Final Four weekend is notorious for coaches getting together to negotiate for new jobs, but it appears this year it’s about schools negotiating for new leagues. Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press Gazette reports that it’s a “done deal” that Oakland will be invited and accept an invitation into the Horizon League. For faithful readers of the blog this should not shock anyone, but its timing couldn’t be any worse, there’s no timetable on when this will happen, but this is just another blow for the Summit League. The story, which you can read here also says that the league may consider adding UMKC and/or Denver, and not likely to add the Indiana schools; IPFW or IUPUI (which I thought would be a slam dunk for the league). Now of note; a majority of the current Horizon which reads like this: UW-Milwaukee; UW-Green Bay, Valparaiso, Wright State, Cleveland State, Loyola(IL), Detroit and Youngstown State have been mentioned for other leagues, namely Detroit (A-10) and Loyola (MVC). If they lose any other schools, I have to figure they’ll look for the Dakotas; remember most of the schools that are in the Horizon, came from the Summit League. According to RPI Report.com, the Horizon had an RPI rating of 12 this past season, ahead of the WAC, Sun Belt, MAC and Ohio Valley, all leagues considered better than the Summit, along with a recognizable name; that’s thanks to Butler; since BU made the Final 4 twice as a member of the Horizon, they’re also enjoying the NCAA Tournament shares from that. Finally, the TV exposure is much greater in this league, there is nearly a game or 2 a week on the ESPN networks from this league, I believe they have a Friday night contract with the Mothership. This to me would be a no-brainer if they called NDSU or SDSU, but the real question, does the Horizon want to come this far west? The furthest they go right now is Green Bay, but NDSU has played a handful of Horizon teams, including, the Wisconsin schools, who have come to Fargo, along with Youngstown State. Something to definitely watch.
It appears as well that the Missouri Valley has found its replacement for Creighton, several sources are reporting that Illinois-Chicago will be invited to become the 10th school, the question there-in do they ask anybody else?