McFeely: Will Summit League expand? Is Northern Colorado a possibility? Commissioner mostly mum

The Greeley, Colo., school a former NCAA Division II member of the North Central Conference with the Dakotas schools and Omaha currently in the Division I Summit is viewed as a favored candidate if the Summit was to expand from nine teams to 10.

Even numbers are always better in the world of college conferences and when Western Illinois thankfully bailed from the Summit prior to this season, it left the Summit League one team shy. And so the whispers of expansion.

So Josh Fenton, commissioner of the Sioux Falls-based Summit League, what do you think of expansion?

"It's always on the agenda," Fenton said. "I met with the presidents (Sunday) morning because we always meet during the basketball tournament. So it's always on the agenda."

The presidents unequivocally want to expand. That's important. They run the show.

"I always look at it as two things. How do we strengthen the existing commitment from the nine member institutions that we have? And so things like sports sponsorship matters. Institutional fit matters. Geography matters. Media markets, to some extent, matter," Fenton said.

"And then second," he continued, "if you take a pie that has nine slices and all of the sudden you have 10 or 11 or 12 slices, you're dividing it more ways. So what's the additive value that we can provide each existing member institutions? That's how we look at it, that's how we talk about it. It's not an obvious, 'Just go do this.' But, yeah, it's a regular discussion point."

There are no slam-dunk candidates in the geographic footprint of the Summit League.

Augustana University in Sioux Falls had a dalliance with Division I and applied for membership in the Summit several years ago, but were rejected and went the D-I hockey/D-II in everything else route instead. Lindenwood University in Missouri is a newbie private D-I school that's a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, but what value does that bring the Summit? Lindenwood is an associate member of the Summit League for swimming and diving.

Northwest Missouri State University and Minnesota State Mankato are Division II powerhouses, but there's little appetite there for moving up a level and doing so is more difficult today than five years ago.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, a non-football member of the Ohio Valley Conference? Unlikely. And why? The University of Illinois-Chicago? Ditto.

Other associate members of the Summit League in various sports include Drake, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Southern Indiana, Western Illinois and Northern Colorado. Mostly no.

But Northern Colorado, you say? There's some intrigue.

The Bears are already a Summit League associate member in baseball, so there's a connection. And one gets the sense UNC's current conference, the Big Sky, would happily show it the door.

Those offering scuttlebutt here in Sioux Falls say UNC's attractiveness comes because it would be a perfect partner, convenient for scheduling and travel, for Denver University. Greeley is little more than an hour from Denver, a major city that is easy and affordable to get into and out of because of its airport.

A major hang-up is that UNC has a football team, so if it was to leave the Big Sky it would need a conference for football. The Missouri Valley Football Conference? Ugh.

So, Commissioner Fenton, how about Northern Colorado?

"Institutional fit. Geography. Sports sponsorship. Don't lose sight of that one. What sports do they sponsor coming in that can add value to our current members?" Fenton said. "We sponsor men's soccer and baseball. We don't have a ton of members that sponsor men's soccer and baseball, but they are key components to us being a Division I conference. It's not just about men's soccer and baseball. That's a small example. But there's a lot that goes into it."

The Summit League sponsors 17 sports. Northern Colorado matches on 13 of them. UNC does not have men's soccer, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis and women's tennis all sports sponsored by the Summit. The Bears have football and wrestling, which the Summit League does not.

It seems as a good a fit as any, outside of football. The MVFC already added a poor football program with Murray State, so it would be willing to add another to do the Summit League a solid favor?

"We're being intentional and specific about it. I don't know that I can put a timetable around it," Fenton said. "We would like to continue to add value to the existing members. We've been aggressive behind the scenes. Active behind the scenes. And we're going to continue to be that way. We think we have something special in this league and this (basketball) tournament is a reflection of that. We think there will be opportunities in the future."