Leatherneck Nation

Yup.

Swap out Youngstown State for Eastern Illinois, keeping the # of teams in the MVFC the same, but reducing the travel costs for quite a few members.
Bring Eastern into the Summit for all sports (they already participate with us for Swimming, Diving, and Men's Soccer).

If we also added SIU-E we'd probably want to add one more (or kick out someone) to make even # travel partners. Then we might be back to looking at Div. II schools looking to move up, although ideally, they'd be ones that don't have football...for example:

• UI-Springfield - smaller school, great baseball facilities but high-school level bball facilities,
• UW-Parkside - also small school, great cross country course and softball facilities, small bball facilities
• Missouri-St. Louis - if we really wanted to hit the St. Louis area hard...larger school, decent baseball facilities, small bball facilities

Or someone else if they wanted to go the Omaha route and drop football to move up to Div. I in other sports.

ST_Lawson wrote:
UI-Springfield - smaller school, great baseball facilities but high-school level bball facilities.

Scott, you must be thinking about the original gym at UIS (Sangamon State). It only had seating for 500. But they have built a new gym right next to the original. It's the newest gem on the UIS campus: TRAC, short for The Recreation and Athletic Center. TRAC is the new home of the UIS Prairie Stars volleyball and basketball teams. Located on the south edge of campus, the state-of-the-art facility seats close to 3,000 fans, reserved chairback seating and boasts the latest equipment for recreational activities, including two racquetball/squash courts and an indoor running track.
http://www.uis.edu/recsports/facilities/trac/

The baseball field at UIS is relatively new. It's still a work in progress. UIS used to play its home games in Chatham.

I was basing it off of this image of the gym at the TRAC:



Here's a couple of other photos I found:




I've never been there, so I can't say for sure, but to me it doesn't look any more impressive than a halfway decent high school gym.

From sitting in both the TRAC and Western Hall, I would describe the TRAC as more "fan friendly".

Ya I completely ruled out the DI Transferring into Summit league, but SIUE would be a perfect candidate and make a good rivalry.

Why would EIU even consider giving up where they are to join the Summit League? Sure, for us and a cross-state rivalry perspective it might be nice, but we can have a pre-season or even end of season rivalry is both teams wanted. Then, they would be giving up their OVC membership.

EIU would be middle of the road in the MVFC right now. They are very happy to rule that OVC roost for now.