I was like you and figured the MUST embracing would occur...instead they went with the MO S&T, which is fine, it works for them and i have no problem either way. UMSL has always seemed like the red-headed step-child of the UM system. It's never been much more than a commuter school. UMKC at least has a little history behind it and I don't blame them for trying to get a name change. If the Summit goes this way with their branding, then I would think UMKC might go that way as well. Lord knows they need to do SOMETHING! The 'Roos have not been to an NCAA postseason tournament in anything (as far as my knowledge goes) since they moved to D-I in 1992.

UMKC has a med school to produce M.D.'s and a pharmacy school to produce Drs. of Pharmacy.
UMSL is proud of their "Criminal Justice Dept."

'nuff said....
.

With the Horizon set to poach the Summit and the WAC adding UVU and CSUB, the league might be a tad vulnerable to further defections to the WAC. If I'm the WAC, I'm making a play for the 5 western Summit schools...ya never know.

Not sure exactly what the WAC and Horizon are planning to do.

But assume Horizon takes Oakland (they could be intersted in IUPUI and IPFW as well), the Summit's numbers are really down.
They recently lost Oral Roberts to the Southland.

I'm thinking that if the Summit loses it's eastern flank, they should look to expans westward with North Dakota, Denver, and UVU....
beat the WAC to the punch....

If you are UVU and Denver, football is immaterial. Isn't the Summit a much more viable confernece than the WAC at this point ?

If the Summit loses Oakland, IUPUI and Fort Wayne, Kansas City might have to think about applying to MO Valley or drop down to D-II. There is no way the system BOC allows KC to increase its travel budget for athletics by two or three-fold...

CBSSports blog article(previously posted in another thread)reporting that Denver will leave WAC for the Summit.Announcement expected tomorrow.Link at http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... -next-year

Very sensible move by Denver. The WAC is a sinking ship.
If Summit loses any of their eastern flank (IUPUI, IPFW, Oakland) to the Horizon (replacing Butler), they might end up adding UVU as well, to keep their numbers up.
I still think ultimately, North Dakota may move to Summit if a slot were to open in the MVFC.

If they lose any more, I'd take D-II Bellarmine over any WAC/GWC school

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Geographically, Minnesota State University Mankato (14,500 students) and St. Cloud State University (16,000) should both be division I-AA schools ala Northern Iowa since they are bigger. Both schools have a larger enrollment than Baylor and most of the schools in the Summitt League. I used to attend MSU-M and one of the reasons I transferred is Minnesota seems destined to be the land of Division II. They gave some BS to my friends that stayed as late as 2006 of how expensive it would be to upgrade to Division I ($2M!) and how they didn't want to do it. They seem to be perfectly content being a suitcase college and a small time, rinky-dink division II school when they are missing out on national TV exposure and all the money, fame, presitge and glory to boot. They would be perfect members of either the Summitt League or Missouri Valley conference. Its pathetic that Minnesota, with 5.3 million residents in just one of 4 states to have just one D-I school. This is one of the articles I was referring to in 2006. Nothing has changed 6 years later. Pathetic.
Nothing is going to change as long as the current athletic and small-minded administration overall remain with that small town mindset. They just dont know what they are missing. I dont think any of us will live long enough to see Minnesota have multiple D-I schools and dont think for a minute politics and the Gophers aren't throwing up roadblocks as they want to continue to monopoloze that state.
http://www.mnsu.edu/mssa/news/html/division1.html

Interesting post, sportschatter. In other boards, Mankato is seen as a more realistic moveup candidate than St. Cloud, Duluth or Bemidji. Is this true?

Also, solid move by Denver as the WAC is no longer tenable for established athletic programs

no in my opinion

St Cloud State 2. MSU-M, 3. UM-Duluth 4. Bemidji. St Cloud because they have the largest enrollment and seem most willing. MSU-M is led by knuckleheads who don't want to move up and just come up with excuses. I would say they'd be last but Duluth and especially Bemidj's #s are just so small to begin with. MSU-M does have that women's bb title a few years ago and now their fb is in the DII semi-finals so the best thing they, can UM-Duluth can do is keep winning @ the DII level like they are now so that they have nothing left to play for and are too big/good for their competition and are one day forced to move up. The Big East and WAC would take MSU-M or any MN school now, I gurarantee you. They are both fighing for survival and relevancy. Any MN school not named the U of M should move up now.

The thing Mankato has over the others is a billionaire benefactor in Glen Taylor (Timberwolves owner) who's an alum. Duluth and Bemidji have a smaller student base and northern Minnesota isnt growing economically or population-wise as parts around the Twin Cities or Rochester. St Cloud cut a bunch of programs a couple years ago due to budgetary reason which brings me to the following....

As for sportschatter's comment, I respectfully disagree. IMHO the time has come and gone by to move up to D1. Its a shame the Dakota schools plan of moving the North Central conference to full D1 didnt come to fruition as it would have had an auto bid by now (assuming they had stayed together), but that is now for the "what if/dream scenario" part of this board. As for the MN schools moving up, between the million dollar fee needed to move up at a time when the colleges here arent getting that kind of money from the state, the amount of money needed to spend on scholarships, and the 8 year period where they wont be eligible for the tournament...it's better to just be a big fish in a little pond. Rack up the final 4s in hoops (Mankato has gone there in mens and womens the past few years and before that Winona had that fantastic 3 year run) and in football (Mankato this year, Duluth the couple years prior). While it'd be nice to have a D1 team that didnt take me 2 hours to drive too (whether Minneapolis or Brookings), I can settle with watching D1 hockey even if in a couple years that just means more games against Anchorage or Michigan Tech. Especially if it means my tax dollars arent going down the drain for something thats more or less a vanity project. You may think thats being a "knucklehead", I think its being financially prudent.

And if a school ever does want to move up, Im pretty sure the Summit wont say no.

Sugarbuzz

Like you said, I believe the time has come and passed for MSU to move up. They should have done it when UND, USD were moving up and the old NCC was forced to break up due to not having the minimum # of members. But I was still @ MSU @ the time and I can tell you they were fighting it. They (MSU) wanted to keep the NCC together and gave the usual spin about "exploring all the options" etc when friends on the ground told me (after I tranferred) that they (the students) knew it was all for show and that MSU had no real intention of moving up. Again the (admin) cited money ($2M upgrade fee) as a reason (a big one) why they would not be moving up. It was basically a kangaroo court show they gave when they had a de-facto forum friends told me. They were mad.

Again, the best thing MSU can do is keep winning @ the DII level (even though their new Sun conference or whatever weaker DII confrence they moved to is weaker than the old NCC which they tell me was a power DII conference) and once they keep making and winning Final Fours in Mens/Womens bb, and football maybe they will be too embarrassed and forced to move up. The alumni base is basically non-existent. They dont have a class ring like most schools, they hardly have an alumni center/presence. DI schools are doing a lot (I should know, I transferred to one) but MSU is rinky-dink and small town/content. Therein lies the problem. As for Glen Taylor and the Timberwolves thing? Pfft. If he had so much pull MSU would be DIAA by now and how long did it take to get a building (Taylor Center) named after him? Plus, the only reason it is named after him is he funded 100% of it otherwise there is NO Taylor presence on the campus. Students hardly even know who he is. Bigger schools do a much better job of informing their studnets who their alumni are and are proud of them etc. How many people know Cedric Yarbough from Reno 911! is an MSU alum? I wouldnt have known if not for wikipedia or if this random guy from my floor when we were Freshmen walked into a dorm where a bunch of us were watching the show and said "You guys know he went here right?" and we all looked @ him like "Dude, you are crazy" and the guy was like "That's what I heard". Turns out it was true. This is just one example of the small-town mindset.

Word on the street is UMKC to join WAC. Smoke is rising:

https://twitter.com/DomIzzoWDAY

I dont' get it. Why leave a conference that Denver just left to join the one you'd be leaving?

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