SDHornet said:
I think there was some backroom politicking going on between the Dakota’s and the Summit Conference. Summit didn’t want UND or USD until the BSC came knocking. I thought the UND/USD was going to be a package deal but the Summit swooped in and offered USD a spot so hence no travel partner for UND. In hindsight it worked out for the better for the BSC. USD has some horrible facilities (another dome for football…yuck) and doesn’t have anywhere near the level of budgeting for athletics that UND has. Maybe a trolling UND poster can provide more accurate details.
Fast forward to July 1st 2014 and the BSC will find itself with a nice 12 member conference (Idaho comes on board) with somewhat regional travel partners. Sure that UND-UNC travel blows, but the trade off is a busable travel leg on the EWU-UI, ISU-WSU, UM-MSU trips, a manageable PSU-Sac trip and a delirious NAU-SUU trip. Moving to divisions for some of the other sports will further reduce travel demands.
The CP and davis FB only additions were moves by Foolerton to block potential WAC desperation expansion as Benson drove that conference into the ground. I do wish Foolerton would have kept with the “all or nothing” member status. He fvcked us pretty good with those later exceptions. :thumbdown:
South Dakota was already accepted in the Summit, but weren't in the MVFC for football. When UND and USD were announced as a pair to the Big Sky, the Summit Conference sh*t their pants, as they were expected UND too but held the nickname over us to prevent us from joining. USD would have had to pay the Summit $250,000 to leave, even though they hadn't played a game yet. SDSU, NDSU, and WIll lobbied the MVFC to accept USD, so when that happened, USD took the MVFC option and turned down the Big Sky.
USD is a facility poor school in the extreme SE corner of SD. They are getting a new BB arena, but everything other sport plays in the DakotaDome, which is a 12,000 seat dome built in 1970 the make ISU's UniDone seem like a Taj Mahal. UND and USD would have made bad travel partners, because USD is nearly 400 miles away by interstate. Try traveling down I-29 in winter months with icy condition or blizzard warnings. Kids could have been stuck on the S Dakota prairies for days trying to get out. USD is in a town of 8000 people, so there's not an airport or much of anything. South Dakota has traditionally not placed an emphasis on secondary schools, so with the lack of money USD did what it could and chose the cheapest route.
UND has put in $220 million in athletic facilities prior to going DI, and we are now building a $18 mill indoor practice / 200 m track facility for football, track. soccer. With the exception of baseball, softball, and women's soccer, our facilities are top of the line. Our men's hockey team is 7 time DI champs and we've been to the DI Frozen Four umpteen times. Attracting 250,000 a year at $30 a pop, hockey pays a lot of bills.
With North Dakota's economy booming (has doubled in the past 10 years), ND is a place to go if you want a job. The state has bundles of money and just awarded UND a new shiny med school building and expanded the law school. Business and engineering are fast growing majors and almost every one has multiple offers out of school (a petroleum engineer gets at least a $100 k job right out of school).
The Summit wants us, but we want the Big Sky. About 20% of the school is devoted to aerospace and training pilots, so its not like we have an aversion to plane travel and airlines. UNC is a much easier travel companion that USD. UNC is a traditional rival of UND, so there isn't a complaint here.
Fullerton made noise about attracting NDSU, SDSU, and USD to the Big Sky when the Big Sky meetings were held in Grand Forks two weeks ago. He has plans for FBS level football. I think USD, NDSU, and SDSU would be interested in an FBS Big Sky.
