BOSTON GLOBE: Ivy League Commissions Expansion Candidate Report
Ivy League Commissions Expansion Candidate Report: Will the Ancient Eight add 1, 2… or More?
By Ryan Simmons, Globe Staff, May 14, 2019, 7:12 am
PRINCETON, N.J. – Over the past decade, the Big Ten expanded out of its Midwestern roots into the East Coast with its additions of Maryland and Rutgers. Now, the Ivy League may be returning the favor by heading to the Midwest. The Boston Globe has obtained a report commissioned by the Council of Ivy League Presidents from the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC that analyzes potential expansion candidates for the athletic conference whose name has become synonymous with the academic elite in America.
As the demographic growth of the United States has largely been taking place far from the Northeastern core of the Ivy League, some of the conference’s presidents have expressed an increasing concern that their current position at the top of the academic food chain could be threatened in a generation without more directly reaching a larger segment of the country. One official from an Ivy League institution that had read the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “We built up a mythical status over many generations and that has served us very well, but we are looking years down the road to ensure that we have strength top-to-bottom. There’s no doubt that the Harvards and Yales of the world are virtually assured to always have a prime position in the academic world with their endowments, but we need to make sure that the other members like Dartmouth and Brown continue to receive a maximum benefit from our elite association.”
The Goldman Sachs report indicates the difficulty in finding viable expansion candidates that meet the stringent criteria of the Ivy League. Any target for the Ivy League would need to be on a short list of academically elite powerhouses with either Division I athletics or a concrete plan to move up from lower divisions. Forty years ago, top tier academic private institutions schools with Division I sports programs such as Northwestern, Duke and Vanderbilt might have jumped at the chance at obtaining the Ivy label. However, the Goldman Sachs report concludes that the financial reality today is that not even the Ivy League could realistically lure a full member from one of the Power Five conferences (the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12) with their lucrative television contract earnings and other sources of athletic revenue.
At the same time, the Goldman Sachs report notes that the Ivy League demands “an unwavering commitment to academic freedom” from any candidate. This is interpreted within the Council of Ivy League Presidents to effectively eliminate any institution with a religious affiliation, such as Georgetown, from consideration, although one athletic director from the conference half-jokingly quipped, “If Notre Dame wants to join us for football, our door is wide open!”
As a result, the Goldman Sachs report recommends that the Ivy League examine “development cases” of Division III athletic schools that are in the top tier of academia while also having the financial wherewithal to move up to Division I. The Goldman Sachs report said, “While moving from Division III to Division I is challenging, it pales in comparison to the difficulty in moving up the academic rankings. Therefore, there is a greater likelihood of the Ivy League adding a well-resourced institution that already meets the requisite academic criteria to build a proper athletic program than the other way around.”
The University of Chicago, which was once a member of the Big Ten and home to the first Heisman Trophy winner (Jay Berwanger in 1939), was identified as a prime potential development case. The famously academically intense school that churns out Nobel Prize winners on a regular basis on the South Side of Chicago has vaulted to #3 in the U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings over recent years and would instantly bring the Ivy League into its largest market outside of New York City. As of June 30, 2018, the University of Chicago had an endowment of $8.2 billion, which would place it in the middle of the Ivy League ahead of Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which has led all U.S. universities in research spending for 39 consecutive years, is another potential development case that simultaneously has the advantage of a perennially-ranked Division I lacrosse program despite currently having its other athletic teams at the Division III level. A source within the Johns Hopkins athletic department stated if the school ever received an invitation to the Ivy League, it would support such efforts and move its lacrosse program from its current home as an associate member of the Big Ten. The Goldman Sachs report also noted that the location of John Hopkins would allow for the Ivy League to effectively span the entire Washington-New York-Boston corridor, which could strengthen the ties between the conference and the nation’s capital even further.
Other Division III schools mentioned as possible development cases include Washington University in St. Louis and Carnegie Mellon University.
Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris could not be reached for comment. Sources within the Council of Ivy League Presidents have stated that the group has not set a timetable for a decision regarding any potential expansion.
Courier Journal: Bellarmine eyes Atlantic Sun Conference
Justin Sayers, Louisville Courier Journal Published 8:36 a.m. ET April 26, 2019
Atlantic Sun Conference commissioner Ted Gumbart said this week that his league is open to expansion, but will be "pretty picky" when evaluating potential new members.
The comments come after the Courier Journal reported last week that Bellarmine, which primarily competes at the Division II level, could be joining the conference as the school mulls moving its varsity sports to Division I.
"Right now I think our membership is very solid," Gumbart said Wednesday. "That decision on whether or not we would entertain expansion is one that we feel that we can be pretty picky. If there's an institution that might strengthen what we are currently doing ... we would certainly look at it. But we don't feel like there's any pressure, which is probably the strongest position to be in."
Representatives from the ASUN Conference, which will soon be headquartered in Atlanta, were on Bellarmine's campus earlier this month to discuss a possible addition of the Knights, a source told the Courier Journal last week.
Both the school and the conference declined to comment about the meeting. However, Gumbart agreed to detail what the ASUN looks for when considering bringing in new members, as well as the process, without specifically discussing Bellarmine.
The ASUN has experienced significant turnover since 2008, losing nine teams to various conferences, including Northern Kentucky, which joined in 2012 but left for the Horizon League in 2015. The ASUN has added three replacement members since 2015 — Liberty, North Alabama and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. As it stands, there are nine-full time conference members.
When evaluating an expansion candidate, Gumbart said they look at the "entire institution, " considering the fit mostly academically but also athletically. They then consider the projected value a new program could bring.
What they don't do is add a member just to reach a certain number of teams, Gumbart said, adding that they don't have a target size for the conference.
"You don't want to do something that would lower your average standards for academic achievement, for graduation levels, for your competitive achievements, for the facilities you play in, and for the markets that you travel to," he said. "All of those things are part of the experience and when you look at another school, you have to look and see does the institution and will the student-athlete experience be something that will be worth it for our current membership."
The last three schools that joined the ASUN conference all previously competed at the Division II level.
Bellarmine currently has 22 athletic programs, 21 of which compete at the Division II level in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. One program, men's lacrosse, already competes at the Division I level in the Southern Conference.
Gumbart said the conference prioritizes that "growth aspect."
"I think sometimes the fastest growing and most innovative and dynamic programs can often be rising stars," he said. "Historically we have had schools join us as the first conference they've been at Division I. Most of them have really shined as they've gone through the process. And we've also built a program where institutions have confidence in us. We know how to do that transition and to support a school to the greatest degree possible for their success."
The ASUN Conference currently fields 19 sports. Bellarmine has teams in 15 of those sports, excluding the Knights' men's and women's swimming, men's lacrosse, men's wrestling and women's field hockey teams. ASUN members have teams in all of those sports, and they compete in affiliated conferences, or as independents.
The process of adding a member starts with initial contact to determine mutual interest, Gumbart said. That is followed by a campus visit, and a report that is evaluated by conference administrators.
Then it's turned over to the presidents' council, made up of the leaders of the nine member universities, who decided whether to put it up for a vote. That vote can be held either during the conference's semi-annual scheduled meeting, or in a specially called meeting. The next scheduled sit-down is the regular pring meeting, which will be held from May 28-30.
The new member would also be on the hook for a buy-in fee, which is part of an agreement between the conference and the school. Gumbart said the number is determined on a case-by-case basis. He declined to disclose the recent buy-in totals, saying the office does not publicly share its financial information.
"They can't just write a letter and say, 'We want in.' We would contact them and invite them to apply," Gumbart said. "Membership is always on our meeting agenda. We are always open to exploring options and if the current membership feels like it's a worthy exploration, we'll take steps to explore it further."
Brett McMurphy: Presidents Meet at Denver Airport
DENVER, Colorado — They met in secret.
If word got out before they were ready to strike, it could spell disaster.
Well, here we are.
Presidents of seven universities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho convened last month at Denver International Airport, not in the underground tunnels that intrigue conspiracy theorists across the world, but in a small, secluded meeting room.
At the meeting, UND President Mark Kennedy, NDSU President Dean Bresciani, USD President Sheila Gestring, SDSU President Barry Dunn, UM President Seth Bodnar, MSU President Waded Cruzado and Idaho President Chuck Staben conspired to break away from the Big Sky Conference and Summit League and form a revived FBS Western Athletic Conference alongside New Mexico State University.
Athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives from each of the eight institutions have started meeting monthly in Las Vegas to iron out the details. They’re in negotiations with Larry Scott, commissioner of the Pacific Athletic Conference, to jump ship and help them negotiate television and bowl game contracts and ensure the WAC champions in men’s and women’s basketball would receive the same automatic berths to the NCAA tournaments that were given to the champions of the other 32 Division I conferences.
There is no talk of CFP distributions to the WAC, which would start FBS play in 2021. However, there are rumblings the NCAA in conjunction with CBS are drawing up plans to expand the NCAA Tournament to 72 and take up the ACC’s proposal of another First Four site in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
