Publicly snubbed by the Big Sky Conference, with the Big West not ready to expand again and without a conference of its own since the American West disbanded, Southern Utah University takes a tremendous leap of faith today as it officially joins the far-away Mid-Continent Conference for 10 men's and women's sports including men's basketball.
Football is not included.The T-Birds' new NCAA Division I conference affiliation begins in the 1997-98 season. Until then, SUU teams will compete as independents.
The Mid-Continent Conference is headquartered in Naperville, Ill., and most of its members are situated east of that - like Buffalo (N.Y.), Central Connecticut State, Troy State (Alabama) and Youngstown State (Pennsylvania). The closest member school to SUU is Missouri-Kansas City. The other schools are in Illinois (Western Illinois, Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois) and Indiana (Valparaiso).
The Thunderbirds were to announce their new conference affiliation at a news conference in the Salt Lake City Doubletree Hotel at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The commissioner of the Mid-Continent Conference, Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher, was in Salt Lake City Wednesday for the announcement. Also involved in the press conference were to be SUU president Dr. Gerald R. Sherratt, SUU vice president for university affairs Michael D. Richards, SUU athletic director Jack Bishop and second-year basketball coach Bill Evans.
Evans' first SUU team (1995-96 season) finished 15-13 overall, 3-3 and second in the four-team American West Conference; the T-Birds won the conference tournament, but the tiny AWC offered no chance to advance to the NCAA or NIT postseason tournaments.
The MCC winner gets an automatic NCAA tournament berth; it lost the NCAA automatic bid for one season (1994-95) but regained it last season.
SUU becomes the league's 10th member, taking the place of charter-member Eastern Illinois University, which moves to the Ohio Valley Conference this season.
Obviously, such a move will be costly for both Southern Utah and all conference members, traveling 1,000+ miles for many contests, but - in a scenario reminiscent of the way Salt Lake Golden Eagles' owner Art Teece 11 years ago joined a Midwest bus league that eventually turned into a coast-to-coast International Hockey League - SUU and the MCC envision further league expansion to the West that could allay some of the cost.
In a prepared statement, Steinbrecher said, "We believe the opportunities for (MCC) expansion will be in the greater Midwest and near-West regions." He sees SUU as an anchor that will "assist in opening up opportunities for exposure in a number of Western markets, with the ultimate result being national exposure for the member institutions in the Mid-Continent Conference."
Steinbrecher also said in the statement that SUU's "athletic programs match up very well with our current member institutions and will strengthen an already competitive league."