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OldHare wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:33 pm
I am sure ORU played their last year in the league before heading to the Southland. IUPUI women lost to WIU in the championship in the last year. The IUPUI men lost to Omaha in the semifinal. The Leathernecks have seen all the changes and turnover since the beginning of the league. At his point among the Oakland and IUPUI squads, the IUPUI WBB have shown some success in the Horizon. It is hard for someone west of the Mississippi to understand the environment in Macomb. It is also hard to understand why they have not pursued an Illinois conference since the travel sounds difficult. It is also easy to understand why the conference moved the league office from Chicago. As I look over the Mastodons efforts through the sports in the Summit, it will be a long climb overall to gain any competitive edge in the Horizon. It will save travel money. Since SDSU entered the conference Southern Utah, Centenary, IUPUI, Oakland, ORU, UMKC, and now IPFW have left the conference. Of course 2 of those have or will return.. This is hardly the first crisis. Those who recall all the Horizon teams that left earlier might recall more of the same.
Maybe I am thinking of some other conference regarding ineligibility for conference tourney after announcing departure. If its not a rule, it needs to be when you have one or more teams still in the conference left out of the tournament. If only 8 teams in conference, sure, let them in. Just common sense IMHO.
Looks like the University of St. Thomas (Saint Paul, MN) will be joining the Summit League pending waiver from NCAA to move straight from DIII to DI. Haven't heard what their plan is for football...but my guess is Pioneer League. http://www.startribune.com/st-thomas-to ... 562174952/
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
Western Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
From everything I heard...it was because they were too good and the other conference teams were not happy with almost never winning the conference in many sports.
UST is 2-3 times the size (enrollment-wise) as any other MIAC school, so they felt there was an inherent disadvantage to the rest of the schools.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
Western Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
Sounds like they've applied for membership in the Pioneer League, which was pretty well expected.
Also, things I'm hearing from people that know hockey is that they'll likely see about getting into the DI WCHA (Western Collegiate Hockey Association): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_C ... ssociation
Consists of a handful of teams in Minnesota and Michigan, plus a couple in Alaska, Bowling Green State in Ohio, and Alabama-Huntsville. All of the schools except Bowling Green are DII in their other sports, but because of an exemption by the NCAA, teams can be non-DI in all other sports but DI in hockey (since there's not a ton of schools that do hockey).
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
Western Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
What really gets me is this: "In an interview Tuesday, Viverito, who has been the commissioner of the Pioneer Football League since 1994 and commissioner of Missouri Valley football since the mid-80s, said she had never heard of St. Thomas before news of its expulsion from the MIAC last spring."
Seriously? They're really close to the footprint of the conference she's been running for decades and have a great deal of success in football over that time, and she's never heard of them? Wouldn't it be like...part of her job to stay knowledgeable about this stuff? Has she also not heard of St. John's or UW-Whitewater?
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
Western Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
Scott Lawson - Board Admin