With UNO seemingly going down to division 3 and denver looking for another conferances that closer to them.(read something that was linked to on this site abot this) how long tell they will ethier add football or be forced out of the sun belt? if both UNO and denver leave there will be the only non-football member of the conferance. they will eventually have 10 football playing members in the future and if ULAR adds football and be the 11th team. With the monatourm being lifted in a couple of years and teams probably going to be moving up it will seem like a common sense move to add a team to make a conferance championship game puerly for both getting a nationally televised games and to hopefully balance the football scheduale so they won't get as much beatings as they do in the normal non conferance schedule.

(if this is the wrong fourm i'm sorry)

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UALR won't be forced out. If the Sun Belt will tolerate Denver until they find a new conference, they're definitely not going to kick out a school that's in the geographic footprint. I also don't see them adding football unless they get state funding for it (and we know how much government loves to fund education....). I actually don't think this would be a pressing issue. They've played with 13 teams for years, if they would go to 12 in football it would't be that much of a pain to play 13 in basketball. Also, UALR doesn't really have too much recourse as far as joining another conference. The Summit is now very far-flung, making them much less of an option than the Sun Belt with Denver is currently. The Southland is only interested in schools with fb, so they're not likely to take UALR. I actually see them staying put for time being.

If memory serves, UALR only sponsors 13 sports, so they'll need to add football to stay in the Sunbelt through the deadline of 2013.

And while the Southland would love to find football schools to replace Tex St and UTSA should they leave, UALR is one school that makes sense for them. UALR would prove an excellent travel partner for nearby Central Arkansas for non-football sports. And we're talking about a league that last expanded by adding a football school and a non-football school (TAMCC).

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TAMCC was supposed to add football, that's why the Southland took them in. However, that doesn't seem to be happening tight now. The main reason why the SLC will be looking at just fb-playing schools is that if they lose one school, they're down to the 7 required to get a postseason autobid. If they lose more than that, they're in the same situation the Great West is in.

So the GWFC has 5 - North Dakota, South Dakota, Southern Utah, UCDavis, and Cal Poly-SLO.
South Dakota is joining the Summit, North Dakota will join the Summit (after the "Fighting Sioux" think gets resolved), and Southern Utah is already in the Summit, but would prefer the Big Sky.

I see South Dakota and North Dakota applying to join the MVFC (Missouri Valley Football Conference) which sits at 9 (including 3 Summit schools - SDSU, NDSU, and Western Illinois). Not sure how this will go over.

If the Southland loses football schools, why couldn't they open up Southland Football to include some of the above as associates (perhaps absorbing Great West Football) ?
The Great West is an unstable league, with members who all would rather be elsewhere in an all-sports league. The SLC is far more stable long-term, and would seem to be a great long term solution for the Big West Schools (UCD, Cal-Poly SLO), who are happy in the Big West, but need a football home...

after north dakota joins then wouldn't the summit have enough schools who have football to start having a football conferance? Wouldn't us davis and cal poly SLo be a better fit for te big sky is football?

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wrong on the "if they lose a school they'd be down to 7 for fb" If UTSA and Texas St. leave they'd still have 8. Lamar starts football in 2010. They could take C.Oklahoma or Tarleton St. and UALR to get back to 12 and have the perfect 9 for fb.

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I think the worst case for the Southland would be as follows:

I'm thinking Denver -> Summit (Sun Belt at 11, Summit at 12)
Texas State, UTSA, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin -> FBS
UALR -> Southland (Sun Belt at 10 plus any new members; Southland at 8 schools and only 5 play football)

The desires of Texas State, UTSA, and Lamar to go FBS are not exactly a secret. I've read on other boards that Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin are looking at going to FBS as well although I haven't seen as much from them.

At this point I think the Southland has to offer football-only memberships to Cal Poly SLO and UC Davis, assuming they haven't announced an upgrade to the WAC. Summit members North Dakota (presuming they get in), South Dakota, and Southern Utah would be a liability should the Summit elect to sponsor their own football league.

If Illinois State and Missouri State upgrade to FBS, we could wind up with the following:

Summit Football Conference - Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis, Southern Utah, North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Western Illinois

Southland Football Conference - Central Arkansas, McNeese State, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, Indiana State, Youngstown State, Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa

46566,can't find much info regarding UALR starting a varsity FB program.There was a blogger piece in the Arkansas News last summer that generally supported such a move.However,even that writer conceded that a UALR FB squad was unlikely while the economy was weak.Also,there were no statements or attributions to/by UALR officials.Link at http://www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com/?p=76

Here is link to UALR FB Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=31168628350

As to UALR leaving the SBC.
So far I can find no confirmation that UALR was placed on SBC "probation" like UNO and Denver.If anyone else has that info please post it here.
I suspect that UALR will likely remain in the SBC as long as they are SBC "compliant".

Thanks
Freaked

This might be possible, but you would then be disassembling the MVFC.
The MVFC is actually "independent" of the Missouri Valley Conference.
In that the 3 Summit members paid entry fees (at least NDSU and SDSU did, not so sure about Western Illinois), would they be thrilled with getting sucked back into "Summit League Football" ?

Not sure. I think NDSU and SDSU like being grouped with Nothern Iowa, Missouri State, etc.... So if the MVFC league wants to insulate itself from membership loss to FBS, I think they simply add North Dakota and South Dakota, in fact they may be invited as soon as they become fully-eligible for D-I FCS playoffs (would that be about 2011 ?).

I keep thinking that Youngstown State will one day jump up to the MAC.
Southern Utah is so far west of the rest of the Summit, that's it's understandable that they would prefer the Big Sky.
If they got invited, the Summit folks would wave goodbye and wish them well.

So which of the following happens:
1) Summit League fsponsors ootball (includes western independents); Southland absorbs MVFC refugees from MVC, OR
2) MVFC grabs North Dakota & South Dakota; Southland absorbs western independents ?
I think 2) is more likely, but the dynamics of the situation will dictate.....

UALR is compliant with the sport sponsorship requirements, albeit barely:

Men (6) - Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Indoor Track & Field, Outdoor Track & Field
Women (9) - Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Indoor Track & Field, Outdoor Track & Field, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Volleyball

UALR did drop Men's Tennis in May 2008.

I don't see the Summit starting their own league. There's the old saying "if it isn't broke don't fix it", and that's where they're at with the MVFC (which actually used to be administered by the Summit). The Summit schools in the MVFC would actually resist a move like this, they're much happier with the current situation: playing in a solid multi-IAA bid football conference, a decently compact geographical footprint (Youngstown State is really the only outlier of the group), and not having to go to Southern Utah every couple of years. There is also some serious risk that SUU could go to the Big Sky eventually, which would leave the Summit with only 5 schools.

I also don't see Youngstown State making a move to I-AA. During the Tressel years this would have made sense, but that time has long since passed, and YSU is less set to go than, say, a Northern Iowa or Southern Illinois.

My bad. I was basing my info from their website with the single "track and field" rather than the seasonal split.

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