Valuable & Timely News from the GF Herald!

[IowaBison]

From todays Herald:

"If the Big Sky does expand, Fullerton said, it likely would create two divisions to avoid extensive travel costs."

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/10326756.htm

[somebison]

i see they are now saying 1-4 teams instead of 1-3

muy interesante

[Bisonfan01234]

I think of the 5 that have submitted or most likely will submit the questionarie, SUU is probably the least likely to get in even if they take 4 new members.

[tony]

I think their ideas evolved. Back when it was 1-3 teams they were looking at, they were thinking of only having one division.

This is just speculation but I think they probably found out that the only way one or more of the BSC schools were going to vote for NDSU and SDSU was if the Big Sky split into two divisions. Two divisions makes the most sense if they add four teams.

Personally, I think the BSC will give a lot of consideration to Southern Utah. Here's why:


31.3.4.3 Additional Requirements, Men’s Basketball. The member conference must include seven
core institutions. For the purposes of this legislation, core refers to an institution that has been an
active member of Division I the eight preceding years. Further, the continuity-of-membership
requirement shall be met only if a minimum of six core institutions have conducted conference
competition together in Division I the preceding five years in men’s basketball. There shall be no
exception to the five-year waiting period. Any new member added to a member conference that
satisfies these requirements shall be immediately eligible to represent the conference as the automatic
qualifier. (Revised: 8/14/90, 12/3/90, 4/27/00, 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04)

NDSU, SDSU, and UNC won't fulfill the core member requirement for 11 more years. Southern Utah will fulfill it immediately. They might add SUU for short-term insurance and add the three former NCCers for the long-term health of the conference.

[IowaBison]

muy interesante

[MinotBison]

Sehr interessant gewiss! ;D

[Bisonguy]

Tony- Supposedly there's a HUGE roadblock for SUU getting into the Big Sky. I thought it was one of the president's (or AD's) stating something along the lines of "SUU will be a member of the Big Sky over my dead body".

[JACKGUYII]

I really don't see SUU getting in. For the first time I'm feeling confident that SDSU, NDSU and UNC will get in. I also feel they will admit UND when their intentions are made to absolutley to move up which I think will be the case. The split division seems to minimizes the travel concerns of the western schools.

[NDSU_grad]

I think an 11 team conference would work. You could base it loosely on geography as to which teams you would play twice in basketball as opposed to once, but not actually split the conference into two divisions. For football, maybe play 8 or 9 conference games and just rotate out 1 or 2 teams. If und decides what they want to do they could then make it a 12 team conference.

[JBB]

It almost looks like its SUU or undII?

Im inclined to agree their core institution classification is a plus for SUU.

[Bisonguy]

The Big Sky was talking about possible non-football members.... Maybe Denver, along with NDSU,SDSU, and UNC? ;DGives a nice odd number for football, and an even number for all other sports.

[89rabbit]

Hmmmmm. :-/

[NDSU_grad]

The Big Sky was talking about possible non-football members.... Maybe Denver, along with NDSU,SDSU, and UNC? *;DGives a nice odd number for football, and an even number for all other sports.

Maybe a bball alignment like this:

East:
Denver-UNC
the SU's
Montana-Montana St.

West:

Sac. St.-Portland
Idaho St.-E. Washington
Weber St.-North. Ariz.

I put potential travel partners next to each other. *Looks pretty good, although it would mean star2city would have been at least partly right, and I don't know if I could stomach that. ;)

[BISON_PRIDE]

I don't think UND will even put in a letter of interest with the Big Sky. *Apparently the recruits for UND are being told they are staying DII. * The planning commission for them will come up with the idea to establish an endowment fund for a possible move but they aren't interested at this time. *It all boils down to money for them now.

[Bisonfan01234]

An odd number is only for conference with 8-9 members.

Once you get to 10 or bigger, you're only going to be playing 8 conference games anyway, so this is becomes moot.

[Bisonguy]

An odd number is only for conference with 8-9 members.

Once you get to 10 or bigger, you're only going to be playing 8 conference games anyway, so this is becomes moot.


My previous post was full of sarcasm- forgot to include the tags. ;D :-X

[DIBISON]

The most important point of the GF Herald article is the quote from UNDII President CK: We are not ready to join a DI conference.

I still believe we are talking about "years" for UNDII before they officially join the Big Sky!