National Conference Realignments

[a3uge]

agreed, the southland has always been worse of a bball conference.  The original move from Summit to the Southland was Mike Carter's and only needed the approval from the RR the president.  RR could care less and had no idea what was going on. 

The question is, does the university have to pay exit fees on any of their moves?  They were 80 million dollars in debt (ultimately that costs RR his job).  The Greens, (owner of Hobby Lobby) bailed the university out.  Since then the new president had a goal to increase students enrollment.  He was responsible for building a really cool student union.  But that president has since stepped down. 

Does anyone know if their are exit fees ORU will have to pay?

I'm guessing there's some forgiveness of the old Summit League debt so it'll even out a bit...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[crusaderjoe]

Internet rumors are swirling about a potential expansion of the Sun Belt, which includes Missouri State, JMU and/or Liberty in this discussion. 

http://csnbbs.com/thread-685723.html

Now this would be interesting if this happens--if MSU moves to the Sun Belt, I wonder whether the MVC would move back to 10 or decide to protect itself further and instead move to 12.  I doubt they would stay at 9.  10 might not be good enough this time around either if two schools leave in three years.

Will any potential Sun Belt expansion affect the MAC?  If the MAC expands, you've got to figure that the OVC potentially could be affected (Eastern Kentucky), which again could affect the HL in some way. 

Again, these are all just internet rumors, but if MSU does move, things might get a little interesting again for the HL.  Should be interesting to see what happens.

[crusaderjoe]

Even with the UMASS departure, the MAC likely not expanding anytime soon:

http://www.football.com/en-us/where-will-umass-play-after-2015/

Looks like all eyes will be on the Sun Belt for now.  Who will be team #12?

[valpotx]

PantherU is probably already predicting that Milwaukee is on its way to the MVC, with a possible Missouri State departure

[HC]

I believe rock solid sources form within our own university are telling him that Bryce is a definite to take over the head coaching job for the Knicks under Phil Jackson.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

[crusaderjoe]

A Valpo tie-in to some new news via Gene Bartow.

Looks like UAB is going to drop football.  Nothing is set in stone yet but media reports are swirling:

http://www.si.com/college-football/2014/11/30/alabama-birmingham-shuts-down-football-program-fires-athletic-director

This would potentially mean that UAB would have to leave CUSA and find a new conference, and in turn it would also potentially mean that we could have some more lower level conference shuffling to some degree.

Hey LeCrone, Belmont could be an excellent travel partner with UAB.  Just saying. 

UAB as a basketball school will certainly land somewhere if their football program is shut down.  MVC?  A-10?  Horizon?

[LaPorteAveApostle]

bbtds and I were discussing this a while ago before this was leaked.  can't remember the thread...

but I would think UAB would find themselves in the OVC or A-Sun first...except I don't think they would leave CUSA.  But they may.

Really too bad.

[bbtds]

bbtds and I were discussing this a while ago before this was leaked.  can't remember the thread...

That's kind of funny. I don't remember which thread either. I thought maybe I had dreamed it. 

[a3uge]

Not surprised about UAB. Flights from Barrow, Alaska must be expensive.

[valpotx]

Very sad to see this, again proving that funding football at Rolled Toilet Paper University is all that matters in that state. 

[crusaderjoe]

UAB football was officially closed down this week, along with two other sports.  A very sad week for the UAB sporting community indeed.  I wonder if CUSA will let them stay as a non-football member.  If not, one would think they would have to look to a conference that sponsors Men's Soccer first since it looks like soccer will now be the Fall marquee sport.  Should be interesting to see if any conference dominoes move as a result of this decision.

[valporun]

I would think that UAB would be out of CUSA after the 2015-16 school year because of the number of contracts that were signed for games for next season. If it weren't so much of a geographical and logistical nightmare, I would say the HL would be wise to extend an offer to UAB, since we don't have football as a conference sport.

[crusaderjoe]

I just happened to stumble on this from another sports board:

Wichita State to the American?

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article121087273.html

[VULB#62]

Interesting that there is a statement in there about the MVC  decline as a WSU reason for departing.

[VULB#62]

My 

Valpo will not really fit into any other conference other than a mid-major conference with at least a 50+% membership of private colleges (Big East Light).

Crazy thought:  a BB-only conferece that meets that criterion.  I'll suggest Detriot, Belmont for starters. 

FYI:  we travel the country for football, why  not MBB and WBB?

Problem:  where do the other sports fit?

[bbtds]

FYI:  we travel the country for football, why  not MBB and WBB

A lot more travel for BB than football. The reason given that Valpo got out of the Mid-Con was the classroom time lost due to the travel in the Mid-Con. I don't know if the decision makers would have changed their minds on this but I do think the board and administrators seem to still fall on the side of saved classroom time. Academics weighs much more heavily.

[vu72]

FYI:  we travel the country for football, why  not MBB and WBB

A lot more travel for BB than football. The reason given that Valpo got out of the Mid-Con was the classroom time lost due to the travel in the Mid-Con. I don't know if the decision makers would have changed their minds on this but I do think the board and administrators seem to still fall on the side of saved classroom time. Academics weighs much more heavily.

You may be right and probably are. I do wonder though about the numbers.  For example, this year's basketball team flew to Oregon, Vegas, Kentucky and Missouri.  The rest of the season is basically at home or on buses.  How many travel with the team?  May 25 or so?  The football team traveled to Connecticut, Florida and California.  With how many?  Probably around 100 plus a load of equipment.  Could the costs be similar or even greater for football??

[oklahomamick]

According to Kenpom the HL rankings the last 4 years

12, 14, 16, 20(2017)

[bbtds]

The rest of the season is basically at home or on buses. 

Buses are less expensive then airplane travel but still cost money. If BB only traveled to the away football cities twice then maybe about the same but the away conference games cost money too.

[valpotx]

I guess that the moratorium on schools joining D-1 is over, with Cal Baptist joining the WAC.  It seems like all of the Baptist schools are doing this now, with Houston Baptist joining recently, and Dallas Baptist looking to do so in all sports (currently D-1 in baseball only).

http://www.midmajormadness.com/2017/1/13/14268062/sources-cal-baptist-to-join-western-athletic-conference

[crusaderjoe]

UND to join Summit and MVFC:

http://www.wday.com/sports/4204986-sources-und-set-leave-big-sky-and-join-summit-missouri-valley-conferences

With UND, the Summit will have a nice round number of 10 members.  The MVFC will have 11 members.

I wonder if UMKC regrets moving to the WAC.

[valpo64]

I'm sure that makes IPFW happy...now one more school to play on their several visits per year to the Dakotas.  I'll bet they love facing that added travel expense, especially when they barely get 1,000 fans to thier games.

[valpotx]

I figured that would eventually happen, with the other 3 Dakota schools in the same setup.  The Big Sky had too many members, as well. 

[bbtds]

A mapping of the Summit League



https://www.google.com/maps/dir/University+of+North+Dakota/North+Dakota+State+University/South+Dakota+State+University/University+of+South+Dakota,+Vermillion,+SD/University+of+Nebraska+at+Omaha+Baxter+Arena/University+of+Denver+-+University+College/Oral+Roberts+University/Western+Illinois+University,+Macomb,+IL/IUPUI+-+Administration+Building/IPFW,+E+Coliseum+Blvd,+Fort+Wayne,+IN/@41.6323722,-104.0547445,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m62!4m61!1m5!1m1!1s0x52c6816a6ae4263b:0xcc0ae5e774c834be!2m2!1d-97.0768014!2d47.922891!1m5!1m1!1s0x52c8c95e38f7908d:0x155f5f98a78be8e2!2m2!1d-96.8013927!2d46.8921783!1m5!1m1!1s0x8789a2fadf07d6e9:0xa7e39ad698634fab!2m2!1d-96.7817535!2d44.3176308!1m5!1m1!1s0x878e4f8961698e2b:0x7c8c9573e80c69ac!2m2!1d-96.925271!2d42.784118!1m5!1m1!1s0x87938c4fba15b8cd:0x404503234fa96f80!2m2!1d-96.0139754!2d41.2364323!1m5!1m1!1s0x876c7e159cdea761:0x3d73ccb05ab84e1f!2m2!1d-104.9584708!2d39.6762366!1m5!1m1!1s0x87b693b80f5e0777:0xb6d334c69520f8c6!2m2!1d-95.955471!2d36.048042!1m5!1m1!1s0x87e0fa07576dbfad:0x80dcefb36be3a1f6!2m2!1d-90.684401!2d40.476174!1m5!1m1!1s0x886b5735461f008b:0xa9e838c4b585af15!2m2!1d-86.176276!2d39.77392!1m5!1m1!1s0x8815fcca979a3989:0x64b8eb5cd29a3f47!2m2!1d-85.1081012!2d41.1183128!3e0