ORU leaving Summit

wh · October 25, 2011, 04:54:17 PM

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7148877/oral-roberts-leave-summit-league-join-southland-conference-2012

mj · October 25, 2011, 05:00:06 PM

You wonder how long the Summit League is going to last. Oakland would be a nice addition to the Horizon League.

VU75 · October 25, 2011, 05:27:28 PM

Pretty rare when the baseball program is the driving force behind a decision to switch conferences.

valpopal · October 25, 2011, 06:09:43 PM

This is a real step down a few levels in basketball. Last year the Summit League was ranked 18th among the 32 conferences by Sagarin. Southland was ranked 29th. By contrast, the Horizon League was ranked 10th. In team rankings, ORU was 142, but the highest ranked team of the Southland was Sam Houston State at 199. Valpo wound up at 94. You have to appreciate the difference in direction taken by Valpo and ORU since our old days as rivals in the Mid-Con.

vu72 · October 25, 2011, 06:15:49 PM

You beat me to it! I was just looking up the same info. It would be like us going from the Horizon to the Summit.

Clearly the travel was the biggest issue. It will save them a bunch as most trips will be by bus.

covufan · October 25, 2011, 07:08:34 PM

Quote from: valpopal on October 25, 2011, 06:09:43 PM
This is a real step down a few levels in basketball. Last year the Summit League was ranked 18th among the 32 conferences by Sagarin. Southland was ranked 29th. By contrast, the Horizon League was ranked 10th. In team rankings, ORU was 142, but the highest ranked team of the Southland was Sam Houston State at 199. Valpo wound up at 94. You have to appreciate the difference in direction taken by Valpo and ORU since our old days as rivals in the Mid-Con.

Was about to look up similar info. I don't get this move, especially just for travel.

zvillehaze · October 25, 2011, 09:14:54 PM

I've got a kid at a Summit League school who was originally headed to a Southland school, so I'm sort of familiar with both. Surprised that ORU would join the Southland, but after Southern Utah announced they were heading to the Big Sky (and Centennary went DIII), it left ORU as the geographic outlier in the league.

They'll be OK if they can solidify the remaining membership. Although not as geographically centered as the Horizon, they'll now be down to Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and the Dakotas. Lots of road trips that are drivable unless you're on the outskirts.

I've always liked ORU, going back to the days they were in the MCC. But since those days, they've been all over the map ... left the NCAA for a few years, came back to the Mid-Con/Summit and now to the Southland. The move does make sense for them in baseball ... if you've ever seen their campus, you know immediately that they're committed to the sport.

valpotx · October 26, 2011, 12:28:53 AM

The person that wrote the article didn't do their research in saying that the Summit League stretches to Louisiana, with Centenary now in D3.

This decision definitely makes sense on the geographic side, but is a step down in the more major sports, except baseball, that ORU participates in. I imagine that the school's reputation hit in the last few years due to financial scandals led to them needing to save money? It will be interesting to see what their baseball team does in the coming years. They were pretty much assured of the NCAA tournament every year when I was playing in the Mid-Con (and since then as well), but would not be a given to win the Southland every year. They will be competitive for sure, but I believe the conference is only a 2 bid league at most every year.

dylanrocks · October 26, 2011, 09:21:23 AM

Last year's Summit League RPI rankings (the three that mattered):

*53 Oakland
115 IUPUI
131 Oral Roberts

Last year's Southland Conference RPI rankings:

159 McNeese State
176 Sam Houston State
*193 Texas-San Antonio

*went to NCAAs by winning conference tournament

In short, ORU's road to the NCAA tournament just got a lot easier. It wasn't going to make the field as an at-large anyway.

vu72 · October 26, 2011, 09:41:53 AM

Quote from: dylanrocks on October 26, 2011, 09:21:23 AM
Last year's Summit League RPI rankings (the three that mattered):

*53 Oakland
115 IUPUI
131 Oral Roberts

Last year's Southland Conference RPI rankings:

159 McNeese State
176 Sam Houston State
*193 Texas-San Antonio

*went to NCAAs by winning conference tournament

In short, ORU's road to the NCAA tournament just got a lot easier. It wasn't going to make the field as an at-large anyway.

If you like being a 15 or 16 or getting the play-in game, I agree. Getting something other than the "meat for the grinder" seed will need a better conference.

IndyValpo · October 26, 2011, 10:03:20 AM

This makes so much sense I can't believe anyone would question it.
They improved their baseball competition which is their #1 sport.
Every other sport is a one bid league, Southland or Summit.
Both leagues get 13-16 level bids in the NCAA basketball tourney.
Travel is better.

dylanrocks · October 26, 2011, 10:53:20 AM

Let's say that ORU decided to abandon the listing ship that it the Summit League, with members flung as far as Grand Forks, N.D.

Let's say that it reached out to a better conference like the Horizon, but was rejected. What would it do then?

Perhaps it reached out again and found a temporary home that makes sense both competitively and geographically.

valpotx · October 26, 2011, 11:30:03 AM

The Mid-Con/Summit will survive. They actually have a much better footprint now, and have always been able to pull in teams that are making the transition to D-1 for additional members. The University of Nebraska at Omaha is essentially replacing SUU next year, so they will only need to find 1 more team to get back to 10 if that is their ideal number. The unfortunate part of the league is that they will always lose their top teams to better conferences as those come open, but that is the plight of being a mid-major these days.