C-32/Great West and wait for something to happen with Portland State/Sacramento State...even so, C-32/Great West for the foreseeable future...the Big Sky went out of their way not to include Southern Utah when Boise State and Idaho left...it's hard to think that they wouldn't do the same thing to skirt the Dakotas...

The answer applies to both questions...no existing D-I conference will "take them in" for the foreseeable future...hence, the founding of C-32...

The existing D-I conferences have no real need for the "C-32" schools at this time...these schools have already invested too much in their respective transitions to D-I to turn back now...

As it stands, C-32 would be a practical conference, at least for the short term, getting the ball rolling now towards 6/5 compliance could prove beneficial in the future if the "core" of C-32 were to be absorbed into a more established (and very desperate) conference...

The Gulf Star was founded in 1984 and the absorption of its "core" membership "saved" the Southland in 1987...

The American South was founded in 1987 and was merged into the remnants of a three-team Sun Belt in 1991, ensuring its survival...

The East Coast Conference returned in 1993 and was merged into the Mid-Continent in 1994, thereby establishing short-term stability to a conference in transition following the absorption of its "core" by the Midwest Collegiate/Horizon...

The four-member American West was founded in 1994 and two of its members (CS-Northridge and CS-Sacramento) supplanted the Big Sky in 1996 after the departure of Boise State and Idaho...

The Gulf Star was a collection of programs which had all left D-II (and the Gulf South and Lone Star) relatively recently before finally deciding to pool their resources into a new I-AA conference...

With the exception of original charter member Hofstra (1974-1992), the East Coast Conference (1993-1994) featured relatively recent D-I upgrades, namely Buffalo, Central Connecticut State, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois, and Troy State...

In the case of the American West, only Southern Utah had a D-I tenure which preceded the formation of the conference by more than a few years...Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, CS-Northridge, and CS-Sacramento were all very recent D-I upgrades, and D-II UC-Davis was a "football-only" member...

Also, consider last year's "C-32" schedule...note that Northern Colorado has since been offered Big Sky membership and that Savannah State and the provisionals (North Dakota State and South Dakota State) weren't included in this analysis as "C-32" members...

http://collegesportsinfo/forum/viewtopic.php?t=293&start=0

I have to disagree with you here Ouija. :)
The formation of C-32 will have to be more political in nature.
Essentially formation of C-32 at the current cadre of schools will result in a conference very similar to the old Mid-Con...flung far and wide.
Also, NO way the power conferences give up a cherished At-large, so C-32 in this manner creates another PLAY-in game at the NCAA tourney...ugh.
I see the only way to get C-32 is to have a power conference involved in its formation, and thus you might avoid another dreaded PLAY-in. Thus, I'm sticking with the BigEast split at the most likely scenario. It will cause the next great "trickle down" in re-alignment, and many of these schools including the Dakotas will find a permanent home in this manner.
In the short term, I see the Dakotas future tied to the decision made by Sac.State. Sac is aiming HIGH for the WAC. They don't appear to want BigWest membership. If they settled in in the BigWest, it would go a long way to increasing viability of Great West football. Of course the down side to this would mean that the Dakotas might have a shot again at the Big Sky. In this manner, it would be more realistic to try to get N.Az or PSU to go with them to the Big West. The California footprint might NOT be extended for PSU, but it would be for N.Az.
8-)