This past fall, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville began studying a DI move. In the St. Louis paper write-up, there is talk about them getting into the Missouri Valley, but that would seem quite a stretch. The MidCon needs a St. Louis metro school (e.g. SIUE) as a bridge between the Chicago/Indy/Detroit core geography and the KC/Tulsa schools. If the MidCon could add a St. Louis area school (ISUE, UMSL, or Lindenwood) and find another home for Southern Utah, the footprint and likely stability of the MidCon would be much improved.

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/TASKFORCE/1218bnd.pdf
http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/TASKFORCE/STLtoday.pdf

Don't they play football, though?

No football at SIUE. Seems a little wierd for them actually to be thinking about D1.

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MSOC/

There is "football" at SIUE, and the history of it might be the only reason they could get the Missouri Valley to raise an eyebrow. Doesn't mean THAT will happen, just saying that Edwardsville does have an advantage somewhere.

What shouldn't be surprising is, on the main athletics page, the task force announcement is right next to a $2 million donation to the school's wrestling program. Funny how that works.

This also seems strange since SIU-Carbondale (i.e., "the" SIU) is reportedly pondering a move from I-AA to I-A and the MAC; one move alone would already be quite the accomplishment, but pulling off both at the same time or in short succession would be especially difficult.

The Mid-Con would be a great fit for SIUE, and while not a great fit, an acceptable possibility for the Horizon League down the road.

Thats not true about the MAC, try Sun Belt for football with Missouri State and Illinois State, with all 3 staying in the MVC for all other sports.

Either it's the Horizon, the Mid-Con, the Mizzou Valley or the Ohio Valley; Southern Illinois-Edwardsville has to belong to either one of them. Besides, if SIU-E goes to the MVC, it would be great having the team facing with the main campus of Southern Illinois (at Carbondale).

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

SIUE is not going to the MVC anytime soon.

I was just predicting if necessarily possible. I wasn't taking things seriously.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

SIUE would be a UBC team for the foreseeable future.

SIUE as an Independent and later in the UBC? I'm not sure about that.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

With North Dakota and South Dakota on their way up to Division I, and with North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne all having joined the Mid-Continent Conference, that door may be closing on SIUE. If I were at SIUE, I'd concentrate on joining the OVC, especially after Chattanooga publicly rejected a move out of the Southern Conference.

On or about March 1, 2007, the authorities that run SIU-E approved the move to Division 1.

The president / AD indicated that they are actively seeking conference affiliation, but declined to mention who they are talking to.

The obvious guesses are the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) - now down to 10 with the defection of Samford to the SoCon, and the Mid-Con (also at 10 after the departure of Valpo, and the addition of NDSU, SDSU and IPFW). The MVC would be their wet dream, but certainly the folks at SIU-E are more realistic than to expect an MVC invitation for a recent move-up from D-II.

The UBC is not a real conference, but a scheduling alliance, that has been reduced to 3 schools with the departure of NDSU, SDSU, and IPFW. Perhaps short-term (failing a conference invitation) the UBC makes sense for independent schools such as NDU, SDU, SIU-E, and perhaps Chicago State.

If the OVC has designs for going to 12 (they did while they were 11 and approached Tennessee-Chattanooga of the SoCon), they might target SIU-E and perhaps Western Illinois (of the Mid-Con) as being solidly within their footprint.

The Mid-Con is in a state of flux. I think long-term they may think about rationalizing their footprint. Southern Utah and Centenary
are the out-liers. Southern Utah has made no secret of their desire to join the Big Sky (although the Big Sky has considered and rejected them at least once, they may currently be the #1 expansion candidate if the Big Sky wanted to add a school in the near term). Centenary sought membership during last year's Southland expansion but was rejected (perhaps due to no football program). If those 2 left, the conference would be down to 8. Obvious expansion candidates are NDU and SDU (to fill out their northern flank and complement NDSU and SDSU) and if the conference found itself wanting to add ONE other school, SIU-E would seem to be very geographically desirable - in fact it might provide Western Illinois a reason to not look elsewhere.

It appears as if no one else leaves the Mid-Continent before July 1, 2007 (Centenary is just coming up on five years) that 6/5 Compliance won't be an issue if only one team leaves. Also, since North Dakota and South Dakota appear(ed) to be locks for the #11 and #12 spots, maybe SIU-E and Utah Valley State get in instead to keep the conference at an even number.

West - UVSC, SUU, NDSU, SDSU, ORU, Centenary
East - UMKC, WIU, SIUE, IPFW, IUPUI, Oakland

Perhaps even Chicago State can be talked into rejoining instead of admitting UVSC (in which case UMKC goes to the West), who now finds themselves in a very compact division.

Keep in mind that the OVC's Morehead State plays football in the Pioneer League, so they actually have the "perfect number" for football (9) and basketball (10) once Samford leaves. If Morehead State goes scholarship, then perhaps they look to expand to 12 for all sports.

I seriously doubt the now-Summit would let Chicago State back into the fold. Their leaving (well along with Valpo, but VU moved to another conference, rather than going independent to avoid conference sanctions) is what caused the then-Mid-Con to have to add more teams, and the black eye CSU gave them rather than taking their due punishment is enough to make the rest of the conference members to give them the thumbs down. I honestly think that ChiState may be dropping down a division (at least) in the forseeable future.