What’s the concern? That the ND state legislature is going to step in? I thought you just said they’ve made it very public? Now you’re saying they have to keep it a secret?
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We can send a cake to the legislators to eh!
Ndsu football has punch and pie!
I don't believe all of these have made big public statements. There was some buzz around Tarleton, SFA, EKU because when CUSA talked to them last time, it leaked that the conference told them effectively they were on the short list/runner ups for next adds there.
UCD and Sac St I believe are engaged in a little gamemanship right now, because it is likely only one of those two get selected. UCD has some advantages in terms of size, prestige and student body. Sac St has been trying hard to make up for those perceived disadvantages by raising a lot of funds to build new infrastructure. They know they wouldn't even be in the discussion with current facilities.
I think that if UND or the state legislature was going to kill something, they wouldn’t need a public statement from NDSU to know something was in the works. They know NDSU is in the running and maybe even actively working on something now. Why wait?
I also think that if I’m the MW and NDSU tells me “I have to keep it a secret so my state legislature doesn’t shoot it down”, I’m not touching that baggage with a 10 foot pole.
Guarantee that for every leaked expansion candidate, there are 3 or 4 others never publicly mentioned. Much of the time, the names don't come out until the discussions are fairly far along. Conferences aren't eager to leak everything they are doing. There is a game of chess behind the scenes, and conference A has a plan for different scenarios based on what conferences B and C do. They don't like to tip their hand. Until recently, many people doubted PAC would even try to rebuild, and kept claiming it was impossible. Meanwhile PAC was laying groundwork to do exactly that.
People are making way too much out of ndsu not being in the headlines yet. A lot of activity always happens below the surface first. And we simply aren't at the stage of FCS additions yet.
I think Big Horns is correct. There are candidates that are under the radar. When the MWC had the airport meeting they jettisoned every school in the Central time zone, TCU, SMU, Tulsa, Rice and Utep "MST". Until this week they haven't looked east at all for new members. While I had heard that NIU and Toledo had contacted them, I was surprised a bit. Logically, the MW has to look east now. Who knows where they are looking?
I do think they will add UC Davis if they can..If not, SAC State. I have no idea if the MAC schools will join. I do not know if you are under consideration or even interested but the MW has to add some schools from somewhere.
Texas State is in a great spot right now. They have 4 possible conference slots. The Belt, the AAC the MW and the Pac-State conference.
However, other than that it is a total grab bag.. The first year Gloria came on board she along with the executive board, mapped out a plan for every possible contingency. They even had a plan if the Pac 12 imploded. The have assessed and evaluated all along. They know who might be interested, they know who isn't interested.
They have some time to figure it out but it would help to get something going soon.