My opinion.... NDSU should explore joining a FBS conference as a football-only member. Leave everything else in the Summit with the regional schools. Several advantages to this idea:
1. keeps costs same for Olympic sports
2. allows NDSU to see how good it can be
3. allows an easier path to the ncaa tournament for basketball and more $$$
4. reduces the barrier of having to raise 10+ million dollars more a year for athletic spending
5. allows more pay football games which would help fund the transition to FBS. 2 non-conference pay games annually on the road. 2 at home. The road games should pay us more than we would pay for home games
6. removes the barrier of the FBS conferences from having to justify spending extra money to send all of their athletes to ND