UMKC back to Summit League?

[ST_Lawson]

Apparently there's a rumor over on SDSU's board that UMKC is planning on coming back to the Summit League also after leaving for the WAC in 2013.
http://sdsufans.com/board/showthread.php?13656-UMKC

If true, that would make two schools who left for other conferences only to come back a few years later (the other was Oral Roberts who left in 2012 for the Southland Conference and rejoined the Summit League this year). The possible re-addition of UMKC would bring the number of full member schools to 10. I don't really know enough about scheduling for basketball and the other Summit League sports to know how this would affect the the schedule/traveling.

UMKC was 10-19 overall last year (7-10 in their conference) with a RPI of 249. For comparison, that would put them behind everyone except for South Dakota (257), us (287), and IUPUI (323) in the Summit last year.

Then again, maybe it's just a couple of random people discussing conference realignment without in any inside knowledge. Just thought it was interesting.

[WIU0812]

Definitely 10 teams would be a plus for the league plus more money coming in from dues. Also, they are supposedly including an exit clause in future of 1 million which will prevent all this league movement. Not a bad thing for WIU since they will be one of the closer and easiest to get to conference teams to us.

[ST_Lawson]

KC is now only about 4-4.5 hours away since it's 4-lane all the way across Missouri. They'd probably do a bus for that, right?

[WIU0812]

I would definitely think they would take a bus to that game. This would be much cheaper than flight and I doubt you could justify a plane over a 4 and half hour drive. They need to add two more schools preferably one in and around Iowa, Illinois, Missouri or wisconsin to fill in the middle of the field more. biggest downfall is the league is kind of spread out especially once they added Denver.

[ST_Lawson]

I would definitely think they would take a bus to that game. This would be much cheaper than flight and I doubt you could justify a plane over a 4 and half hour drive. They need to add two more schools preferably one in and around Iowa, Illinois, Missouri or wisconsin to fill in the middle of the field more. biggest downfall is the league is kind of spread out especially once they added Denver.

Only problem is, once you get anywhere west of us, Div. I schools are pretty sparse. Once you take out schools that are already in the Big 10, Big 12 and MVC (or already in the Summit), then from Illinois/Wisconsin to the Rockies, you have:
Green Bay (Horizon)
Milwaukee (Horizon)
Marquette (Big East)
Chicago State (WAC)
Northern Illinois (MAC)
Eastern Illinois (OVC)
SIU-E (OVC)
Southeast Missouri State (OVC)
North Dakota (Big Sky)
Northern Colorado (Big Sky)

In terms of likelihood of getting any of these programs, I'd say that most are highly unlikely (if not 100% will not happen). The few that aren't completely out of the realm of possibility would probably be:
Chicago State - no football, has been in conference before, fits within conference footprint
Eastern Illinois - has been in conference before, something of a traditional rivalry with Western in some sports, actually is a current associate member for swimming & diving and men's soccer...problem is the football team...would football stay in the OVC, would they get a MVFC invite?
SIU-E - no football, fits within conference footprint
North Dakota - was almost invited at one point (but was rescinded due to mascot issues), has traditional rivalry with other Dakota schools. Also might have issue with football team...stay in Big Sky, get a MVFC invite? Also adds another trip up to the Dakotas, although if they schedule it right, schools could do like Thursday/Saturday games at UND and NDSU with a short (1 hour) bus ride between them (should be doing that with the S. Dakota schools too...only 1.5 hours between them).
Northern Colorado - would provide natural travel partner with Denver, like SDSU/USD and NDSU/UND, only roughly an hour away from each other. Also an issue with football team, and pushes conference footprint back west quite a bit.

There's obviously other issues with each of the schools, as well as the likelihood that many of them are happy where they are. But if you're trying to essentially "pair up" schools that are relatively close to each other (less than a 1 day bus ride apart), then adding 3 teams (including UMKC) would probably be ideal from the conference's standpoint.
Something like this:
Fort Wayne & IUPUI (~2 hours apart)
Western & SIU-E or EIU (~2.75 to 3.25 hours)
NDSU & UND (~1 hour)
SDSU & USD (~1.5 hours)
Omaha & KC (~3 hours)
Denver & Oral Roberts? (not good for a drive...10 hours...but United flies Tulsa to Denver like 4 times daily...~2 hour flight)

Otherwise there's plenty of Div. II schools out that way, but I don't know that any are considering going Div. I at this point.

[WIU0812]

That is a lot of good research, I was basically just spit balling how nice it would be, but seems unlikely unless it would be SIU-E that is about the only one I really could see other than maybe a upcoming DII school like a Truman or something that eventually says hey let's go expand our horizons. If Truman ever went DI, I would love to see Summit league and MVFC invite them.

[ST_Lawson]

That is a lot of good research, I was basically just spit balling how nice it would be, but seems unlikely unless it would be SIU-E that is about the only one I really could see other than maybe a upcoming DII school like a Truman or something that eventually says hey let's go expand our horizons. If Truman ever went DI, I would love to see Summit league and MVFC invite them.

Yea, looking at schools that are Div. II if they move up to Div. I at some point, there's some decent ones out there in the GLVC (Truman State), MIAA (Central Missouri, Lindenwood, Northwest Missouri State) or the NSIC (Minnesota State-Mankato, St. Cloud State)....but that's a big IF at this point.

[leatherface]

My wife and I went to grad school at Truman, and they are not interested in D1. Heck, they left the MIAA- in part- because they had a rough time competing. Other reasons were travel and recruiting issues because of their academics.

Missouri D2 schools - and the MIAA in general- are unique because they have found that level to be what they can afford, and, it gives them a chance to win national championships. Northwest, Pitt State, Missouri Western and Central Missouri have facilities WIU would wish for.

I give them credit for knowing who they are, what they can achieve and the incentives to do it. Central was rumored a few years ago looking at D1, but said why? You want to compete for national championships ( Central D2 bb), or struggle along trying to keep up with the " big boys". For those who will say a D2 championship doesn't mean much- get an appointment with the coaches and players at MOWEST, Central, Pitt or Northwest and tell them that and see what happens.

Illinois is different, in that D2 is not a common level for the state schools- everybody wants to be D1, even if they really can't afford it. IMHO

[leatherface]

Addition- Lindenwood could look in the future to D1. They have literally unlimited funds, rapidly growing and a very aggressive mentality.

[wiu712]

With the new autonomy now granted to the five "Power Conferences", there could be a lot of changes upcoming in the NCAA.

Some speculations that I have heard on sports radio include the possibilities of some of the "lower-rung" FBS conferences dropping down to FCS. And some lower tier Division 1 programs dropping down to Division 2. Money will be determining factor for most programs as to what level that they can afford.