A bunch of Division I independents and move-ups are forming the Great West Conference:
New sports conference
The conference now has 6 members and should eventually have 8 members:
North Dakota
South Dakota
UT-Pan American
Houston Baptist
Utah Valley University
NJIT
Chicago State (pending)
Seattle (pending)
IF the conference stays together long enough to receive an auto-bid in any sport, it could affect the at-large bids in the postseason (Another play-in game, anyone?)
One more thing interested me:
Quote:The Great West wouldn't be considered an official NCAA member conference until August 2011 at the earliest — the moratorium on creating new Division I conferences is in effect until then.
Would that have been enough to prevent a split in 2010 by the football members?
Odd group of schools. There is already a Great West football conference. Is this an offshoot? Chicago State dropped out of the Mid-Con because they were hurting financially. This arrangement would seem to be even worse for them. How expensive will it be for NJIT to travel to Seattle, ND and SD.
I would expect Southern Utah and Denver to also join in with this group at some point. They are way out of line geographically w/ their leagues (the Summit and Sun Belt, respectively). It would be a step down for both, but with travel costs what they are, and with no other apparently willing to take them, it might make sense.
I would assume NJIT will eventually find a home in the NEC or another similar league.
New Jersey Institute of Technology? What division are these guys playing in? Are they Div. 1?
And the other schools are the two Dakota state schools & Seattle? Odd.
Boise and BYU are going to join and the winner would probably go the the BCS every year if we win all non-conference games!.
It is essentially all of the Division I independents. Several of these schools had scheduling agreements already in men's basketball since it is tough for many indies to get games in January & February.
Longhurst, mentioned in the article, I believe is actually Longwood University. For the schools that declined, here's my guesses as to what they want:
CSU-Bakersfield - Big West
Longwood - CAA, Big South or SoCon (located in Virginia)
Savannah St. - MEAC or SWAC
Seattle was recently declined membership back into their former conference, the WCC (they left in 1980 to go to D-II). Chicago St. may have been booted from the Mid-Con/Summitt League and probably need this to get some form of stability.
Cal-Poly & UC-Davis (Big West) and Southern Utah (Summitt League) play football in the league.
Are those Dakota schools SDSU and NDSU or SD and ND?
esayem Wrote:Are those Dakota schools SDSU and NDSU or SD and ND?
USD and UND.
SDSU and NDSU are in the summit league (and will join the MVC for football). They made the move to D1 before their counterparts.
While the traveling miles in that conference. Houston Baptist traveling from one coast to another. A New Jersey school traveling to the west coast. This can't be right.
Yes it is.NJIT was 0-29 last year.
BullsFanatic Wrote:A bunch of Division I independents and move-ups are forming the Great West Conference:
New sports conference
The conference now has 6 members and should eventually have 8 members:
North Dakota
South Dakota
UT-Pan American
Houston Baptist
Utah Valley University
NJIT
Chicago State (pending)
Seattle (pending)
IF the conference stays together long enough to receive an auto-bid in any sport, it could affect the at-large bids in the postseason (Another play-in game, anyone?)
One more thing interested me:
Quote:The Great West wouldn't be considered an official NCAA member conference until August 2011 at the earliest — the moratorium on creating new Division I conferences is in effect until then.
Would that have been enough to prevent a split in 2010 by the football members?
Travel Partners:
North Dakota - South Dakota
Pan American - Houston Baptist
Seattle - Utah Valley
Chicago State - New Jersey Tech
That conference stretches from the Canadian and Mexican borders, the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and the Rockies to the Midwest. I'm sure gas companies will love this conference.
This conference is idiotic...the college presidents should be fired for supporting this.
Bottomline there are waaaaaaaay too many Div 1 basketball schools. About 150 of them are Div 1 in name only.
At least the NJIT campus is only 5 minutes from Newark Airport. Lord knows they need to be.
The president of NJIT is in the last year of his contract.
BullsFanatic Wrote:A bunch of Division I independents and move-ups are forming the Great West Conference:
New sports conference
The conference now has 6 members and should eventually have 8 members:
North Dakota
South Dakota
UT-Pan American
Houston Baptist
Utah Valley University
NJIT
Chicago State (pending)
Seattle (pending)
IF the conference stays together long enough to receive an auto-bid in any sport, it could affect the at-large bids in the postseason (Another play-in game, anyone?)
One more thing interested me:
Quote:The Great West wouldn't be considered an official NCAA member conference until August 2011 at the earliest — the moratorium on creating new Division I conferences is in effect until then.
Would that have been enough to prevent a split in 2010 by the football members?
I can't see any of those schools taking anyone's place. That conference is Division II at best.
BullsFanatic Wrote:A bunch of Division I independents and move-ups are forming the Great West Conference:
New sports conference
The conference now has 6 members and should eventually have 8 members:
North Dakota
South Dakota
UT-Pan American
Houston Baptist
Utah Valley University
NJIT
Chicago State (pending)
Seattle (pending)
IF the conference stays together long enough to receive an auto-bid in any sport, it could affect the at-large bids in the postseason (Another play-in game, anyone?)
This conference is not intended to be permanent, but is more or less a scheduling alliance for three years. When the NCAA moratorium on conference breakups (BEast) and IAA to IA moveups ends, conference alignments should radically shift again. The Summit League is actually a sponsor of this "conference", because it knows it is a bottom feeder and needs some of these schools to survive and prosper. It's possible the Summit could even absorb much of this conference and eventually split.
Seattle may not join as it may make do better (like CSU-Bakersfield) cost-wsie to stay "independent". Chicago State's new president may review it's DI status.
I wasn't aware of a moratorium on new conference formation; it was on schools moving up to Division 1. I hate to sound like a BCS elitist, but that conference/alliance is a no-go. Mark is right, Division 1 hoops could be reduced by 50% in numbers and no casual sports fan would notice.
TRest1 Wrote:I wasn't aware of a moratorium on new conference formation; it was on schools moving up to Division 1. I hate to sound like a BCS elitist, but that conference/alliance is a no-go. Mark is right, Division 1 hoops could be reduced by 50% in numbers and no casual sports fan would notice.
I actually wouldn't mind seeing it happen. Go div 1a in football or be left behind. That'll never happen but hell why not.
wvucrazed Wrote:esayem Wrote:Are those Dakota schools SDSU and NDSU or SD and ND?
USD and UND.
SDSU and NDSU are in the summit league (and will join the MVC for football). They made the move to D1 before their counterparts.
Some UxD and XDSU trivia:
The Dakota schools should have moved up years ago, when Northern Iowa did, but chose to stay DII. UND made the tactical mistake of delaying it's DI entry, as it wasn't believed that even the Summit would have openings for the Dakota schools.
UND is actually the largest of the four schools (13,000 enrollment), has 7 DI NCAA Championships (second to Michigan's nine in men's hockey), has over $100 million in research, specialized programs programs in aviation, energy, and rural medicine, and medical, law, and engineering schools. It's most famous sports alum is Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
NDSU has been growing a lot, approaching 13,000, (in part due to Fargo-Moorhead's growth - has Microsoft's second largest campus), is the land grant school, and also has over $100 million in research and specialized programs in nanotechnology among others,
South Dakota has traditionally spent much less on higher education, and their enrollments reflect this. (UND and NDSU both have more than 50% out-of-state students.)
SDSU has an enrollment of around 11,000, is the state's land grant college. SDSU is in Brookings, which is also the home of Daktronics scoreboards.
USD has an enrollment of around 7000 and has a law and med school and is noted for its journalism school. Tom Brokaw is probably its most famous alum, while USA Today founder Jim Neuharth is a big backer.
TRest1 Wrote:I wasn't aware of a moratorium on new conference formation; it was on schools moving up to Division 1. I hate to sound like a BCS elitist, but that conference/alliance is a no-go. Mark is right, Division 1 hoops could be reduced by 50% in numbers and no casual sports fan would notice.
The BCS controls the NCAA anyway. As stated, the conference is just a convenience and won't last.