(08-10-2019 01:32 AM)Hilldog Wrote:  Almost all of the Horizon League schools are in/near mid sized cities! Northern Kentucky is in the Cinncy metro area. WIU doesn't fit that profile, unless you consider Peoria a mid sized city.

North Dakota left the Big Sky, but you think even if WIU left, and the Summit went down to 8 teams, BOTH schools in North Dakota would leave for the Big Sky? Abandoning the border rivalry with the two South Dakota schools?

Right now, the Summit falls short in baseball and men’s soccer to meeting the autobid requirements for multi sport conferences. Only five full members for baseball and men’s soccer but needing six and WIU or ORU leaving would make that worse. The easiest solution is to get Big Sky schools to jump and sponsor football, as the autobid rules only require fb and mbb for male team sports instead of three non fb male team sports. That would make the Summit a stable conference like the MAC. Right now, almost the entire Horizon League are former Summit teams.

DII won’t help soon enough and DI baseball and men’s soccer teams are in short supply in the western Midwest.