College hoops is frought with inaccurately named conferences. The Big Ten has 12 teams, the A-10 should be the A-14 and there’s nothing southwestern about the SWAC. But the Great West Conference has become the most inappropriate of all.
The three-year-old conference, which was never great and never very west, saw the exit of South Dakota before the start of this season, announced the departure of North Dakota to the Big Sky conference at the beginning of November, and found out last week that they’ll be saying goodbye to Houston Baptist before next season. Can the GWC remain intact with just four members?
Conceived as a transitional football league in 2004 for programs making the move to I-A, the GWC decided to expand to basketball with the start of the 2009-2010 season and extended invitations to a band of misfits: Texas-Pan American, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Houston Baptist, Utah Valley and D-II transitionals North and South Dakota. Chicago State shed its independence and joined soon after.
Separated by a whopping 2,176 miles, the greatest end-to-end distance among continental U.S. conferences, according to Kyle Whelliston, the teams of the Great West compiled a lot of frequent flier miles and not a lot of wins. They went 79-143 as a conference in their first season and were rated dead last among the 33 (including independents) D-I conferences by Pomeroy.
South Dakota wasted no time abandoning the sinking ship. The Coyotes, who were a D-II program before joining the GWC picked up an offer from the Summit League to replace departed Centenary College, and North Dakota couldn’t resist the geographic convenience of the Big Sky Conference. Houston Baptist decided they wanted to play football with some actual in-state competition so they courted a plan to bail on the GWC for the waters of the Southland Conference last week.
Who does that leave for Great West basketball next season? Chicago State, NJIT, Utah Valley and UTPA. What a motley crew.
Under Division-I rules, conferences can’t receive an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament without seven members (in addition to a bunch of other rules). So with so many teams jumping ship and so little hope of ever getting tickets to the dance, what will happen to the teams of the Great West?
Here’s where they should end up should the GWC decide to shutter its short-lived basketball tenure.
Utah Valley (3-2)
The Wolverines, now in their fourth season of D-I play, only lost one GWC contest last season to finish 11-1, and they did it with a defense that allowed 1.08 ppp. That’s how bad the GWC is. They’d be right at home in the Big Sky Conference where geographical convenience meets mediocrity.
NJIT (2-2)
The Highlanders spent three years as an independent and went 0-29 and then 1-30 in consecutive seasons (they beat Bryant) before joining the Great West. That’s fitting, because NJIT would be a good match for the Northeast Conference (which now includes Bryant). There NJIT can compete for New Jersey mid-major supremacy with Fairleigh Dickinson and Monmouth.
UTPA (2-4)
The Broncs haven’t won more than 10 games in a season since 2007-2008, so they need an understanding to avoid a return to independence. The Southland Conference is brimming with mediocre Texas teams, but UTPA doesn’t play football. UTPA, meet the Sunbelt conference. Oh, you guys have met? That’s right, UTPA played in the Sunbelt over a decade ago. Time to get reacquainted.
Chicago State (0-4)
The Cougars are in hot water. After many season of Academic Progress Rate penalties from the NCAA, Chicago State is losing scholarships quick and is currently banned from postseason play. I’m not sure any conferences want to mess with that. Perhaps the Cougars need to focus on their academics for a while. D-II isn’t all that bad.
