Yall are over-thinking this.

The Big Sky is safe as can be, only UND may want to leave to join the other Dakotas and Sac State may take a Big West all but football invite if offered.

Other than that, a few might have FBS hopes but with the WAC gone and the MWC at 12 their are no real conferences for them to get invites from.

This is a Summit vs WAC battle, the Big Sky might just lose UND or might add USD (if NDSU/SDSU get invites from Horizon or MVC) but most likely nothing more.

Ironically the fate of the WAC and the Summit might be decided by the outcast Chicago State and the under-preforming Missouri-Kansas City.

If they stay in the WAC, the Summit may not have enough members (nor be able to invite enough members) to keep their autobid and the Dakotas may run to the Big Sky.

If they leave the WAC, the Summit will take UND and NMSU may join the Big Sky as their 14th all sport member like Idaho did leaving the WAC with not enough members (nor be able to invite enough members) to keep their autobid (once again).

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

Something else to think about a potential Dakota/Summit--Big Sky alliance is that it could be a somewhat temporary measure. If/when two DII schools in Minnesota decide to move up the Summit could spin-off and be its own football conference with the 4 Dakota schools, 2 Minnesota schools, N Colorado giving them the minimum of 7 for football.

If anything, conference realignment is incredibly fluid right now--you have the whole MVC/Horizon/Summit situation (which could eventually spread to the Big Sky and WAC) and then the mess that is the CAA standoff which could impact the SoCon, America East, Big South, A-Sun, MAAC, NEC, and maybe even get the OVC and Patriot involved in the raiding too if the opportunity arises. And the Sunbelt also needs a new member...that's 14 of the 31 conferences!

Oakland appears headed to the Horizon League:

http://www.brewcityball.com/forums/cont ... ng-Oakland

IUPUI and South Dakota State are the only two other schools to have earned tournament credits in the past five seasons. The Horizon taking IUPUI would pay off well if the Summit deteriorates to the point where the credits go back to the schools that earned them.

The only out might be if the Atlantic Sun gets gutted by the SoCon - Lipscomb and NKU would fit, but only if IUPUI or IPFW stay. Given that FGCU went to the Sweet 16 it doesn't make financial sense to leave the A-Sun right now.

no, NDSU(2009) and SDSU(2012, 2013) have, IUPUI not since 2003. That's the total invites after Oakland leaves.

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Article out of Grand Forks"stirring the pot"regarding "future possibilities" of Summit League member NDSU leaving that conference for a spot in a conference "like"the Big Sky at http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/262919

If that might occur for North Dakota State, then South Dakota and South Dakota State should be the next to follow suit, which may sound and/or look logical.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

If the Big Sky had not added Idaho, it could have gone for all 3 remaining Dakota programs to get to 14 overall and 16 in football.

Football Quad I:
UND
NDSU
USD
SDSU

Football Quad II:
Montana
Montana State
Idaho State
EWU

Football Quad III:
Portland State
Sacramento State
Cal Poly
UC Davis

Football Quad IV:
Weber State
SUU
NAU
UNC

Well-stated. And for other sports purposes, the division format would consist of the following:

East/West

Big Sky East: Football Quads I (North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State) & IV (Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado)
Big Sky West: Football Quads II (Montana, Montana State, Idaho State, Eastern Washington) & III (Portland State, Sacramento State), Weber State of Football Quad IV

North/South

Big Sky North: Football Quads I (North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State) & II (Montana, Montana State, Idaho State)
Big Sky South: Football Quads III (Portland State, Sacramento State) & IV (Weber State, Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado), Eastern Washington of Football Quad II

Unless in the future Cal Poly and UC-Davis leave the Big West to join the Big Sky for all sports to make the only D-I FCS conference with 16 teams (if Idaho hadn't re-joined the Big Sky).

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

Detroit Free Press article(previously posted in another thread)reporting that Oakland University has scheduled a Presser following tomorrow's 4PM ET BOT meeting to apparently announce that they are leaving the Summit league for the Horizon at http://www.freep.com/article/20130506/S ... zon-league

I don't see many expansion candidates for the Summit.
I have NO IDEA why UMKC left, unless they thought the Summit was goig to be devoured,
and in leaving they may be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At some point, we could find the 4 Dakota schools "in play".
The Big Sky could expand to 16 by taking in NDSU, SDSU, USD and either Denver or UNO.
That would give them 16 schools, 14 FCS, 1 FBS, 1 non-football.
The Big Sky has 2 FCS affiliates so that would be 16 for FCS football.
Geographically, it lays out nice, especially with Denver in the mix.

If suddenly the MVFC got wind that their FB league was about to go from 10 to 7 (with few replacement candidates),
the MVC members might feel pressured to look into expanding and inviting some of those same schools to the MVC (keeping them in the MVFC).

The stability of the Summit is in question. Right now, the Indiana schools would seem to be keen on a Horizon invite, shoud the Horizon need to further expand.
The football schools would entertain invitations from the MVC or Big Sky.
The other guys (UNO, Denver, Western Illinois (yeah, they play FB, but would be of no interest to the Big Sky)) might have to become refugees in the WAC.

And what would happen if UNO re-instates football, will it also be in effect based on what you said? Because I still think that the UNO Mavericks made a dumb choice to drop football just to join D-I because it wasn't truly necessary.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

Or nothing could happen. After Oakland makes their long-expected move to the Horizon, there might not be any other movement for the time being. The linchpin to further moves is the A-10, as after any move they make would cascade on down to the low and mid majors.
As it stands though, with Summit and WAC both at 8, and Horizon and MVC momentarily appeased, we might have reached temporary stasis.

I'll always bet on something happening. Horizon was talking about 12, that may or may not happen but 10 probably will. But the onlt names I've heard were UMKC, Belmont, N.Kentucky, Robert Morris. None of those will hurt the Summit unless Belmont is taken and the OVC chooses WIU or IUPUI over NKU, UNA, Lipscomb.

I think if the Big Sky offers at least 2 more Dakotas invites they'll leave the Summit.

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It would be nice if the Summit League commissioner could negotiate new homes for all the members of his shrinking conference:

NDSU, SDSU, USD, and Denver to the Big Sky
IUPUI and IPFW to the Horizon
WIU to either the Horizon or OVC
and poor UNO to the WAC with UMKC

I say this because, aside from raiding the WAC, NKU is the only D-1 school near the footprint who would consider the Summit a good home right now.

Oakland Press article reporting that as expected,Oakland University has announced it will be leaving the Summit League for the Horizon at http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles ... 199306.txt