(03-14-2020 08:11 PM)puck swami Wrote:  As a DU fan, we know that our private status, unique Eastern-style sports mix (without football) and location limits our conference options. We're kind of a Patriot league-like school that happens to be in the Rockies.

While DU is well capitalized ($35 million sports budget) and sports are mostly national level competitors outside of basketball, the region is over-saturated with 8 pro teams, 4 larger football schools within an hours' drive of DU and a pretty small fanbase, most of whom didn't grow up cheering the Pioneers. Denver is a transient hodgepodge of people from all over the country and most of them keep their sports allegiances to the teams where they grew up.

While DU fans don't really identify with much of the Summit League, the fact that there are some hockey crossovers there with UND and Omaha are starting to help get the conference some traction here. It is better for us than our 15 years in the Sun Belt prior to 2012.

DU basketball had a couple of 20+win seasons about 7-8 years ago, but never quite managed to parlay that into NCAA appearances, and since then, it's been either mediocrity or worse. It's not a fabulous recruiting area for men's hoops here, so you have be able to attract overlooked players from other areas. The hoops budget is top of the league for the Summit, but it's not yet resourced for a larger conference. That said, if the Big East were ever interested in the Pioneers, DU would find more money, and might even subsidize opponent travel to Denver.

That hockey overlap would have to be a big deal since hockey is basically DU's "football". We learned in pre-Sun Belt football days it was hell when your conference football schedule looks nothing like your conference hoops schedule. You are basically needing to generate awareness in your own fans of your opponents. When they overlap, a close controversial lose in one key sport gins up interest when you meet in another sport.

Sun Belt football has taken a lot of the starch out of AState vs UALR in in the Sun Belt because Red Wolf fans tend to have carry-over hates from football that make other games more important.

Denver only played four sports that featured league regular season schedules under the Sun Belt umbrella. The rest were just post-season events to crown a champion. Great for travel terrible for getting any mutual interest.

Pioneers leaving was mutually beneficial and I'm glad it has worked for DU.