Horizon League Expansion

[ysuindy]

Lets use this thread for discussion about and articles about the Horizon League adding a new team(s) to replace Butler.

The Horizon League Hoops blog is out with a post about Oakland

Starting in 2013-2014 Butler is gone, off to the A-10. But long before the Bulldogs were expected to leave the league, Oakland had already been on the radar for many Horizon League watchers, especially as the Golden Grizzlies basketball team quickly grew from Division II power to budding D-I mid-major performer in the Summit League (starting in 1997) to a perennial Summit power that has won the league's regular season title two of the last three years.

Now, Oakland's Athletics Director, Tracy Huth, has made it clear that the school is "certainly interested in going to the Horizon League."

The Horizon League needs to add another team to round its membership at an even 10, so is this a match made in mid-major heaven? Here are some numbers.

2 - The 10th best power forward in the state of Michigan's high school class of 2012, Lloyd Neely, chose Oakland over two Horizon League schools, Cleveland State and Detroit.

6 - Years the Horizon League spent as a 9-team league between 2001, when Youngstown State left what is now known as the Summit League behind for the HL, and 2007, when Valparaiso also left the Summit for the Horizon. There's a trend here. In fact, seven Horizon League (or Midwestern Collegiate League) members were at some point members of the Summit League (or Mid-Continent Conference), so Oakland is in good company.

This is also important in illustrating the fact that the league shows a clear priority with taking its time in adding new member schools despite the scheduling difficulties of a 9-team conference.

7 - The number of times Horizon League commissioner Jon LeCrone used the word "values" in a conference call with media May 2 when discussing the Horizon League's plans for replacing Butler. Clearly they mean to take their time with this. Oakland is a public school, but so are a lot of the other schools in the league, so I'm not sure really where to read into that, if anything at all.

11 - The Golden Grizzlies are 7-4 against Horizon League teams (counting only Valpo games from 2007 onwards) since 2003, in 11 meetings. They've also now beaten Tennessee in back-to-back seasons, and nearly upset then-No. 7 Michigan State, when the Grizzlies lost, 77-76, in December 2011.

26.5 road miles separate Oakland University and current Horizon member Detroit University to the South. The league's bylaws state that any member institution can block a new school's entrance into the league if the new member falls within a 25 mile radius of the member, but it's unclear whether that radius is by car or as the crow flies, a fuzzy detail that will have to be hammered out. Regardless, such a veto can be overridden by a majority vote of the rest of the member institutions. Jesuit alliances aside (Detroit and Loyola are both Jesuit schools) I couldn't see why the rest of the schools in the League wouldn't want Oakland.

Also, since the league depends on "swings" in its scheduling where teams travel in pairs, Oakland and Detroit would make perfect travel partners a la UIC and Loyola in Chicago. Under such a plan Valparaiso and Wright State would also become travel partners with Butler gone.

151 - Oakland's Pomeroy ranking at the end of the 2011-2012 season. Cleveland State (83), Butler (110), Detroit (120), Valparaiso (147) and Milwaukee (150) were higher, but not by much. This after the Grizzlies lost three starters at the end of the previous season in which they were ranked 66th by Pomeroy.

4,005 - The number of seats in Oakland's Athletics Center O'Rena. That would make it the smallest in the Horizon League, and dips below the league bylaw requiring 5,000+ seat arenas. But in the conference call May 2, commissioner LeCrone seemed unconcerned with the requirement.

"We've had a 5,000 seat arena rule ... we've also waived it." LeCrone said. "We don't want to get too defined to seats, because there's more to it. It's space ... It's more of a feel of what's an appropriate facility for a Division I program. So we look more at that than at the seating capacity."

$1,555,472 - Oakland spent that much on their basketball program in 2010, according to the most recent numbers available over at BBState, which marks them as solidly mid-major. That number would rank them eighth in the Horizon League, ahead of Green Bay ($1,409,931) and Youngstown State ($1,022,407).

Oakland is the clear D-I frontrunner for the Horizon League vacancy, but if the league decides that the Golden Grizzlies don't live up to its apparent high "values-based" standards, there are a swarm of D-II programs that have been mentioned. Northern Kentucky, Wayne State, and sure, Indianapolis University lead that list.

http://bloguin.com/runthefloor/2012-articles/may/by-the-numbers-is-oakland-perfect-for-the-horizon-league.html

[Pizza]

Was gonna steal this thread....but decided against it.

Go YSU basketball!!!

[ysuindy]

AP wire story

DETROIT -- Oakland University wants to be in the Horizon League and hopes it isn't kept out by the University of Detroit -- again.

"About 10 years ago, there was interest in us from the Horizon League and Detroit stopped it," Oakland coach Greg Kampe recalled. "I know that's a fact because I called the athletic director then, Brad Kinsman, and he told me."

Kinsman said Wednesday that Kampe's recollection is accurate.

"The feeling back then was that it didn't make sense to share this market with another school in the same conference," said Kinsman, who retired in 2006. "Times have changed, coaches have changed, but I don't know what the thinking is now."

Everyone is left to guess because Detroit officials declined comment on Oakland's interest in joining the Horizon.

It also isn't clear if the Horizon League wants the Golden Grizzlies to fill the void created last week when Butler announced plans to join the Atlantic 10.

Horizon League commissioner Jon LeCrone wouldn't comment on Oakland's public interest. Officials from the Summit League, which Oakland belongs to, also declined comment.

IUPUI and Robert Morris, in addition to Oakland, are also potential candidates to take Butler's spot during the 2013-14 season when the two-time national runner-up starts playing in the Atlantic 10.

"We're not going to play this out in the media," LeCrone said. "These are delicate matters and we want to handle this process with respect.

"If we decide to go beyond the number of nine schools, which is not absolutely necessary, we'll do it in a prudent and thoughtful way."

Kampe said he has talked to coaches in the Horizon League and all have been supportive of adding his program.

Has Kampe spoken to Detroit coach Ray McCallum about it?

"No, that is not a coach I've talked to about this," he said.

If the Horizon League expresses an interest in Oakland, athletic director Tracy Huth said he would reach out to Detroit officials.

The Golden Grizzlies have earned a bid in the NCAA three times since 2005, including twice in the last three years, from a league that forces them to travel to South Dakota State and Southern Utah. Geographically, it would make sense for a school based in Rochester, Mich., to play in a league filled with teams from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin -- and a school about 20 miles to its south.

Kampe also thinks it would be a wise move for the Horizon League to add Oakland.

"I think we've proven ourselves," Kampe said. "If you look at the last two years, we'd rank in the top third in the Horizon in attendance and RPI. Basketball is the flagship of that league so I'd think we'd help keep their RPI consistent after they lose Butler.

"And from a travel standpoint, we're right in the middle of their footprint. Teams could play Detroit and us on a Thursday and Saturday and wouldn't even have to change hotels."

But the Titans still may not want to share the Motor City market with another school in the same conference.

Kampe, though, believes it would be a win-win deal.

"I think an Oakland-Detroit rivalry would be huge in southeast Michigan," he said. "When we played, there would be full houses, we'd be on the front page of the Detroit News and Free Press. There also would be television exposure that would help both schools and the Horizon. I don't see how it would be a negative for Detroit to have us in the same league."


http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7911693/oakland-wants-take-butler-place-horizon-league

[ysuindy]

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Steve Warden | The Journal Gazette
With Charlotte leaving the Atlantic 10 for Conference USA, Butler will fill the opening at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. You can almost hear the dominoes begin to sway and teeter across the mid-major conferences, all of them waiting for the music to stop so teams can find the last available seat.

While Butler’s jumping conferences hits close to home, the ripple effect could get even closer, possibly affecting IPFW of the Summit League.

It is too early in the process to speculate that IPFW will be in a different league in a year or two, but the rumblings of joining the Horizon League are already beginning.

Here’s a look at the two conferences, and how they compare side-by-side:

The leagues

Summit League: Established 1982; nine members to begin 2012-13 season; 19 sports (10 women’s, nine men’s); headquartered in Elmhurst, Ill.; commissioner: Tom Douple; website: www.thesummitleague.org

Horizon League: Established 1979; 10 members to begin 2012-13 season; 19 sports (10 women’s, nine men’s); headquartered in Indianapolis; commissioner: Jonathan B. LeCrone; website: www.horizonleague.org

Travel

Summit League: The footprint of the Summit League will shrink, with Southern Utah leaving for the Big Sky Conference, and Oral Roberts leaving for the Southland Conference.

IPFW teams, for example, had to travel more than 1,700 miles to play Southern Utah in Cedar City, and the trip to Tulsa, Okla., to play Oral Roberts was just less than 800 miles. But because three of the teams are in North Dakota and South Dakota, long trips will continue to be a burden for the existing Summit League schools.

Without Southern Utah and Oral Roberts, the longest trip in the league is Oakland, in Rochester, Mich., to North Dakota State in Fargo. That is 942 miles.

The average one-way road trip for IPFW athletes is 6.2 hours.

Horizon League: With 10 teams across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, the Horizon is one of the more geographically friendly mid-major conferences in the country.

The farthest distance between two member schools is the 602 miles between Green Bay, Wis., and Youngstown, Ohio, and the Green Bay-Wright State (Dayton) trip is just less than 500. The best example of the geographic proximity are Loyola-Chicago, UIC (Illinois-Chicago), Valparaiso and Milwaukee all within 141 miles.

The average one-way road trip for athletes in the Horizon League is 3.2 hours.

Recruiting

Summit League: In the parlance of the NCAA basketball tournament, the Summit League is a one-bid conference, which means only one team – the conference tournament winner – will play in the three-week extravaganza known as March Madness.

In both men’s and women’s basketball, the two sports on which the Summit League is trying to build its national reputation, this restricts recruiting. All prospective players see themselves knotted together on Selection Sunday, waiting for their school’s name to called.

The primary marquee name in basketball is Oral Roberts, which is leaving the league after this season. Next in line would probably be Oakland, which is still confusing to fans not familiar with a league that confuses the issue even more with IPFW, IUPUI and UMKC.

Horizon League: Success breeds success. In the four years before Butler’s men’s team advancing to the NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011, the Horizon landed two players from the Rivals.com top 150. Jason Calliste (No. 125) committed to Detroit in 2009, and in 2007 Matt Howard (No. 91) of Connersville went to Butler.

Since the Bulldogs appeared in their first title game in 2010, four from the top 150 committed to Butler, and one signed with Detroit. Even the class of 2013 has a Butler signee in Nolan Berry, a 6-foot-7 forward from St. Louis ranked 104th.

National exposure

Summit League: Fame has been fleeting for the Summit League, particularly under that name. Under the umbrella of the Mid-Continent Conference, Valparaiso, thanks to the famous buzzer-beating shot from Bryce Drew, defeated Mississippi in the first round of the 1998 NCAA tournament. The Crusaders went on to the Sweet 16.

Before that, the Mid-Con’s most memorable hour came in 1986, when 14th-seeded Cleveland State upset No. 3 Indiana at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Since Valpo’s two wins in ’98, the Mid-Con/Summit League has won one game in the NCAA tourney – Oakland over Alabama A&M in the opening round in 2005.

Horizon League: Butler’s back-to-back trips to the Final Four and championship games thrust the university and the Horizon League into national prominence.

Led by their youthful-looking coach, Brad Stevens, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs nearly upset Duke in the 2010 title game, losing 61-59. Then a year later, as the No. 8 seed, Butler lost to UConn in the championship game 53-41.

Although Curtis Granderson is better known for being the starting center fielder for the New York Yankees, he was the 2002 Horizon League Player of the Year at UIC.

IPFW’s next move

Don’t expect IPFW to jump into the Horizon League right away.

Not only are the Mastodons’ sports teams still trying to find their way in the Summit League, be it men’s and women’s basketball or softball or baseball or golf, but the leadership issue is in doubt.

Chancellor Michael Wartell is on his way toward retirement, and a new leader is still to be named, so any new conference will reserve judgment until a new university head is established.

With Butler leaving the Horizon, and Oral Roberts and Southern Utah leaving the Summit, both conferences will be down to nine institutions at the beginning of the 2013-14 season.

IPFW sits squarely in the middle of the Horizon League and could conceivably team with Oakland and IUPUI into making the Horizon a 12-team league. Without trips to North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota and the newest member, Nebraska Omaha, the travel savings alone would make the jump from the Summit into the Horizon a sound one.

stwarden@jg.net

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120510/SPORTS0305/305109987/1085/SPORTS03

[Wick250]

For the long term, Fort Wayne would be a better addition than Oakland.  Right now Oakland, of course, has the superior basketball team, but few besides alumni in metro Detroit care about either Oakland or the University of Detroit.  Ann Arbor is basically a western suburb.  East Lansing is not that far up the interstate. By comparison, IPFW could develop some community support in that basketball-rich state if they played in a stronger league.  They also, I assume, have access to that ancient but large structure where we played several Mid-con tournament games.

Of course, nobody mentions this in these speculative articles, but baseball must factor into our expansion plans.  Oakland, Fort Wayne, or whoever must convince league officials that they will operate a baseball team indefinitely as a condition for entry.

[Big D]

For the long term, Fort Wayne would be a better addition than Oakland. 

IPFW is a commuter school with no facilities, a very poor budget, and no fanbase.  The fact that they are in basketball rich Indiana means they will never be able to gain much of a following.  Indiana basketball fans aren't stupid.  They want to follow major programs.  They follow IU, ND, Purdue, and recently they just started following Butler.  Go back and look at Butler's attendance numbers over the years.  They just went to back to back championship games and they are several thousand fans short from selling out.  Even with all of their trips to the NCAAs and several Sweet 16 runs, they played in a 1/2 empty arena most of the time because they weren't IU.  IPFW doesn't have a chance to ever be relevant in that state, especially since they have no way of increasing their athletic funding. 

[IAA Fan]

RMU ...RMU ...RMU. Another non-football conference member less than an hour away. They are over by the airport in Moon Township I believe.

[Wick250]

I have no idea how much Robert Morris values its football team, but the NEC conference just got their automatic bid into the FCS playoffs last season (a joke but that is not the point here.)  So if RMU left the NEC to join the Horizon League, they would either have to abandon football or find another spot for their football team.  Only option would seem to be dropping football scholarships and joining that pathetic Pioneer Conference (which will also get an automatic bid once the playoffs expand to 24 - an obscene joke.)  None of us know the true priorities of RMU officials.

[Pizza]

Can't wait for basketball to start again.

My nose just grew!!!!!!

[IAA Fan]

I have no idea how much Robert Morris values its football team, but the NEC conference just got their automatic bid into the FCS playoffs last season (a joke but that is not the point here.)  So if RMU left the NEC to join the Horizon League, they would either have to abandon football or find another spot for their football team.  Only option would seem to be dropping football scholarships and joining that pathetic Pioneer Conference (which will also get an automatic bid once the playoffs expand to 24 - an obscene joke.)  None of us know the true priorities of RMU officials.

Basketball rules conference affiliations ...football is not a money-maker.

[ItalianPenguin]

Big D(ick) is on the Wrong St message board saying how great it would be if YSU left the Horizon also and they and Butler were replaced by Oakland and Murray St. What he doesn't realize is that Wrong St is spiraling rapidly into becoming one of the worst (if not the worst) basketball schools in the conference and will be behind YSU for the foreseeable future. Maybe we should throw them out to improve the conference.

[Wick250]

Looking at the official NCAA attendance stats, Wright State drew an average of 3,903 this season, compared to 2,485 for us.  So the primary sport at WSU outdrew our secondary sport by 1,418.  Interesting.  Didn't Wright State at one time draw about 7-8,000 per game?  Very interesting. 

What these poorly informed critics fail to comprehend is that Youngstown State has 4 to 5 times more fans than any other school in the Horizon League (counting Butler as gone.)  Of course, most of these fans still ignore basketball, but the pieces for a seismic change might just (finally) be coming.  All signs point to football winning big again, starting this season.  That will translate into happy fans, some of whom might stumble into Beeghly Center during the off-season.  If these basketball recruits live up to the billing and wins continue, adding 1,500 fans per game next basketball season is distinctly possible.  And that will put us in the top third in Horizon League attendance.  It will be a fine day when these arrogant fans from non-football schools are put back into their subservient place.
 

[Big D]

Big D(ick) is on the Wrong St message board saying how great it would be if YSU left the Horizon also and they and Butler were replaced by Oakland and Murray St. What he doesn't realize is that Wrong St is spiraling rapidly into becoming one of the worst (if not the worst) basketball schools in the conference and will be behind YSU for the foreseeable future. Maybe we should throw them out to improve the conference.

WSU's last 2 signings are Jerran Young and Antonio Drummond.  Young is a 3 star recruit who was ranked as the 39th best JUCO in the country.  He originally signed with Nebraska and opted out after their coaching change.  He had scholarship offers from Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Wichita State.
Antonio Drummond originally signed with Southern Illinois and opted out after their coaching change.  He signed with Southern Illinois over an offer from Illinois.  He signed with WSU this spring over offers from UC and Kansas State.   I'm not too worried about our future. 

In regards to conference affiliation, I have never changed my opinion.  I don't think YSU is or ever has been a good fit for the HL.  You are focused on your football success and have never shown a financial commitment to basketball.  You just had your best season in years and a large portion of your fanbase still advocates firing your coach.  The CAA makes more sense for you.  The HL is focused on basketball success.   I'm pretty sure the HL doesn't care too much that we had 1 down year considering we have been ranked in the top 1/3 in the conference for the previous 6 seasons.  Maybe if we become a 300+ ranked team for the next 20 years they may boot us out.  I say 20 years because you have been a sh**ty 300+ ranked team for over a decade and we still haven't forced you out yet.  just saying.

[IAA Fan]

Murray State? How are they any different than YSU ...other than they spend the same amount of money as we do in football & basketball ...but see limited results in football. Take a look at teams in the NEC or Pioneer Leagues for your members. (like Valpo or Butler). These are teams that theoretically spend no direct dollars toward football.

Aside from the HL, the only real fit for YSU is the OVC, MVC, or MAC. In that order. That is based on $$$ it would cost us. Just one thing you should know BigD ...football pays for everything at YSU ...I think we are the only team in the HL that is economically self-sufficient. Well at least of the public schools. It hurts us & helps us. Also, this is NE Ohio ...football is everything  here ...and few take issue with that. I grew up in a baseball town, so it is a change for me ...and I am hooked. We enjoy football.

The OVC:  would cost less, but we would not be able to recruit at the same level as we can now ...with football, that is unacceptable; as we expect to compete for a national title each and every year. Our only chance there would be to pull WIU & one of the Dakotas into the OVC with us ...thus "raising the bar" of the football programs in the eyes of the media.

The MVC is a natural, (as we are already a member) ...but we would have to step up our finances in non-football sports, and our coaching and player talent-level as well. We would need to bring our Lady Pens basketball up to the level is has been in the past to compete against teams the caliber of SMS.

The MAC is a huge step-up financially, but we could be competitive fairly-quickly in football ...and that would give us time to upgrade some other sports.  Maybe not quite as dominant as Marshall was when they stepped up to IA ...as the MAC is a bit more powerful now ...but we will certainly compete. We would need two more men's programs (IMO). Which will force us to drop one woman's program. I just do not see the dollars without dipping into the general fund.


Let's face it ...the issue is not Butler leaving the HL, it was the HL's inability to use Butler's basketball success to woo Dayton and Xavier back into the mold. In the mean time ...don't overlook Morehead ...that is your top choice ...and they are planning a football upgrade back to the OVC. Good basketball tradition there.

[ysuindy]

Story from Sunday's Dayton Daily News.

Excellent story, although I am sure Southern Illinois is surprised to discover they are in the OVC.

One takeaway from this, having a current Horizon League school start or re-start baseball is a possibility.

The table at the end really doesn't cut and paste well - you should click the link to view it.  It also does not appear to remove football expenses from YSU and other schools.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/dayton-sports/wright-state-university-raiders/horizon-league-builds-plan-for-future-1388954.html


FAIRBORN — Many want to know who will replace Butler University in the Horizon League. Commissioner Jon LeCrone is thinking broader.

At a recent two-day meeting in Chicago, LeCrone, all the Horizon League athletic directors, senior women administrators and league office staff developed a comprehensive growth agenda to guide the conference for years to come.

The talks will continue Thursday and Friday.

“What we’re trying to have a conversation about is what I call the new world order in Division I athletics,” LeCrone said. “No. 1, it’s driven by football. No. 2, football has driven large media contracts, which has created unprecedented conference realignment. There are 31 Division I conferences, and in the last two years, 21 of those leagues have had members who have either departed or come into their league. It’s all driven by football, all driven by access to the postseason, by the financial rewards the leagues have received from media companies.”

That’s not going to change, LeCrone knows, so the question becomes, “How does a conference without football prosper in that world?”

The growth agenda has five points.

Considering expansion

“That doesn’t mean we will or won’t expand,” LeCrone said. “We will consider it. It needs to be done at the presidential level. It needs to be driven by our values.”

Many have speculated about whether the Horizon will add one school to get back to an even 10 or perhaps make a bigger splash and expand to 12.

LeCrone is also considering scenarios in which the league stays at nine, and in that case, a current Horizon League member without baseball might add baseball so the league can get back to six baseball-playing schools and retain its NCAA bid. If the league expands, Oakland University, near Detroit, has already expressed interest in joining the Horizon. That alone would seem to make it an odds-on favorite. Oakland also comes from the Summit League, and the last team to jump to the Horizon was a Summit League school (Valparaiso in 2007).

With an enrollment of 11,466, Oakland would fit right in the middle of the league, which has an average enrollment of 8,900. Perhaps most importantly, it fits geographically with the rest of the conference.
Travel distances haven’t been much of a concern for most conferences with the recent wave of expansion, but Wright State AD Bob Grant hopes it remains a concern for his league.

“You never say never, and I don’t have any inside scoop, but I think it’s a big selling point for us,” Grant said. “You look at some of these conferences, and the travel is brutal.”

If distance is important, schools from lower-ranked RPI conferences, in addition to Oakland, that are also within shouting distance of the Horizon members include: Robert Morris University, of the Northeastern Conference; Western Illinois, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, of the Summit League; Northern Kentucky University, of the Atlantic Sun; Murray State, Morehead State and Southern Illinois, from the Ohio Valley Conference.

A little further afield is Belmont, a school in Nashville, Tenn., that is moving from the Atlantic Sun to the Ohio Valley this year.

At-large potential

The second item on the growth agenda, LeCrone said, is identifying programs that have won games in the NCAA tournament and received at-large berths into the field. Butler expanded the Horizon’s profile with its success in March Madness, and the conference has received two bids three times the last 10 years (2003, 2007 and 2009).

“We can identify fairly easily probably a dozen programs that are built for at-large,” LeCrone said. “They’ve always had at-large opportunities and won games in the tournament. We want to collect data on those schools and compare them to our schools and prepare a list of possible expansion candidates.”

Collaboration

The Horizon League wants to work with like-minded conferences in the Midwest in terms of scheduling agreements, television deals and digital and social media.

“There are non-BCS conferences that have a lot to offer,” Grant said. “If you pool your things together, it makes you more marketable. It makes perfect sense.”

NCAA reform agenda

LeCrone wants the Horizon League to help shape the future of Division I. “We want to make sure our voice is heard,” he said. “We want to stay engaged at every level.”

Review of policies and procedures

The final prong of the growth agenda is a systematic review of everything the league does. The men’s and women’s basketball schedules for next season have already been thrown out and are being reworked, LeCrone said.

LeCrone is determined not to rush into any expansion, but the timetable has changed with the announcement that Butler will start competing in the Atlantic 10 this fall. The baseball problem looms.
“We take baseball very seriously,” Grant said. “I’d like to think we’re one of the bullies on the block as far as baseball in the Horizon League.

“This does start the clock ticking. We want to find another baseball school. Other schools feel the same way.”

While LeCrone said the conference is on good financial footing, Grant is also concerned about the loss of the Butler game on the basketball schedule.

“It’s a great game for us. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Grant said. “My hope is we’ll get some sort of regular Butler visit to the Nutter Center and also that we’ll visit Hinkle.”

Current Horizon League schools, their enrollment and expenses:
School
Enrollment
Recruiting
Head coach’s
Grand total
expenses
salaries
expenses
Cleveland State
17,204
$221,285
$838,936
$10,630,516
Loyola-Chicago
8,867
$178,860
$778,401
$9,015,089
Detroit Mercy
2,315
$228,392
$783,636
$10,864,820
Illinois-Chicago
15,502
$179,843
$1,084,139
$13,059,999
Green Bay
4,795
$105,435
$560,227
$7,105,818
Milwaukee
20,642
$140,734
$1,037,595
$11,356,702
Valparaiso
2,670
$247,255
$828,428
$11,762,360
Wright State
11,903
$201,980
$782,355
$9,733,449
Youngstown State
10,710
$227,120
$1,224,976
$12,468,802
Potential additions
Belmont
4,258
$90,329
$1,100,316
$9,421,487
IUPU-Fort Wayne
8,829
$120,651
$512,162
$6,290,032
IUPU-Indianapolis
15,847
$61,381
$567,284
$6,472,226
Morehead State
5,418
$190,159
$711,672
$7,575,657
Murray State
6,730
$173,371
$1,202,039
$13,046,500
Northern Kentucky
10,003
$43,126
$508,496
$5,841,315
Oakland (Mich.)
11,466
$117,530
$759,086
$10,253,610
Robert Morris (Pa.)
3,334
$225,852
$1,090,082
$13,067,221
Southern Ill.-Edwardsville
9,603
$100,358
$675,536
$7,319,789
Western Illinois
4,465
$153,597
$742,656
$10,841,836
Source: Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (2010 numbers)