RE: Why did the Sun Belt add Denver?
As a DU fan, I will say that I prefer the Summit to the WAC (as it was when DU left) or the Sun Belt, but in all honesty, the differences are relatively minor ones. All three leagues lack geographic proximity and real familiarity for the local audiences here in Denver, so none of the teams were much of a draw in all three leagues. And even if DU leaves the Summit someday for the fellow small privates of the WCC, I don't know if fans here will care very much for that league either, outside of BYU and Gonzaga, who will draw fans anywhere.
The Summit has been a very good league from a competitive standpoint, especially in basketball. The downside of course, is that DU is still isolated in this league, which is a problem in pretty much all the conferences where DU plays, except for skiing. This means that you don't have the rivalries that exists with other schools who have geographic proximity to stoke the fires. The hope now is that with North Dakota joining the conference this year that DU can carry over the 60+ years of hockey rivalry with UND into other sports. Omaha also has been a competitive challenge for DU in a number of sports (hockey, hoops, soccer) but the DU fans aren't yet rabid about Omaha, who have not been D-I long enough to build that level of hatred all rivalries need...
The WAC was pretty fun the year DU played in it in 2012-2013, but the conference it eventually became would probably not excite fans in Denver today. I respect (and envy) the job GCU did in building a basketball program that draws 6K per game out of nowhere, but I do know that the for-profit nature of the school really did ruffle a lot of institutional feathers when Denver was thinking about leaving the WAC. Chicago State was also a dumpster fire at that time (broke+scandal ridden) and that bothered Denver people, too. NMSU and Seattle were both very respected peers here, and UVU (with its very low graduation rate) was viewed with suspicion. All in all, the Summit felt like a much safer destination/leap at the time for DU.
The Sun Belt was an excellent league competitively when DU played there, but again, the geographic reality and sports mix differences eventually grated on everyone when Denver was there, both here and in the rest of the league. Those SBC schools had little identification here in Denver, and I'm sure few were very interested in seeing Denver play around the South.
Denver is a tough, oversaturated sports market for a small private school, where most of the DU students (and many of the state's residents) are from out of state and didn't grow up cheering for the Pioneers. Competing with eight pro teams here (NFL,MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS, NLL, MLL and ECHL/AHL), and four larger public D-I schools within an hours' drive (CU, CSU, Air Force and UNC) and all those ski areas is no picnic, either. Fans in Denver mostly would like to see DU play schools like Colorado, Colorado State, Wyoming, Air Force, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utah or Utah State, but games with those schools these days are pretty rare, given all those schools are already in larger leagues and DU is a private with no football to offer. DU fans also turn out for hockey and lacrosse in greater numbers than hoops, and many of the powerhouse brands in those sports draw very well here, too.
All in all, if DU were ever to get really good in basketball, the MWC or the Big East would be the best options DU could hope for as an all-sports conference, but those are pipe dreams for DU right now...
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