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*