New North Dakota State president Dean Bresciani has been zipping from one meeting to another since starting his new position this week. Monday, he'll get an initiation of sorts in The Summit League.
Bresciani will fly to Chicago for the league's Presidents Council meeting, a gathering that is not expected to yield much in substance. In that regard, the timing couldn't have been better.
"I'm fortunate the agenda appears to be a light one so it should be a good time to meet my colleagues and get a sense of what their priorities are," Bresciani said. "I'm not anticipating anything substantial."
About the only substantial discussion is expected to focus on the league's future. Expansion, as it always is, will be on the agenda, said Summit commissioner Tom Douple.
UND's application is expected to be addressed. Thursday night, the Standing Rock Tribal Council voted 10-4 to discontinue further discussion of the Fighting Sioux nickname.
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The Summit has said it will not consider UND until the nickname issue is resolved. The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education has mandated that the nickname be retired.
"There are a number of schools we will talk about at the meeting and we hope to have something more in detail of where we stand after the meeting," Douple said.
It's been an interesting last few weeks for conference commissioners in lieu of the major conference shakeups. The Big 12 Conference, which includes Bresciani's former school Texas A&M, lost Colorado to the Pac-10 Conference and Nebraska to the Big Ten.
"I'm not convinced the dust has completely settled for us," Bresciani said. "Hopefully we'll bypass that storm."
The movement appears to have stopped, for now, but the storm could eventually trickle down to Summit member Southern Utah. Douple acknowledged a western conference would probably be best for SUU's future.
"They've been a very good member, but we've been up front with them with our membership," he said. "We're not looking at schools to build a bridge out to the west. We've been clear about that."
Centenary College (La.) will leave the league for NCAA Division III beginning in 2011-12, the same year the University of South Dakota will join The Summit.
The NCAA has one year left on a Division I membership moratorium for schools moving up but when it expires, new rules will be in place. Douple said the NCAA Board of Directors adopted a proposal that requires a school to first pay an NCAA application fee ranging from $900,000 to $1.3 million and be admitted into a conference before it can start the reclassification process.
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They also have to meet a Division I minimum scholarship level as well.
The five-year transition period was reduced to four years, but the new criteria will probably make it tougher for The Summit to consider Division II schools for expansion.
"We have always looked at Division II schools making the transfer, our history is such," Douple said. "This criteria clearly defines it. Coming up with a million and getting into a conference is a more laborious process."
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