Getting to know the Summit League (II)
September 24, 2008 by Ryan Pravato
Filed under Basketball
Stuff you need to know about Summit League hoops other than the mascot inferiority complexes that exist.
-2007/08 was the inaugural season for the Summit League.
-The league was called the Mid-Continent Conference from 1989-2007. From 1982-1989 it was called the Association of Mid-Continent Universities.
May 15th 2007
“Beginning June 1st, the Mid-Continent Conference will be known as the Summit League. The name change is part of the “Summit Plan” to try and turn the league into a premier academic and athletic mid-major conference. The Mid-Con has struggled in recent years to find an identity, as its schools are scattered throughout the country, and it has experienced turnover in member teams. Going forward, the league will consist of: Centenary College, IPFW, IUPUI, UMKC, North Dakota State, Oakland, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State, Southern Utah and Western Illinois. The new logo and name “summit” are meant to suggest the peak of excellence, and not have any association with being located around a mountainous region.”
-League consists of ten schools from nine different states. Travel budgets explode in this league.
-School enrollment’s range from a little over a 1,000 to more than 27,000.
-Western Illinois is the only member that has been in the conference from the beginning (1982).
-Valparaiso was a member of the conference as recently as 2006/2007. But Valpo apparently wanted to step their game up and arguably did so by escaping to the Horizon League.
-Oral Roberts has represented the league in the NCAA tourney for the past 3 years.
- Oral Roberts President Richard Roberts committed a couple of crimes and thought it would be all ok since God told him to do it.
-For the last two seasons the league has been nestled in the #22 slot (out of 30) in terms of conference RPI strength.
-Former IUPUI Jaguar George Hill chose to forego his senior year and it paid off big time. Selected in the first round of the 08 draft by the San Antonio Spurs.
-Not surprisingly the 08 Summit League’s Conference Player of the Year was George Hill.
-North Dakota State is somewhat of the favorite to take the regular season title and go into the conference tourney with a #1 seed. Collegehoopsnet.com believes they will come out of it with a NCAA berth. Oakland University is picked to be the Bison’s toughest challenger.
-This is the first season North Dakota State and South Dakota State are eligible for postseason play on the DI level.
-The conference tourney will be held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2009. The top eight teams qualify.
Enlightened anyone?
