Sun Belt Expansion?

ORUTerry · May 18, 2006

Does anyone know if the league is looking to expand to 14 teams - since the addition of Louisana-Monroe and Florida Atlantic will set the conference at 13: seven in one division and six in the other division.

If they are going to expand, what criteria will they be using?

May 19, 2006

Does anyone know if the league is looking to expand to 14 teams - since the addition of Louisana-Monroe and Florida Atlantic will set the conference at 13: seven in one division and six in the other division.
If they are going to expand, what criteria will they be using?
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The commissioner is pretty mum on expansion. Ideally, it would be either someone that is already in Division 1-A (which means that they play football and would give us nnine teams) or already a SBC member and would elevate to 1-A(Western Kentucky).

I realize that 13 is not a good number but untile we know more about Denver's intentions, it would be hard to add a team. If Denver left we would be at 13 again. The University of New Orleans has about three years to decide whether to add back enough teams to again be Division I.

The Sun Belt Conference has a monthly Ask the Commissioner on its website. You might ask the commissioner directly. He is usually pretty straightforward on most subjects; the exceptionship being membership. But, it doesn't hurt to ask.

ORUTerry · May 19, 2006

Thanks for the quick response. ORU is a member of the Mid-Continent Conference. We have had two schools leave in the last couple of months - most notably Valparaiso with an announcement yesterday that they are moving to the Horzon League.

ORU would seem to be a decent fit for the Sun Belt.... except for the fact that we are not a football school. We have a pretty good basketball tradition and have been on the upswing over the last couple of years - making the tournament this year. Our head coach is Scott Sutton, son of Eddie Sutton of Oklahoma State. Our arena (Mabee Center) is 30 years old but would still compare favorably with most venues in the country; capacity of 10,500.

We are a very good baseball team in a very weak league. ORU has a long history of baseball excellence. We play at JL Johnson Stadium (capacity 2,400) that is a very nice college baseball venue. We just built a $1.5 million sky deck, offices and weight room adjacent to the stadium.

What is the deal with Denver? Are they a candidate to move to the Big Sky?

NDT · May 19, 2006

I thought they were a possible candidate for the Mid-Continent Conference.

BlueRaiderPride · May 19, 2006

Denver tried to join the Mid-Con a few years ago, but for some reason that league dug deep to the South and picked up Centenary instead. I think Denver is pretty much off the Mid-Con's table for now, and if the Dakota States wind up joing IPFW in the Mid-Con, you could see the Big Sky turn their attention to Denver. The fact that the Big Sky has already turned down the Dakota States before has me thinking that that league is looking for one non-fooball member to make the basketball scheduling work.

But things could change. I don't expect Western Illinois to stay in the Mid-Con now that the only other charter member of the league--Valparaiso--has decided to jump ship.

If Denver leaves the Sun Belt, there's no chance this league will expand back to 13. If Western Kentucky joins in football, that would give the Sun Belt 9 football members and 12 other sports members which is ideally the best fit.

ORUTerry · May 19, 2006

Not sure why the Mid-Con chose to include Centenary over Denver. Not a good move. Is the supposition that Denver is trying to leave the SBC because of the distance from the rest of the league? Are there any firm reports of this or is it conjecture?

I agree the Western Illinois might like to bolt the conference, but to where? There are no obvious choices for them.

If the SBC stays where it is, do you see any push to increase membership in an effort to equalize the divisions? Do you think the member schools would look at a private school like ORU?

UNTLifer · May 19, 2006

Commish Waters has expressed an interest in expanding but only with schools that sponsor all sports.

gruu · May 20, 2006

I will take a cold day in Hell for ORU to get into the Belt.

foutsrouts · May 20, 2006

Why don't we expand by letting in Dallas Baptist? Oh that's right, EVEN THEY are on the verge of getting into Conference USA. Although they are still considering the dreaded WAC, they would never even consider hooking up with our great conference.