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Southern Utah to the Big Sky? North/South Dakota?

E

EWURanger

Moderator
Staff member
Purely speculation at this point, but I read over on egriz that SUU has been offered, and accepted, an invitation as a full member. Only makes sense.

There's also speculation that North and South Dakota have been offered as affiliate members for football only.

If this is all true, then something's definitely up with one or more conference members leaving the Big Sky, otherwise I don't think they'd be extending all these invites. They must know Montana's intent on going to the WAC. :roll:
 
Apparently the SUU athletics department is scheduling a "Special Announcement" for Wed. 2PM (MT). With everything going on lately, my guess is that they'll be officially announcing that they've accepted an invitation from the Big Sky Conference as an all-sports member. While they might not be as big a grab as Poly or Davis were, the conference needs stability in all-sports membership, and SUU fits the bill geography-wise. Their football program has also improved quite a bit the past couple of years and their attendance numbers are comparable to ours at Eastern. I like that Fullerton has finally gotten proactive about increasing conference membership. On the flip side, this is almost a sure indicator that he knows UM is WAC'ing off after next season. :roll:

Let's hope that we can give SUU a nice welcome to the Big Sky by sending them home with a loss in a couple of weeks. :D
 
Another good article on BSC expansion with some interesting quotes from Fullerton.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/180812/group/homepage/
 
Another article about Big Sky expansion, this time concerning UND. Looks like football-only will not be an option for UND or USD; it'll be all or nothing.

http://siouxfb.areavoices.com/
 
eaglesfootball said:
Southen Utah would be a good grab I am not so sure about the Dakotahs due to their location.
Click to expand...

I agree, SUU is on the west coast corridor and easy to reach through Vegas. I don't really fancy visiting the Dakotas during football or basketball season.

If UM leaves I wouldn't really mind a 10 team football conference and an 8 team basketball conference. It makes for a good home and home basketball schedule, and in football you get one BCS game, one DII or lower FCS game, and 9 league games.

Split divisions are for folks that need a championship game because they don't have a playoff system.
 
It soundsd like UND is all but a certainty now too. I think North Dakota is actually the better fit, because they draw well and have a statewide audience. I've never been there, but I hear the facilities are quite nice. I don't believe that is the case with Southern Utah.
 
Latest rumor on this concerning the University of North Dakota:

Apparently the Summit Conference (who has also been looking at UND) has cancelled the meeting they had to visit the UND Campus next week. Hmmmmmm............

I think at this point SUU is probably a lock for the BSC. Rumors are that they have already accepted an "unofficial invitation".

I think the reason we haven't heard anything official on expansion yet, is that the BSC might we waiting for the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place, which could be the University of South Dakota. They've already agreed to join the Summit League starting in 2011. The Summit is a non-football conference, which still puts USD without a home for it's football program. Indications are that the BSC does not want the Dakota's as football only members, but rather as all-sports, so now USD faces a really tough choice. Do they back out of their agreement with the Summit (and possibly have to pay a penalty fee) and join the BSC as all-sports members, or do they stick with the Summit and hope that they get a possible invite from the MVFC?

I think this may be the reason that there has been no official announcement regarding the three potential candidates for expansion. Fullerton might be waiting on resolution on the USD situation, and then make one announcement that all 3 are joining......or possibly just SUU and UND or maybe just SUU?

If all this happens, I'm wondering what this new Big Sky is going to look like.

Football: 14 members. 12 if Montana and MSU depart. Will probably be 2 Division, but go ahead and try and figure that one out.

Northern Arizona
Portland State
Sac State
Cal-Poly*
UC-Davis*
Eastern Washington
North Dakota*
South Dakota*
Montana
Montana State
Idaho State
Weber State
Northern Colorado
Southern Utah*

All-Sports: 12 members. 10 if Montana and MSU depart.

Northern Arizona
Portland State
Sac State
Eastern Washington
North Dakota*
South Dakota*
Montana
Montana State
Idaho State
Weber State
Northern Colorado
Southern Utah*
 
UND Cancels Summit League Site Visit, Big Sky "Very Likely" Announcing Additions

http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/4376

"UND's search for a new athletic conference has suddenly taken a dramatic turn.

UND has canceled its site visit from the Summit League, scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. Coincidentally, the Big Sky Conference will be making an announcement on Monday and it is "very likely" they will be announcing "additions" to the D-I (FCS) conference, according to Big Sky Media Relations Director Jon Kasper.

UND Director of Athletics Brian Faison said the decision to cancel the site visit will be addressed on Monday. Faison made no further comment".
 
I heard a rumor that Montana State will only be dragged into the WAC kicking and screaming. They did a cost/ benefit analysis and don't see much financial gain to leaving but envision huge new costs.
 
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