The Summit was just repped with a 16 seed. They've had programs leave for the Southland and WAC. Their conference champ's head coach called a player's meeting to announce he was leaving for the MVC's worst program. He changed his mind at this meeting, but it doesn't reach that point if two leagues are level.
I like the Summit and the above is obviously cherrypicking their lows, but c'mon. Compare the highs and lows of the 19 programs and conferences as a whole and anyone objective will put their money on MVC programs. MVC is better up top and more reliable depth.
That said, only 3 MVC programs (UNI/ISUr/Valpo) would be top dog in the Summit. NDSU/SDSU/ORU would be top half MVC teams the vast majority of seasons.