Perspectives: The New World

The recent announcement by one of our founding members to affiliate with another athletic conference is proof positive that we are indeed living in the new athletics world.

Our new environment is driven by BCS football and long-term media rights that have provided the impetus for grand scale conference realignment.  In the past two years only six Division I conferences have not been impacted by realignment.

As the new world continues to evolve, I will be working with our board on the following:

1) Continuation of our growth agenda.  Specifically, we want to continue to develop “built for at large” basketball programs.  Successful NCAA Division I basketball provides financial and competitive sustainability for our athletics programs.

2) Membership expansion – we will consider a thoughtful expansion plan to support our growth agenda.

3) Collaboration – we will work collaboratively, internally and externally, to explore how working better together, we can prosper in the new world.

4) Reform – I will continue to work with the Board to insure that our voice, and the voices of like-minded schools/conferences, are heard on the topics of national athletics reform.

We will continue to be guided by our values of competition, learning, service and accountability.  Providing a collegiate model, added value athletics experience for all 1400 Horizon League student-athletes is our goal.