Purdue Fort Wayne is leaving the Summit and moving to the Horizon in 2020.

Horizon: Cleveland State, Detroit, Green Bay, IUPUI, Milwaukee, Northern KY, Oakland, Purdue Fort Wayne, UIC, Wright State, Youngstown State

Summit: Denver, UMKC, North Dakota, NDSU, Omaha, Oral Roberts, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Western Illinois

New Mexico State has flirted with the Horizon in the past (https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/sports/...3937868/), however I think this closes the door 100%. The Horizon is tightening up its Midwestern footprint.

I could also see Western Illinois trying to get the heck out of the Summit (by following PFW to the Horizon) as they are now a geographic outlier.

That would leave the Summit with just 8 remaining members (including new member UMKC). Smelling blood in the water, what if the Big Sky tried to pounce on NDSU and North Dakota, leaving just 6 members?

Would Denver consider returning to the WAC?

Or would UMKC consider staying in the WAC?

This thread was moved because it did not adhere to rules regarding expansion and realignment on the WAC board: https://csnbbs.com/thread-863902.html

Big Sky has 11 full time members and North Dakota just left the BSC.

If there was going to be a WAC option it would probably have to be Denver Omaha ORU and UMKC as a group coming in but then you would have a league of Seattle now an outlier with CBU UVU GCU DSU NMST UTRGV Chicago St with Denver Omaha ORU UMKC that would give the WAC 12 but this has a 10% chance of happening...

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?

(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?

Peoria is a mid-sized city but WIU is a 90-minute hike and not apart of it. WIU is rural and in the middle of nowhere. Leathernecks’ only hope is OVC. Horizon will look at Robert Morris first and Bellarmine/USI second.

(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.