Houston Chronicle article discussing HBU plans to add football in the future.Apparently they would prefer a Southland invite but are also interested in the Summit League.Link at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 05112.html

It seems that the Summit League has several options going forward. I'm wondering how serious the Big Sky might be about removing their invite to North Dakota (seems it is for stupid reasons). If they are, then the Summit League should be working to add them and one other school. Maybe a football playing HBU, or maybe someone like Eastern Illinois (just my speculation, but I would think EIU would want to play in a football conference with other Illinois schools. Also, the Summit is less geographically spread out since the last time EIU was in the conference). The Summit could then take over sponsorship of the MVFC:

Summit West: North Dakota, ND State, South Dakota, SD State, Missouri State, HBU or Northern Iowa
Summit East: Northern Iowa or Eastern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Illinois State, Western Illinois, Indiana State, Youngstown State

Perhaps. But I would think the Summit, with new found compact geography, would pass on a team in Texas, especially one adding football making them a flight risk.

The North Dakota situation you mentioned makes a lot of sense. Their problem was always the lack of a MVFC football invite...which would still be a problem for them in the Summit. But you've got some other schools like NKU that the Summit can look at, adding the Cincy market to go with others in the region.

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Agree North Dakota and Northern Ky to the Summit both fit nicely.

The North Dakota nickname situation has gone from annoying to bizarre. The state legislature forcing them to keep a nickname they agreed to give up.
Could this all be choreographed between the Big Sky and Summit ?
The Big Sky might rather be 10/12 w/o North Dakota.... North Dakota would rather be in the Summit (but needs a FB home).
North Dakota has to leave the Big Sky by a certain date to avoid an exit fee. But what if they were expelled ?
It would seem the legislature would be HELPING North Dakota get the invitation they want.... Summit / MVFC, and the nickname is certainly expendible.

Would Northen Ky play football in the MVFC ? Western Ky did, so geography is no issue...

Should North Dakota go back to being "the Flickertails" ? Yikes. One would hope they could come up wiht something more imposing than that !
A huge problem for the Fighting Sioux is the logos all over campus (I think on every seat in Ralph Engelstatd Arena).
Could they save a lot of money by adopting some "non-offensive" Native American moniker ? Is there such a thing ? "Chiefs" ???

NKU doesn't have football.

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Most of us were hoping that UNO would be bring its football to the MVFC but that didn't happen, still the best bet for UND to get an invite to the MVC is to have Youngstown St leave for the CAA...then NKU could join and make the Summit a 12 team league.

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That's why I made an alternate proposal of UND and EIU to the Summit. I know EIU has never been mentioned publicly, but hypothetically if EIU wanted to make the move what would the motivation for Northern Kentucky be for the Summit? Is EIU's market just too small?

So a few questions:
1. Could EIU be interested in the Summit? Could the Summit be interested in EIU? Or is neither one interested in the other?
2. If the Summit is not interested in EIU, is football sponsorship still a goal for them? If it is, who else could they potentially ask to join with UND, if they wanted to invite UND (assuming UND becomes available)?

To me that would be like asking Marshall to leave CUSA and join (rejoin) the MAC, the OVC is better than the MVC/Summit and MVFC. While it would make sense to have the 4 Illinois FCS schools in the same conference I don't think it will happen, however it makes way more sense to trade down conferences for travel purposes at the FCS level rather than the FBS level so I guess its possible.

My best case scenario for both travel and football would be to form a new mid-western league all sports football league and leave the non football schools to form their own conference. The new Summit League would be the 4 Dakota schools, Northern Iowa, Missouri St, SE Missouri St, the 4 Illinois schools and Indiana St; and the new Missouri Valley Conference would be Nebraska-Omaha, Creighton, Wichita St, Oral Roberts, Drake, Missouri-Kansas City, Bradley, SIU-Edwardsville, Evansville, IUPU-Indianapolis, IUPU-Fort Wayne, and Oakland. The Ohio Valley could grab UNA to get to 8 fb schools but after that I'd bet they go after more established schools like Arkansas-Little Rock or East Tennessee St, to be at 8fb/12bb schools.

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The OVC is that far above the Summit? Other than Nashville and a suburb of St. Louis, they aren't located in any major markets. The Summit would at least have a presence in Omaha, KC, Tulsa, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and metro Detroit. Both conferences would have 12 members in my scenario. Travel would be comparable, with EIU closer to WIU and the Indiana schools. Both conferences have autobids. Yeah, the OVC has been a stable conference for a longer amount of time, but I question the claim that moving to the Summit would be "trading down" for EIU.

We are mainly talking about basketball when we compare the Summit v OVC, the OVC has Murray St, Moorehead St, Belmont, and the Summit has Oakland (who would leave for the Horizon in a heartbeat) and more markets but that means little at the lower D1 levels. If we talk about football I guess its closer to a wash but without Youngstown St in the Summit/MVFC they won't be "better" than the OVC for a while but smart money is on the Dakotas doing well in the near future. You most called it with your last point, OVC has been stable and the Summit has been less so yeah the OVC is better for now but like I said above, if the Summit became an all sports league then I bet they would be the better conference in only a few short years...

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the OVC is definitely that much ahead of the summit, for now. the summit JUST got rid of their 2 worst teams in southern utah & centenary. getting rid of the travel was just a bonus to the rpi boost. as of right now the only real perennial contenders in the summit are oakland & oral roberts. 2 of the "bigger" named coaches in ron hunter (iupui) & dan fife (ipfw) have now gone on to greener pastures. but as someone mentioned the dakota schools are on the rise. south dakota is a definite vast improvement above SUU or centenary. their team returns most of their veteran squad & look to be compete immediately at the higher end of the summit next year. kito benson being drafted out of oakland this year will help boost the conference a bit adding to george hill (iupui) who currently plays for the spurs. also the summit signing up for bracket busters will help as well. but the ovc still has moorhead st. murray st & incoming belmont, so theyll be a stable conference going forward.

We'll see what happens going forward, since RPI and conference strength changes from year to year with or without realignment. With their recent basketball success, it means the OVC is bringing in more NCAA tourney money right now than the Summit. I do wonder who makes more in TV money, although neither probably make much to speak of.

Bringing this back to the Summit, my point is that as of 2012 the Summit will have 10 members, 4 of whom play football (NDSU, SDSU, USD, WIU). If the Summit wants to sponsor football at some point, they are going to need 6. Going to 6 football and 12 all-sports is an opportunity they have right now if the right schools are there. If North Dakota becomes available somehow, then they need to be talking to them. And although EIU might be a long shot, if I'm the Summit commissioner I would at least give them a call. Otherwise who else can the Summit look for?

Questions:
1. If the Summit wanted to sponsor football what 2 schools should they ask to join?
2. Is football sponsorship a possibility or even desirable at this point for the Summit? The opportunity is certainly there.

it's been explained here before, Summit will never be able to sponsor football. Think of it like the WAC "project".

Say the Summit gets Grand Valley St. and NW Missouri, they tell the others they are starting a fb conf, thus you need to be in it. MVC says okay, NDSU and SDSU, you want to be full members of the MVC, they say hell yeah. Summit football under the minimum 6, DOA.

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Is that really in the MVC's best interest, to fully sponsor a football conference? They also have 10 overall members, 5 of whom play football (Missouri State, N Iowa, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Indiana State). Technically they only need one school with football, which would give them room to add someone else like Butler (who I can't imagine would be behind both NDSU and SDSU on an MVC expansion list). So since the MVC has been 5/10 for awhile, are they simply not interested in fully sponsoring football, since they could easily do this with 2 schools right now as well? Does it only become necessary under the threat of the Summit sponsoring football?

It will never happen, they only need 1 full, but why give the Summit a chance to over take you, or even survive in general. They wouldn't. They already sponsor football. Its the top sport to have in a conf. That statement saying "full sponsor" makes no sense.

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NFL CHAMPS '29 '30 '31 '36 '39 '44 '61 '62 '65 '66 '67 '96 '10

BW/WAC/MWC CHAMPS '77 '82 '85 '88 '89 '91 '92 '93 '99 '12
['08 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPS]