Great West inteview.

[WYOBISONMAN]

Agreed...............

[BisBison]

It's still too bad the NCAA didn't invoke the "freeze" a bit earlier.

[sambini]

Like a year or two earlier+++

[imabison]

Like a year or two earlier+++

Does anyone think that the school up north was NOT aware there was a freeze coming? I would guess they knew and that forced them to move when they did.

[bisonmike2]

Does anyone think that the school up north was NOT aware there was a freeze coming? I would guess they knew and that forced them to move when they did.

That's a tough call. Bunning seems to be a little more intelligent than past UND administrators. If he did know, I would like to see his pro's and con's of moving and staying. I would think the freeze is a huge con. Much of the opportunity to find a conference involves teams moving up or down in divisions. Granted sometimes it is a school bolting for a different conference in the same division but again that usually happens because the accepting conference lost somebody in the past to a different division. If UND knew that the freeze was coming, I would almost bet money that the pressure to move up came from influenzes above Bunning, i.e. Kupcake and ghost of Ralph.

[bincitysioux]

From everything I've read, the moratorium came as kind of a shock to everyone, so I doubt that UND or USD had an idea that it would happen. As far as its implications on finding a conference, yeah it'll hurt I'm afraid. There won't be any talk for a few years of Sac St. or Portland St. (Glanville's idea) moving on to the WAC, opening up a spot in the Big Sky, however slim the chances would have been for that. It also hurts in the fact that it really narrows the potential candidates for joining the GWFC. On the other hand, it appears that the Summit is the goal for Bunning, and since they don't have football, I think there is still a good chance that they could look to expand at some point in the near future, hopefully before UND's transition is over. When the Big East splits, or the Big 10 expands, the effects will filter on down through the Horizon and/or the MVC, and those conferences will in turn look to the Summit. Then there is always the slim possiblity that Southern Utah could get into the Big Sky or Centenary to the Southland which they've been pursuing for some time.

[Gothmog]

From everything I've read, the moratorium came as kind of a shock to everyone, so I doubt that UND or USD had an idea that it would happen. As far as its implications on finding a conference, yeah it'll hurt I'm afraid. There won't be any talk for a few years of Sac St. or Portland St. (Glanville's idea) moving on to the WAC, opening up a spot in the Big Sky, however slim the chances would have been for that. It also hurts in the fact that it really narrows the potential candidates for joining the GWFC. On the other hand, it appears that the Summit is the goal for Bunning, and since they don't have football, I think there is still a good chance that they could look to expand at some point in the near future, hopefully before UND's transition is over. When the Big East splits, or the Big 10 expands, the effects will filter on down through the Horizon and/or the MVC, and those conferences will in turn look to the Summit. Then there is always the slim possiblity that Southern Utah could get into the Big Sky or Centenary to the Southland which they've been pursuing for some time.

Well, Bunning may want the Summit, but he can't get the Summit without NDSU and SDSU's votes. Right now it just ain't gonna happen.

[WYOBISONMAN]

Yes, I would be very surprised to see NDSU or SDSU support UND or USD getting into the Summit.

[bisonmike2]

I'm not too familiar with b-ball scheduling. how is the summit in terms of number of teams needed for scheduling? Are we at a good number? would a couple more be a good fit? What I'm getting at is the Gateway next year is almost perfect. We get 8 conference games (4 home 4 away) and 3 non conference games. We are looking at almost guaranteeing 6 home games a year, maybe more. Couldn't work out better. Are we in a similiar position now in the summit?

[roadwarrior]

In the Summit for basketball, there are 18 conference games. We play every other team at home and on the road. A good number of games for conference play in my opinion.