(05-09-2017 09:26 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 09:14 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  

(05-09-2017 06:30 PM)SMUfan Wrote:  What about adding 3:

Robert Morris
Morehead State
SIU-E

Robert Morris is a tough fit; they only sponsor six men's sports, and three of those are football, hockey, and lacrosse, which the Horizon League has no championships in. I think most leagues have a minimum number of sports you have to sponsor for men and women to get in. (RMU would have no issues on the women's side.)

If you could convince Bellarmine to bolt from the SoCon, then get NJIT and Howard out of their independent wilderness, plus RMU, Cleveland State, and Detroit, you could form a men's lax championship. But even then, that's only four sports. Not sure that's enough, since I can't find anything on a minimum for conference membership.

Morehead State doesn't fit their MO of large metro/suburb schools. SIU-Edwardsville would be a stretch just because both basketball teams and their baseball team are traditionally quite bad, much worse than IUPUI or Fort Wayne over the long-term.

To me, IUPUI seems like an easy choice. It'd be silly to go to 12 or 14 and not have the school that's within walking distance of your headquarters in the fold, especially when they're no longer playing men's games in The Jungle. Then again, they've been available for some time and the Horizon hasn't picked them up. If they wanted to expand, IUPUI would've been dancing on the ceiling.

I talked to someone from Indiana who actually suggested they could look at the Dakota schools, particularly the xDSUs. If you want quality basketball and fan support, SDSU and NDSU would bring it more so than IUPUI or Fort Wayne, although SDSU doesn't really fit the mold (Brookings is about 60 miles north of Sioux Falls) and is in love with having the tournament in Sioux Falls.

In a perfect world, I think you take IUPUI, Belmont, Omaha, UMKC, and Fort Wayne and split the conference in half. If Belmont has no interest, Robert Morris would be next, and if they can't make it work, look to the Dakotas, or go further into the Northeast and try to pry Canisius and Niagara (both in Buffalo) out of the MAAC, which would make Detroit very happy. Schools like SIUE (greater St. Louis) and even Oral Roberts (Tulsa) would be a last resort.

Six actually works for lacrosse and maybe the Horizon schools offering it will expand. It would also give the Horizon another men's team sport for ensuring it's autobid.

No way would the XDSU's look at the Horizon except out of desperation. Every trip becomes a plane ride and more. The Buffalo schools might be possible, but don't think they would be interested as they seem to like the NY metro area. SIUE doesn't have access to a nearby big arena, so think that would be a bottom lister.

Yeah, it'd be good for the Horizon League to have a lax championship, but my issue is the lack of men's sports for RMU in the Horizon. They'd only have MBB, golf, soccer, and lax. I wonder if they'd be able to start a cross country program without throwing their spending out of whack. That's probably the lowest-cost option, or cut both hockey teams and add a ton of other sports.

I won't disagree about the XDSUs, but playing schools in big Midwestern cities would help them shake the "flyover country" perception that has dogged them for years despite major regional growth. That, and Fargo in particular is reasonably easy to get to (connect in Chicago, fly United into Hector and you're 5 minutes from campus), but the Horizon League has a habit of destabilizing the Summit, and it might be better for everyone involved to just pull the rug out from under the Summit League all together and get it over with. Gobble up most of the league and set up a west division with as many bus trips as possible.

(05-09-2017 09:45 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Robert Morris football is much closer to Pioneer level than Big South. It's a better geographic fit too minus the occasional away game in San Diego.

Part of that is the 40 scholarship limit the NEC artificially imposes on its membership. RMU would need to get up to a full complement in the Big South before being truly competitive against anybody, but the BSC would take them in a heartbeat because their football schools desperately need more conference games wherever they can get them.