(02-03-2019 05:41 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(02-03-2019 04:44 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I think it's in the best interest of the Summit to pass on Augustana. I think they are too small to be competitive and the Summit has better expansions out there that they can pursue.

Last season, despite playing a D-II schedule, Augustana was the second-highest drawing basketball program in the Dakotas. Here are the average home-game attendance figures:

2,757 North Dakota State
2,421 Augustana
2,292 South Dakota State
2,269 South Dakota
1,865 North Dakota

I was also surprised to find that Augustana out-drew every Summit League school outside the Dakotas:

2,411 Oral Roberts
2,366 Omaha
1,403 Fort Wayne
1,204 Denver
602 Western Illinois

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketba...ndance.pdf

So it appears to me that, at least in terms of its fan base and community support, Augustana isn’t at all too small to be considered for addition to the Summit.

So Augustana outdraws Omaha and doubles Denver and isn’t a hockey-first school.

And outdraws every Summit school but one.

This is a good, geographically-efficient number to have for a small but cohesive conference in the event an outlier finds an escape.