mvfcfan wrote:Just a little history lesson for everyone on North Dakota if anyone cares.
The Big Sky actively tried to get every scholarship FCS school from the western US into their conference. They were pretty much successful. They had the idea in 2012 to expand and try to get North Dakota and South Dakota to join their league (and hoped to later add NDSU and SDSU). Their plan backfired when the MVFC added South Dakota. As a result North Dakota was basically on an island all alone in the Big Sky.
Skip ahead to last year. The Big Sky basically wanted North Dakota to leave and UND wanted to join the Summit League to rejoin the other Dakota schools. In fact the Big Sky even waived North Dakota's exit fee. That's how bad they wanted UND gone.
Actually I'm not sure if anyone is aware of this, but the Big Sky opened the door for New Mexico State to join their league. However NMSU doesn't want to join because they want to keep FBS football. Idaho who was already in the Big Sky for all sports except football took their offer and is dropping down to the FCS level (as a Big Sky member).
So at the end of the day, the Montana and Idaho schools will stay in the Big Sky and the Dakota schools will stay Summit/MVFC. Also a conference cannot just decide to be FBS. There are only two conference that do not currently sponsor FBS football that could sponsor FBS football. Those two conferences are the WAC and the MVC (not MVFC). So if the Dakota schools and Montana schools want to go FBS they would have to join up with New Mexico State do it through the WAC, not the Summit League.
Now let's look ahead to the future of the Summit League. Fort Wayne will most likely join the Horizon League at some point within the next few years. (If the MVC takes NKU then IPFW would probably be the top candidate to take their spot). There are rumors that UMKC might rejoin the Summit League next season. If the MVC takes Murray State I would have to think that Western Illinois could be looked at by the OVC. It would definitely be less travel for WIU and they would already have an instate rival in EIU. So worst case scenario I think the Summit will be down to 7 teams. Maybe they could get Chicago State to come back if they don't shut down.
With that said I think if the MVC invites SDSU, I think SDSU would definitely accept. It would have to be a no brainier for them. The Summit League could get a little better, but the stability of the league long term has to be a little bit of a concern. On the other hand there are plenty of schools (probably lots we wouldn't want either) out there that would jump all over an MVC invite. The Summit is pretty much stuck with whatever they can get right now.
There is so much misinformation in this post.
First of all, if there was any animosity, it was because UND swept the four major conference spectator sports: mbb, wbb, fb, and vb. Don’t think that has ever been done in any conference.
Also, the Big Sky never asked UND to leave and the Big Sky doesn’t have exit fees if the leaving school notifies the conference in a timely matter, at least one year for general athletics and two years for fb. Giving two years for non-fb sports and four years for fb is more than timely. There is still time for the Montana’s, Idaho and Weber to qualify for competion to begin in 2020. The Big Sky has apparently contacted Central Washington already, who is making plans to move up by 2020. The Montana’s and Idaho would never allow CWU in their conference, but Central Washington’s president has been broadcasting that they need improved facilities by 2020 for a DI move up. The Montanas and Idaho knew that the Summit would have a problem replacing IPFW as the Summit never got DII teams to move up. This has been planned for some time. If the Summit was going to proceed as a Midwest league, they would have called up Minn St-Mankato and maybe a school like Washburn years ago to have DI numbers that is needed to survive. The Summit has other existing DI and FCS schools already set when IPFW and W Illinois leave. Azusa Pacific is another school that is rumored for the Big Sky after 2020, so it will have a much greater Pacific Coast flavor, and Azusa moved up shortly after WAC fb disbanded.
The Big Sky tried to get as many western fb teams as possible for a split of FBS and FCS schools. The Montana’s wanted FBS long term even back in 2011 but they didn’t want an MWC budget and don't want travel to New Mexico or Texas so the WAC was out. In the Summit, they will be comfortable with the economics. Idaho needs an FBS conference of like and nearby schools. It’s pretty simple.
A conference becoming an FBS conference is simple, getting 8 FBS teams together. Liberty showed that waivers for FBS can happen. Don’t kid yourself that another FBS league can’t happen.