Summit Expansion?

[BisonCardinal]

Any chance Augustana can become the Summit's Loyola - Chicago?

[MNLonghorn10]

Uh, Youngstown made the National Championship game 2 years ago and have won 5. UNI is the program we had to overtake to start our run and by normal standards, they are a pretty impressive team. Despite our delusional expectations, they are successful programs.

USD is light years ahead of Augustana and they were even when they were D2. Augustana should set their sites on teams like Missouri State and Indiana State. It's more realistic. They would beat one of the 4 Dakota schools like every few years when they were D2 and everything was so called equal.

And USD knocking us off on a last second field goal isn't really that big of a deal, especially when our QB plays 3 quarters with a broken hand. We always lose at least 1 game a year. And USD does have a 20 million dollar athletic budget.

Yea I mentioned the 1 runner up between the 2 dynasty's since the mid 90s.

[Bison bison]

The only way they make it is by leeching on the Dakota schools. This move would be 100% dependent on the Dakota 2 and the SLT in their backyard. They will come into the conference as parasites and leech off the rest of us the entire time they are in the conference because they will never be able to stand on their own.

Fixed your post so it can be read with UND/USD/Augie correctly.

[Jacks02]

According to yesterday's article: https://www.argusleader.com/story/ne...ear/869188002/ in the Argus, T. Denny Sanford is still worth about $2.5B dollars.

A $250M endowment would give ~$10M a year to fund athletics...

I wouldn't be shocked at all if something like this happened. Sanford has been working with Augie to start a genetics program, and could see a bigger partnership and move up to Division I as being an important tool in employee training and recruitment.

[HerdBot]

According to yesterday's article: https://www.argusleader.com/story/ne...ear/869188002/ in the Argus, T. Denny Sanford is still worth about $2.5B dollars.

A $250M endowment would give ~$10M a year to fund athletics...

I wouldn't be shocked at all if something like this happened. Sanford has been working with Augie to start a genetics program, and could see a bigger partnership and move up to Division I as being an important tool in employee training and recruitment.

That would be a Ralph Englestad or larger sized donation. Assuming his net worth is all liquid cash, which is unlikely, is what 10% of his entire net worth all on athletics for Augustana? That would fall into the category of shocking.

[HerdBot]

Yea I mentioned the 1 runner up between the 2 dynasty's since the mid 90s.

You do realize that most teams on all levels, have never won a national Championship and of the teams who did, many are like the Gophers who did it last before most of us were born.

[Yote 53]

Id bet USD and UND would not be in the MVFC if it were not for NDSU and SDSU leading the way and showing that Schools in ND and SD could do it. Hell without the blueprint laid forth by Land grants UND and USD would still be DII, so to say you guys "did it on your own" is a bit misleading. NDSU and SDSU truly Did do it on their own

Actually, USD had the option of which conferences to join as they had a Big Sky invite in hand, and they chose the MVFC. So yeah, USD did get help from the SU's to get into the MVFC, but that was out of a bit of self preservation on the SU's part too as the Summit would have imploded. Either way, USD had secured a D1 conference invite on their own from a pretty good FCS conference. Ironically, if USD had chosen the Big Sky the Summit would have imploded by now, UND would have stayed in the BSC, and NDSU and SDSU would be in a BSC East division along with USD and UND and there would be zero talk coming out of Augustana about D1 because there would be no Summit League Tournament in Sioux Falls to lure them to D1.

As for blue prints, USD was one of the schools in favor of moving the NCC up to D1 en masse in the 90's. When NDSU and SDSU made the move, regardless of what you heard in public, USD was making preparations behind the scenes to move as well. We just weren't ready on the same timetable the SU's were and needed a few more years to prepare, but it was inevitable we were moving up as well.

USD and UND both did do it on their own. I really don't see how you can debate that. We both spent our entire transition years in the far flung Great West, both secured Big Sky offers on our own merits with no inside help from the State schools. The State schools did it on their own too. Just saying we all followed our own paths to get to the point where we are today and had to pay our dues in the process, and that's the point of my post. Could Augustana do that? No way.

[jacksfan29]

This is serious business. Augie needs a plan to find at least five million dollars a year or it will be a total disaster.

If they plan to play scholarship football they will need a lot more then $5 million per year.

[MNLonghorn10]

You do realize that most teams on all levels, have never won a national Championship and of the teams who did, many are like the Gophers who did it last before most of us were born.

yep. Im also not overreacting that a team cant reach YSU and UNI's plateau of mediocrity. especially if they get a transfer or 2 that make a difference.

[Yote 53]

Fixed your post so it can be read with UND/USD/Augie correctly.

Yeah, except the USD men and women have won regular season and conference tournament titles and are in the top half of the conference each year along with contributing strong track, volleyball, etc. programs to the Summit. So hardly leeches.