Sun Belt Changes

[Greenie]

Another indicator that there will be conference shifting in the not-to-distant future.

Denver in Search of a New Conference
http://media.www.duclarion.com/media...-3373576.shtml

Conference that makes the most sense is the West Coast Conference

Sun Belt Raises Academic and Athletic Expectations
http://www.sunbeltsports.org/ViewArt...ATCLID=1151032

Membership Standards
1. Member institutions are expected to sponsor a minimum of fifteen (15) sports in which the conference offers a championship. There shall be a five-year (2012-2013) grace period for University of New Orleans and University of Denver to reach this standard.

New Orleans is interesting -- they only sponsor 9 sports.

[bincitysioux]

The WCC would likely be the preferred conference for Denver, but I don't think the WCC will be very interested in them. Last fall they turned down former WCC member Seattle University, who is now in the same transitional stage as UND and USD. I feel that as SU nears the end of their transition that they will revisit the issue.

I think it is most likely that Denver eventually ends up in the WAC or the Big Sky, if either of those conferences can get past the issue of DU not having football.

What about the possibility of Denver to the Summit? They are loosely in the same vacinity as SUU, in a large market, and really Denver is probably one of the easiest places to travel to. They are full DI and core members which would help if Centenary drops a division or if some other core member left.

On a somewhat related note, Texas Pan-Am's president recently has said that an announcement regarding conference affiliation is forthcoming. Could they have been invited to the Summit or Southland? Or forming a new leauge?

[Bison bison]

I agree, Denver isn't going to the WCC.

I don't see the WAC or Big Sky either. It's not just football, Denver also has a lot of sports that conferences don't offer. It's a great school, but they have refused to 'play the game'.

I don't know about the Summit as they need to find a core. Denver doesn't help with that at all (as it puts another school in the Mountain Zone on the schedule).

I don't think UTPA is getting into a multi-sports conference. Their AD just resigned and the conference announcement didn't receive much hooplah. I assume a sport or two is joining a conference.

[RedRiver]

I don't see any conferences expanding unless they are forced to because of the NCAA autobid. Travel costs will be a huge issue to lower level conferences such as the Summit, Big Sky, WCC. Conferences are just not going to add schools and the additional travel expenses.

[bincitysioux]

I don't see the WAC or Big Sky either. It's not just football, Denver also has a lot of sports that conferences don't offer.

The reason I think the Big Sky may be interested in them is because earlier this winter I heard a radio interview with Big Sky commish Doug Fullerton and he did mention that although being at 9 schools is great for football, alot of the presidents are unhappy with the odd number of schools for basketball and other sports, and he said that they have indeed floated the idea of adding a non-football playing member to balance out the travel schedules. Consider that along with the fact that we are all well aware of the Big Sky's propensity to add small schools from big markets, it just makes me think it could be a possibility.

As far as the Summit goes, I agree that they wouldn't add them just for the sake of adding them. But if they did lose a core member in the next few years (Centenary?), Denver would be a far better option than UTPA, although Chicago St. would probably be re-admitted before either Denver or UTPA got an invite for any reason that may arise.

[Paulie]

There are rumors of a new baseball conference involving that core group of independents out there and this might be the UTPA annoucement.