose to become a football conference? If so, then could it be possible that down the road, the D-2 football teams in the conference would want to become D-1 teams? If so, would the Summit League eventually become a D-1 football conference? And could football possibly be driving an increased interest in teams being in the Summit League? I don't necessarily believe that the answer to all of my questions listed above is "yes". I just thought that since ORU has nothing to do with football, it is possible that there could be football consequences to the conference decisions which are currently being made that I hadn't previously thought about because I am so myopicly focused on non-football sports. Most likely the main teams interested in the Summit League do not already have a conference home or have difficult travel schedules (a la Denver in the Sun Belt conference), and those would be the 2 driving forces (not football). NDSU, SDSU, and WIU play football in the MVC, which is one of the top conferences in the FCS/ I-AA. If the Summit asked these schools to leave the MVC it would get ugly, and I doubt Douple wants anything to do with that mess. NDSU is probably the only school that has an interest in FBS/I-A football. I think you are right about what is really driving this and that is schools with poor travel and no home. It also seems pretty clear the Summit wants to move to a 12 team league with two divisions. I guess now the question remains is what school gets to be #12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FargoBison Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Do you have a source for this? It would be interesting to get a run down of the schools (obviously not gonna happen) in other conferences that want membership in The Badlands. Six seems like a high number. I saw it on SDSU's board... During the press conference Commissioner Douple said that 6 other teams applied for membership into the Summit. He wouldn't name the schools because he said some of the schools were currently in conferences. Any speculation to who the other schools were? He did say UND submitted an invite but that they won't even take it seriously until they figure out the logo. http://www.sdsufans.com/board/showpost.php?p=118303&postcount=59 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammersmith Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Do you have a source for this? It would be interesting to get a run down of the schools (obviously not gonna happen) in other conferences that want membership in The Badlands. Six seems like a high number. I posted this on the SDSU thread that FargoBison linked to: 99.9%: North Dakota Chicago State Utah Valley Houston Baptist Texas-Pan American Pick one from the following: New Jersey Tech(NJIT) (>50%) Denver (<25%) Seattle (<10%) New Orleans (<10%) someone else Of the nine schools listed, all of them are in a conference(at least technically) except Seattle. Denver and New Orleans are in the Sun Belt(both are in danger of getting kicked out due to lack of sports) and the rest are in the non-autobid Great West Conference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I don't know much about the University of Denver's athletic program, but the thought of having a conference representative from the largest city in the Mountain Time Zone is pretty intriguing. Altitude aside, wouldn't that be a great place from an ORU fan standpoint for a conference tournament - easy air access, not a ridiculous drive, great hotels and restaurants, plenty of winter activities, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammersmith Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I don't know much about the University of Denver's athletic program, but the thought of having a conference representative from the largest city in the Mountain Time Zone is pretty intriguing. Altitude aside, wouldn't that be a great place from an ORU fan standpoint for a conference tournament - easy air access, not a ridiculous drive, great hotels and restaurants, plenty of winter activities, etc. One of the big problems with DU is the strange set of sports they sponsor; that's the reason the Sun Belt is going to kick them out. DU only sponsors 10 Summit League sports, which is significantly less than any of the other Summit schools. In case anyone's wondering... 14 sports: IUPUI, NDSU 15: Cent, IPFW, SUU 16: UMKC, ORU 18: Oak, SDSU 19(all): WIU (these numbers include the SUU VB team and the UMKC WSoc team that are starting up next year.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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