by UNDfan » February 14th, 2018, 10:25 pm
SDSU and Denver will not be going to the MVC regardless of what this forum thinks.
The Dakota schools are simply tired of being MVC wannabes when they have more support and better academics than most of the MVC.
Once the Summit loses IPFW to the Horizon, the Summit will be in real trouble because it needs to sponsor men's soccer and baseball. IPFW is a key school for that reason. UND is joining the Summit and they actually dropped baseball expressly to make expansion needed.
What will happen is the Summit will add Montana St, Montana, Idaho and Weber St and make fb a Summit sport, and maybe even elevate it to FBS.
So the Summit schools will be:
North Dakota
NDSU
SDSU
USD
Omaha
Denver
Weber St
Montana St
Montana
Idaho
IPFW, ORU (the WAC or MVC?) and W Ill ( the OVC or Horizon?) will not want to be part of that league.
The MVC will no longer have a conference in its footprint where schools are begging to get out.
The Horizon commish has actually talked about going to 14 schools because he knows the Summit will not be a stepping stone league anymore.
The Summit will become a power league rivaling the MAC and MVC. Denver and Omaha want UND in because hockey is those three main sports and a cash cow. Idaho and the Montana's like a football centered league without Big Sky commuter schools. Weber St will want it for basketball and the overall upgrade. The Montanas would only have three flights in the conference to get to the Dakota's, Omaha, and Denver, which is much less than they have now. Moreover, FBS is enticing because playing Utah, Fresno St, Washington, Oregon, and Stanford is much more enticing than the Big Sky opponents in those regions that are almost always broke.
When they XDSU's first tried to get into a DI conference, it was the Big Sky all the way, but the Montana's didn't have the votas. When a Summit and MVFC opportunity came up, which wasn't the XDSU's preference, the MVFC imposed large exit fees on them because they knew how bad the XDSU's wanted to associate with the Montanas.
Now the Summit for the first time will become one large happy family, and UND is the only one that has been a partner for all the schools.
The MVFC has to get more football schools. Murray St is a given and Robert Morris may want in. RMU will probably get a Horizon invite as they have a new arena coming up. Maybe you can beg the Horizon to take W Illinois too, so they stay in the MVFC.
The MVC created this conundrum because of the private school cabal that hates football. Good luck.