Just going by name recognition the MVC wins out over the Summit. On the Insiders today, they made it sound like to be competitive in the MVC NDSU would have to about quadruple their bball budget. Kind of hard to convince people to make that kind of jump with the state budget issues we are going through right now.
I don't know, could we convince the 5 MVFC teams that are in the MVC by agreeing on a rotating conference tourney? I know the answer is no but I see that as the best "solution" in my mind. That would put the Summit at 14 teams which is a lot but not unheard of.
Wanting to stay in the Summit instead of going to the MVC is exactly the kind of thinking that got us stuck in D2 for so long.
NDSU to the FBS always. In all ways.
If we doubled our MBB budget, we would be near the top of the MVC. WSU skews the numbers for the MVC, they had a budget of over $6 million with them gone the highest budget is around $3 million(Same as the Summit with Denver who we have no issues competing with). We would need to do more but probably like $400-500k more. Biggest difference is coaching salaries.
NDSU to the FBS always. In all ways.
I think our current budget is close to $1.5 million, UNI is just under $3 million. Other schools like MSU and SIU are around 2.2.
MVC salaries...This is from 2015...
Greg Lansing, Indiana State
Salary: $296,000/year
Marty Simmons, Evansville
Salary: Estimated $180K/year
Barry Hinson, Southern Illinois
Salary: $300K/year
Paul Lusk, Missouri State
Salary: $396K/year
Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa (Under contract through 2025)
Salary: $900K (base)/year (average)
NDSU to the FBS always. In all ways.
Here were salary's in 2015.
http://www.pjstarforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=99572
Top heavy of competing may be a concern for NDSU. Richman makes probably pretty equivalent to Evansville which is really bringing up the rear. The South Dakota schools would be comparable to Southern Illinois and Indiana State which would round up the rear. Bradley's coach made $700,000 a year.